Joey Votto was one-of-a-kind.
One of Canada's all-time baseball talents retired on Wednesday.
Joey Votto, one of baseball’s most singularly unique players of the modern age, was never penciled into the lineup card during a regular season game with the Toronto Blue Jays this year.
When he signed a minor-league deal in the spring, you might remember, there was much ado.
A player who was proudly Canadian, from the Toronto area, grew up a Jays fan and was now, after seventeen seasons, looking to conclude his career with the hometown team.
It was with tempered expectations, of course.
Votto, at 40, had no illusions about where he was at this stage, the twilight of his career.
And after a summer of battling through injury and sub-standard performance in the Toronto minor-league system? On Wednesday, he posted a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nine second video on his Instagram account.
That’s it. I’m done. I am officially retired from baseball.
It was classic Votto.
No big press conference or grandiose announcement.
Instead, he rocked a t-shirt, stood in the parking lot of Buffalo’s Sahlen Field and was blanketed by an overcast sky that seemed perfectly attuned to the moment.
But equally so, it was all remarkably efficient, powerful and had with it, a subtle touch of flash.
Just how Votto was as a player, when he was at his best, for nearly two decades in baseball.
In an extensive caption accompanying his post, Votto ran through the gauntlet, thanking many of those who helped him on his professional journey: from his family, coaches and fans, including the Blue Jays faithful:
Toronto + Canada, I wanted to play in front of you. Sigh. I tried with all my heart to play for my people. I’m just not good anymore. Thank you for all the support during my attempt.
Though it may read with a hint of melancholy, Votto has never been one to mince his words.
If he didn’t feel he was ready, up to the task, his personal standard, then no Jays fan, no baseball fan regardless of how badly they wanted to see just one more AB, should be bitter about his choice here.
And although the Jays continue to see their season disintegrate (and ironically so on Wednesday night, in a 11-7 loss to the Reds, the team for which Votto played his entire major league career) you could, at least somewhat, respect the counter-argument, as TSN’s Scott Mitchell acknowledged just a few days ago.
Why not call up #19 for that final at-bat, just to put on a positive spin on the team’s currently struggling PR? For a pat-on-the-back pre-game ceremony, if nothing else?
Well, because when it comes down to it, it is a rare thing, even for the athlete of merit, to have the opportunity to go out on their own terms. Hanging on too long, even after their body has betrayed them, left to flounder in free agency, pushing through diminishing stats and enthusiasm both, only to be trotted out with an air of almost embarrassed-for-them sympathy (as the above points suggest).
For this alone, making the toughest of calls, Votto continued doing what he has done his entire career: moved to the beat of his own drum.
After hitting a home run in what became his only at-bat during spring training (on the first pitch he saw, no less), Votto suffered an ankle injury that ultimately spiralled.
He could never get going in the minors, batting just .165 with two homers over 31 games in Rookie, Single-A and Triple-A ball.
So his retirement announcement, while disappointing sure, wasn’t much of a surprise either.
A player, knowing enough to call it a career.
But man, oh man, what a career it was, eh?
Votto, a player that was both brilliant yet almost quiet, particularly by the standards of current-era baseball.
He was one of the purest hitters his sport has ever known: emphasizing contact, discipline, the right pitch, the right moment, at a time when going big or going back to the dugout (with either a home run or a strikeout) is commonplace.
This spoken too by his leading the National League in On-Base-Percentage (OPB) seven times during his career, all of MLB, four times (an exclusive club that includes a Mount Rushmore of players: Ted Williams, Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsby and Barry Bonds being the only other men to accomplish such a feat).
Votto’s, a batter’s eye, an at-the-plate approach, that was unparalleled and rightfully applauded but it was everything else he brought to the diamond too: a completeness, an even-knell approach that exuded both an easy-going joy and locked-in professionalism.
He was the 2010 NL MVP, a six-time All-Star, who had six total, top-ten MVP finishes. He won a Gold Glove in 2011 for his work on the defensive end at first base. He could hit for power (finishing his career with 356 home runs), average and had a situational awareness few could match.
Statistically, yes, Larry Walker remains Canada’s top player but Votto, was Canadian baseball, his whole career, for an entire generation. A reminder that while the numbers are important, of course, an athlete’s impact can and often is, so much more than just those, the rawest of accomplishments.
From his batting stance and ever-evolving swing mechanics, to the way he carried himself on the diamond. To the time, after he got ejected during the first inning of a game, he signed a ball for an upset young fan in the most Canadian-esque way possible (“I am sorry I didn’t play the entire game.”)
If you were a Canadian baseball fan of a particular age or inclination, he was and even as his career wound down, remained the guy, the top-dog, the player for which all others would be measured: and he had the resume to prove it too.
It is a distinction, however insignificant in some corners, that shouldn’t go unnoticed as Votto will, eventually no doubt, follow in the footsteps of Walker and Cy Young-winning pitcher Fergie Jenkins as the only Canadians in Cooperstown.
Someone who exemplified consistent excellence his entire career, in so many facets, as not just the best of his time but as one of the best to ever do it.