Sean Casey (Jeff Swinger photo) | ZOOM |

        SARASOTA, Fla. — Now the story can be told of Sean Casey's rebirth as a hitter last year.

        The date was June 25. Casey was batting .242 after hitting .332 the year before as a National League All-Star. After a 5-4 loss to San Diego at Cinergy Field, Casey rushed to the airport and flew to Pittsburgh to see the man he knew would heal his swing.

        Back at his boyhood home, Casey was reunited with Frank Porco, a veteran hitting instructor for youths who had refined his stroke since the first baseman was 14. They met at Porco's hitting school in Bethel Park, Pa., at 10 p.m.

        “I needed to get to somebody who knew me better as a hitter than I knew myself,” Casey said Tuesday. “And he does.”

        Casey played a videotape of one of his at-bats from the 2000 season. As Casey recalled, “Before I could even finish the swing, he said: "Whoa, rewind it! Look at yourself — look at how tight you are!'” Porco noticed that Casey was “double-clutching” his hands, creating a hitch that made him foul numerous pitches to left field, if he hit them at all.

        Then Porco made Casey watch a videotape of a 1999 at-bat. They saw a fluid, relaxed hitter. “The tension was throwing my timing all out of whack,” Casey said.

        Casey proceeded to hit balls Porco flipped to him until 2 a.m. The lesson resumed the next morning at 11 a.m. and lasted until noon. Casey flew back to Cincinnati, started that night against St. Louis and went 3-for-4 in a 3-2 victory. Beginning with that game, he hit .365 the rest of the year, including a league-best .372 after the All-Star break, to finish with a respectable .315 average.

        “That is the story,” said Casey, “of how my season turned around.”

        This chapter of Casey's career illustrates much about him. His reluctance to share these details showed his concern for the team; he didn't want to embarrass Denis Menke, last year's hitting coach. Casey's realization nearly three months into the season that he should call Porco reflected his youth — just short of 26 at the time, he hadn't yet found the keys to self-maintenance that every solid hitter must use.

        But Casey's steadfast belief that he would regain his swing demonstrated his confidence and hinted at the potential that remains untapped.

        “When you're younger, you learn but you don't retain,” Casey said. “Now I feel like I'm starting to retain what I need to do to be a great hitter.”

        Doubts keep darting toward Casey like fastballs, which is remarkable given his production. He has hit .324 in the last two seasons with 75 doubles, 45 homers and 184 RBI, despite beginning last season on the disabled list with a broken right thumb.

        Yet skeptics wonder whether Casey, a left-handed batter, can hit left-handed pitching consistently. Seduced by the idea that first basemen must hit 30 or more home runs each season, they question Casey's power.

        Reds manager Bob Boone is not one of those skeptics. Though left-handers occasionally forced Casey to the bench in previous years, Boone plans to leave Casey in against them. “He can hit them. I'm not worried about that,” Boone said of Casey, who owns a .255 career average against southpaws.

        Boone also refuses to dwell on Casey's power.

        “I would trade all the homers for a card that I could play, when I wanted to, for one base hit,” Boone said. “A home run makes games easier to win. But I'll take hitters over power guys any day. The nice side effect of that is, good hitters usually also hit some home runs. And I think he'll develop. He can hit the ball out (to) the (opposite field). To me, that's the difference between the guy who can hit 20 homers or the guy who can hit 30.”

        There's a difference in Casey, too, though observers will recognize him as the same big, friendly, gentle soul.

        “I learned so much last year about me as a person, about my swing, about pitchers, about relaxing ... I learned I found a good lady in my wife (Mandi),” he said. “I feel like I played four or five years in the big leagues last year because of all the adversity I went through.”

        Armed with a checklist to combat his flaws at the plate, Casey also learned he'll never go too long without consulting Porco. They chatted frequently through the rest of the season after their June seminar, which compensated for Casey's inability to see him during the previous winter. Casey said he visits Porco at least once each offseason, but getting married, accepting the Hutch Award and tending to other obligations during the 1999-2000 break prevented him from keeping his annual appointment.

        Not this winter. Though Casey built a home this offseason in Jupiter, Fla., he spent four days with Porco at the end of January.

        “I'll never miss an offseason again,” Casey said.

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