Joey Votto was about to answer a question about if he had one more great year left in him when Chad Green made the final out in the top of the seventh inning on Friday.
During the seventh-inning break at spring training, they played “OK, Blue Jays,” a song Votto loved since he was a kid. As he started to answer, he looked up at the stands and smiled big.
“I grew up loving that song, and I’m feeling really excited right now listening to it,” he said.
There’s been a lot of excitement about Joey Votto since he joined the Jays’ camp two weeks ago. The Richview Collegiate graduate hit a home run off Philadelphia’s Zack Wheeler, one of the best pitchers in the National League, in his only at-bat this spring.
After spending 22 years with the Cincinnati Reds, Votto is now back home, but there are no guarantees.
“I’m not officially on the team yet,” the first baseman said in an interview on the “Deep Left Field” podcast. “So I’m working hard and staying focused. But there’s another part of me that really wants to come home and play for the team I grew up cheering for, in the city where I was raised, in the community that supported me. It’s a dream come true to blend my personal goals with representing my community.”
To make that dream happen, Votto has to play well on the field. He’s willing to start in the minor leagues if needed. Unfortunately, he hurt his ankle after his first game and hasn’t played since. With less than a week until opening day, it seems unlikely he’ll be ready to play for the main team.
Votto needs to show he’s more like the player who had great stats over his first 15 years in the big leagues, and less like the one who struggled with injuries in the past two years.
“I’m not good with words, but it’s like driving with a flat tire,” he said. “No matter how hard you try, something’s off.”
But on this cloudy day, standing at the clubhouse entrance, Votto feels everything is right again.
“I feel fantastic,” the Etobicoke native said. “I’m healthy, motivated, and focused. That’s the most important thing right now.”
Votto also feels sorry. He wrote a letter on social media apologizing for a rant against Canadian baseball six years ago. He apologized then too. His mom made him realize he was wrong, so he wanted to clear the air before playing for the Jays.
“I wanted to be honest about what happened,” Votto said. “I want to represent the city well.”
Whether Votto will get to wear his hometown uniform in a real game depends on how well he plays.
“I might not be good anymore,” he said, but then he grinned. “But I doubt that’ll happen.”
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