ICYMI - Langdon: Joey Votto recalls roots, offers tips for kids

Cincinnati Reds first baseman Joey Votto (Etobicoke, Ont.) may be a big league superstar now, but he has never forgotten his roots.

*With Joey Votto (Etobicoke, Ont.) signing a minor league contract with his hometown Toronto Blue Jays, we thought we’d resurrect this story Scott Langdon wrote about Votto and the slugger’s Toronto baseball roots from December 15, 2020.

Originally published on December 15, 2020

By Scott Langdon

Canadian Baseball Network

He took phantom swings with a bat in his bedroom, hit wiffle balls into a blanket in the garage and threw lacrosse balls against a wall for hours, all because Joey Votto had what he calls “the big dream” to be a professional baseball player.

In other words, Votto’s well-documented reputation as a tireless worker with an intense passion for constant improvement started at a young age on his own, with the encouragement of his parents.

Yet today, as a star player for the Cincinnati Reds, the National League MVP in 2010 and one of the top two or three Canadians ever to play professional baseball, he considers himself “lucky” to have grown up playing sandlot baseball in a west end Toronto community.

Votto was eight when he started playing baseball in Oakville, a suburb 30 minutes west of Toronto, for a team sponsored by his parents. The family moved a few miles east to Mimico in Etobicoke where he played for Queensway, Kingsway and Bloordale in the Etobicoke Baseball Association (EBA) through his bantam years. Those sandlot years produced fond memories and close friends with whom he shares “huge hugs” when he returns to his Greater Toronto Area home every off season.

Joey Votto honed his skills in the Etobicoke Baseball Association. Photo: YouTube

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when he thinks of those years playing baseball as a youngster?

“It was inexpensive. The community nature of it…a big effort by parents. It was accessible. The travel was easy and most of the parks you could get to on public transit,” he says.

“I was fortunate because I crossed paths with people, made friends who would drive me to games and practices if necessary. The kids were willing to spend extra time playing baseball. And then, as an example, we would go to the Anderson family’s house for a pool party. It was an environment exactly like you would hope for.”

He also received guidance and support from his parents, Wendy and father Joseph, who passed away unexpectedly in 2008, Votto’s first full season playing major league baseball.

“If I wanted to hit wiffle balls in the garage, they moved the cars so I could do it. When I was 10, 11 years old, my Dad and I would play catch daily. I am very fond of that. He wanted me to be a pitcher at the time. And if my Dad was working, I would throw a lacrosse ball against the wall. I was very lucky,” he said.

In a speech at his induction into the Etobicoke Sports Hall of Fame in 2014 he spoke about his mother.

“I’m so lucky to be surrounded by people – and my mom is a perfect example – who taught me to work hard. She wants something, she’s going to achieve it. I got that from her and I want to thank her. She doesn’t get enough thanks from me.”

There were also a few frustrations from those EBA years, as he recalled during a recent telephone conversation.

“I really wanted to improve as a player and there were limited games. And then there was Martingrove,” he said, referring to one of the other five teams in the EBA along with Rexdale.

“We couldn’t beat Martingrove. They went to the nationals. It was amazing how good they were. At one point I suggested to my Dad that maybe I could try playing there. He said, ‘No, play somewhere else and beat them’.”

Matt Cade, a features producer at The Sports Network (TSN) and the author of a new Harper Collins children’s book called The Golden Goal, was 17 years old and one of Votto’s coaches when he was 12 playing for Kingsway during his pee wee years.

“I can’t believe he remembers Martingrove, but he is absolutely correct. They used to slaughter us,” Cade recalled recently.

Votto has been quoted many times saying he was “never the best player on my team.” This may have often been the case, but Cade remembers it differently.

“Joey pitched, played third base, shortstop, catcher. And he could hit. You could play him anywhere. He was our best pitcher and hitter for sure. But that Martingrove team had so many exceptional players, you probably couldn’t say Joey was a super star in the league at that time.

“There were never any problems. He loved playing baseball. He was always there, he listened, worked hard…easy to coach as I recall,” Cade added.

Votto did listen.

“One thing I remember learning then was when you were pitching and the coach came out to get you, you never left the mound until he got there,” he recalled during that recent telephone conversation. “I remember that to this day.”

Votto played his last two bantam years in the EBA with Bloordale. Two anecdotes demonstrate what those years meant to him.

Votto was named the Toronto Sun George Gross Sportsperson of the Year for 2010. He donated his $1,000 award to Bloordale baseball.

Then in 2013, Bob Elliott, editor of canadianbaseballnetwork.com and then writing for the Toronto Sun, related how a delayed announcement of Votto’s participation for Canada in that year’s World Baseball Classic had caused confusion and resulted in three of his former Bloordale coaches having to cancel flights to watch him play. Votto called them to apologize.

Not a good enough player

Votto says matter-of-factly, “I was not good enough to be drafted (by major league baseball) when I was 17. The following year and a half were crucial for me.”

Enter Bob Smyth, the well-known long-time amateur baseball coach who ran the Etobicoke Rangers program for midget, juvenile, junior and senior players. It was Smyth who convinced Votto to return to Etobicoke from the Canadian Thunderbirds, a Hamilton, Ontario-based travel team that Votto had joined to get more exposure in the United States.

With the Rangers, Votto recalls, “It was baseball every single day. I had Connorvale Park, one of the nicest fields anywhere, as well as an indoor facility. Both were at the disposal of all our players, as long as you followed the rules.”

Longtime coach Bob Smyth (right), shown here with Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith, was Joey Votto’s most influential coach when he was growing up in Etobicoke, Ont. Photo: Etobicoke Baseball Association

The story goes that Votto worked so hard, Smyth gave him a personal locker at the indoor training facility. It was in that building, an under-utilized City of Etobicoke warehouse that Smyth converted into a training space for his players, that Votto was able to work out with teammates such as Warren Bradley, and hit and rub shoulders with professional players such as Greg O’Halloran and John Suomi. Bradley, O’Halloran and Suomi, all former Ranger players, are still among Votto’s close friends.

“Bob was difficult to impress,” Votto recalled. “He could be tough on you when it came to baseball instruction. He would give you a nugget, challenge you and walk away. I would make the adjustment and take feedback. Then, there was always something more. It was not a friend-type relationship.”

Nonetheless, the two remain close friends to this day.

“Bob was particularly detail-oriented with pitchers. Not always with me, although he did advise me to re-position my hands and switch my grip, which I still do. They have become natural to me over the years.

“When I think of it now, Bob was always steady, predictable and maybe one of the best things about his coaching was that he was very hands-off. It was up to you to do the work. Baseball is a very personal sport. But there is no doubt Bob was my guy during that important time in my life,” he said.

Votto was clear in his mind what he wanted.

“I wanted the big dream. To be a first-round draft choice and make a lot of money.”

In 2002, he struck out on the first-round dream, going in the second round of the major league draft to Cincinnati, 44th overall. In 2012, however, he didn’t just hit one out of the park, he hit it out of this world when he signed a $251.5 million, 12-year contract with Cincinnati, adding $225 million and 10 years to his previous contract. It is the largest contract in Reds’ history and makes him Canada’s highest-paid athlete.

Practice in pandemic

This has been a challenging year for youth ballplayers across Canada. The global Covid-19 pandemic has made it difficult for players to practice and to play.

Votto admits things have changed, but not all things. He continues practising in some ways exactly as he did as a child.

Votto has a hitting facility in his home, but he told sportsnet.ca writer Gare Joyce in a 2017 article titled The Introvert (something Votto has publicly acknowledged about himself many times) that he does “…exactly what I did when I was eight years old. I go to the playground and find a wall and a ball, and I’ll start throwing, first close, then stretching it out. I get everything I need out of that. I do it every night. I could do other things, maybe, but I get everything I need out of that.”

Votto says he has “done my ten thousand hours,” referring to a key principle from the best-selling book “Outliers: The Story of Success” by noted Canadian author Malcolm Gladwell. The principle states that a person needs 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to become world class in any field.

And while most Canadian kids can only dream of their own in-home practice facility, Votto offers this thought for Canadian youngsters: “There are definitely ways to make do” and has these suggestions for young players as this pandemic winter continues.

*Go safely outside as much as possible, as low as 10 degrees even, and throw against a wall. Keep backing up to build arm strength;

*Hit wiffle balls off a tee into a blanket;

*Practice hitting without a bat and a ball. Visualize – at least 5000 times – the pitch coming in and meeting it with a perfect swing;

*Use YouTube and other Internet sources to analyze, even copy, hitters. Votto says in the year leading up to his 2002 draft, he would go to mlb.com and analyze videos of previously drafted players, left-handed hitters in particular;

*Play catch, which he refers to as a “co-operative, social and shared” activity;

*Finally, “Do these things every day. Baseball skills are not that complicated. Many are natural movements. But they need to be repeated endlessly.”

Matt Cade, Votto’s Pee Wee coach and still a youth baseball coach in Etobicoke says, “Joey Votto’s passion and focus and dedication to baseball floors me. It is so impressive and a quality I wish I had. His comments about Ted Williams and about hitting are amazing to listen to. If I had to point out just one athlete for kids to aspire to, it would be him, for the sheer passion and discipline he has for his craft.”

The best athletes

Joey Votto is one of the greatest Canadians ever to play in the majors and his statistics and long list of awards back that up.

Votto’s baseball statistics can be overwhelming. Batting average, walks, OBP, OPS, OPS+, WAR, assists and more can run together in a mind-numbing celebration of one of Canada’s best-ever baseball players. Some of the awards he has won are a little easier to separate and remember:

*2008 National League Rookie of the Month (September)

*2009, 2011, 2013, 2017, 2018 NL Player of the Week

*2010 NL MVP and Hank Aaron Award

` *2010, 2018 Syl Apps Athlete of the Year Award, Ontario Sports Hall of Fame

*2011 NL Gold Glove (IB)

*Six times named to the NL All-Star team

*Six-time winner of the Ernie Lombardi Most Valuable Player Award (Reds’ MVP)

*2010, 2017 Lou Marsh Trophy, Canada’s athlete of the year

*2010, 2011/12/13, 2015/16/17 Tip O’Neill Award for excelling in individual achievement and team contribution while adhering to baseball’s highest ideals.

Votto was also the Reds’ nominee for the Branch Rickey Award in 2014, the last time it was handed out. The award was given annually beginning in 1992 to an MLB individual in recognition of exceptional community service.

He was honoured with the 2017 Lou Gehrig Award, presented annually since 1955, to the MLB player who both on and off the field best exemplifies the character of Lou Gehrig, the so-called Iron Horse of the New York Yankees in the 1920 and 1930s.

Dr. Jason Berry and Charles Gooch are part of the sports science faculty at the IMG Academy, Bradenton, Fl. Their views offer an interesting connection between the off- and on-field performance of top athletes.

Gooch teaches leadership in a sports context. “To me, leadership skills, including a great attitude, are as important in an athlete as physical skills. Leadership is about service to others, a fit for team sports. It helps develop the person, helps build confidence. For a team, it brings a sense of organization, helps create an identity and a human connection.”

“Mental performance coaching and leadership development help build character, help create a better human being,” added Berry. “Typically, better human beings make better athletes.”

Votto closed his Joey Votto Foundation in 2014. Its Monthly Mission Program provided more than 100 U.S. military veterans and their families with camaraderie, healing and purpose through community service. It had worked to ensure that families have access to support and resources to overcome traumatic events at UC Health Stress Center. In a statement, Votto explained “This is strictly a personal decision” and added “I remain committed to giving back to our Cincinnati community. I look forward to keeping my future volunteer and philanthropic efforts private.”

Joey Votto quietly gives to several charities. He is also known for his kindness towards his fans. Photo: Associated Press.

In a blogpost called blogredmachine.com a few years ago, Nick Vorholt wrote: “In Cincinnati, most people see him as a quiet, polite man” and listed the many community organizations Votto had helped. He added: “Both he and the Reds tend to keep his work quiet. Rest assured that Votto does good. He is someone Cincinnati can truly be proud of.”

For Votto, speaking out in support of Black Lives Matter, acknowledging the heroics of constable Ken Lam who arrested the van attacker on Toronto’s Yonge Street, participating in RBC’s Sports Day in Canada initiative, requiring Etobicoke Rangers’ senior baseball team to connect with children playing Challenger baseball in return for his support to the team, appear to be continuing examples of his community support in return for the support he felt from the community playing baseball as a youngster in Etobicoke.

In 2005, a Canadian was on a business trip to Dayton, Ohio, and stopped into Fifth Third Ballpark (now Day Air Ballpark), home of the Dayton Dragons of the class-A Midwest League. Votto had played there the year before as a 20-year-old prospect of the Cincinnati Reds. The Canadian arrived early for the game and engaged with an older woman busily getting a concession stand ready for the game to come. He mentioned that he was from Canada and a Canadian had been on the Dragons last season.

“Oh, you mean Joey Votto? We love Joey here. We miss him. One of our stadium staff came down very ill a while back. Joey calls in from time to time to check up on how he’s doing.”

Votto was playing for the Reds’ Sarasota affiliate in the Florida State League at the time.

The businessman had occasion to ask Votto about the telephone calls years later.

“I possibly could have. I have met a lot of very good people over my career,” he said.

If IMG’s Dr. Jason Berry is correct that better human beings typically make better athletes, maybe this is the most important tip young Canadian ballplayers can take from Canada’s quiet, polite baseball superstar.