Joey Votto
My favorite ability in a player is the combination of aggressiveness and patience.Collection: Patience
I come to work every day and fit in, and be respectful of my teammates.
I know that one day I won't be good enough to play baseball anymore. But as long as I have an opportunity to, I want to keep fighting.
I legitimately would like to drive a yellow bus when I'm older so I've actually thought about - I want to be either a crossing guard or drive a yellow bus. Drive the kids to school or let them cross to school so, you know, that's something I'm excited about. I'm serious about that. I think that will be great.
I'm fine at basketball. I can ride the pine with the best of them.
Basketball is my favorite sport.
In this league, if you're going to be tested, you have to answer quickly. I feel like if you show signs of weakness, people attack that pretty quickly.
I think I am boring. That's good. I strive for boring in all elements of my game.
One of the advantages of playing in a smaller market is that I can go back to Toronto, or all across the States and never be recognized. I get to go out to dinner, walk my dog, or go to the mall and nobody knows who I am.
I don't think materialistic things are my priority.
Baseball-Reference has been very good to me during my career.
My goal is to stay on the field, stay healthy and be a part of some wins.
I will admit when I was 16, 17 years old, the thought of playing for the Jays was at the top. There's something about joining a club and being embraced by a club and then building a relationship and commitment to a team.
I'm a Reds fan. I signed up to be a Reds fan, I want to be a Reds fan.
I'm a different hitter than most.
My objective with men at 2nd and 3rd is to get one quality pitch to drive them in. If it's not available, I'm going to go to first base. I won't make any apologies about that.
If I was just a guy who hit 24 home runs and drove in 100, I wouldn't be a special player.
Some say I'm selfish. My approach is the complete opposite of selfishness.
I think if I let the team's performance dictate how I behave or how I perceive my performance, or whether or not there's value, or whether or not anyone even cares, it's a dangerous and slippery slope.
No matter what, I'm being paid to perform.
I follow basketball. That was always one of my passions and enjoyed watching it. I appreciate how athletically gifted those guys are. Just never got into hockey.
I just do my best to put the ball in play and put it in play where no one's going to make a play on it and hopefully drive some runners in.
You won't give yourself an opportunity to do good things unless you are out on the field.
Personally, until Mike Trout came into the league I thought I would be in the conversation for best player in the game. Then he screwed that up for everybody - Babe Ruth and Ted Williams included. He has ruined it for everyone.
I love competing against the best and I take a lot of pride in it.
I didn't know if it was possible, but I wanted to some day be the highest paid Canadian player.
When you are raised in a restaurant you really don't want to go to one that often, I'd rather cook.
Most elite players want to maximize the length of the contract, no matter the money.
I think it's very difficult to have fewer opportunities to have success and still execute. My favorite player was Barry Bonds, and he got so few opportunities.
If you give a guy 1,000 opportunities and he hits 30 home runs or 500 opportunities and he hits 30 home runs, it's not the same thing. I know. This is what I do for a living, and I know who is better at what I do.
I used to be a big fan of the NBA until Kevin Durant joined the Golden State Warriors.
It bothered me when Kevin Durant left Oklahoma City.
I will not be a very satisfied, happy person if I don't perform at the level that I expect.
I'm a guy that has the skills to hit the ball hard.
Seeing certain players join certain teams, basically throwing off the entire power dynamic, more or less removing any chance of any other team sharing in success, I just - no.
The people in Cincinnati have gotten to know me.
I'm grateful for the things I've faced in my career because they make me better - every single one of them.
The best hitters can do everything.
I feel like I've got a process swing. It takes a long time to get to where it needs to be and to stay there. The advantage - if I'm healthy - more often than not, it tends to stay there.
I just want to be in the middle of the order, playing solid defense, playing every day, being competitive and earning that my manager, the coaching staff, the front office, my teammates have faith that I'm going to be a helpful teammate. I want to do that until the very end.
I have been very fortunate to see some very clearly excellent players play well to the very ends of their career, where they opted not to play anymore. I'm talking about Adrian Beltre. I'm talking about Torii Hunter. I'm talking about David Ortiz, Chipper Jones, Derek Jeter. These are players who decided, 'You know, I've had enough. That's good.'
I want to be great at what I do. I take a lot of pride in it. And I try not to sell myself short in my work and preparation.
Baseball has been very good to me, but baseball has evolved into a hybrid of work and passion.
Some players just have the natural stroke that you throw them in the lineup and all of the sudden they turn on a ball and hit it out of the ballpark.
I know a lot of athletes, they want to play until their 45 or 50 or whatever, some athletes claim, but count me out on that.
It almost sounds ridiculous - but I almost feel like I've re-learned to hit.
Cincinnati is a prettier city than people give it credit for, I like it here, like the people. They're so polite.
I, personally, have standards that I have set for myself. I'd like to achieve those and look back without regret.
I wasn't raised inside of Canadian baseball really.
I think we're in a new era of baseball where it's not OK to have a lumbering slugger in the corner of the outfield not catching the ball, and not taking the extra base.