The quotes and odd phraseology are required because Lutz, who pinch hit in last night’s Reds game, was born in New York. But he moved to Germany when he was a baby and came up playing baseball over there. Past players who grew up in Germany were kids of U.S. military members stationed there. Lutz wasn’t.
Lutz eventually became a product of the Major League Baseball International European Academy, out of which the Reds signed him in 2006. Before last night he hadn’t played above Double-A. Now he’s best known for, maybe, being the first of many ballplayers to come from Germany. At least in a sense.
