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TORONTO – The goodbye video, all nine seconds of it posted to Instagram on Wednesday, is vintage Joey Votto.
“That’s it. I’m done. I am officially retired from baseball,” he said into the camera, standing in the players’ parking lot behind the right-field stands at Buffalo’s Sahlen Field.
So, too, is the heartfelt caption beneath it, in which he thanks his family, shouts out the people who poured into him during his journey from talented Etobicoke kid to legitimate Hall-of-Fame candidate, and nods to teammates from his 17 big-league seasons.
Finally, there’s this piece of brutally honest self-assessment: “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.”
And with that, a giant in Canadian baseball, one the sport’s most intellectual and astute hitters who ranks among the very best and most productive players of his era, quietly walks away.
A minor-league deal with the Toronto Blue Jays on March 9 positioned him for what might have been a more just and deserved full-circle moment to cap his remarkable career. Instead, he went 0-for-3 with a walk and run scored Tuesday night in Buffalo’s 7-3 loss to Omaha and decided that after 51 triple-A plate appearances over 15 games in which he hit .143/.275/.214 with one homer and 22 strikeouts, that it wasn’t going to happen.
During an interview with Sportsnet two weeks ago, Votto made it clear that he didn’t simply want to return to the majors as some sort of feel-good story, he wanted to be good if he returned, regardless of what role he was in.
“This is odd for me to say as I prepare to play a triple-A game – my objective is to get to a place where I can thrive at the major-league level,” he said during that Aug. 8 conversation.
“That’s really it. That’s all I’ve ever been about in my career. This is a beautiful game. I love the sport. But it’s not a fun game unless you’re doing your job. I’d really like the next time I put a major-league uniform on to be confident that I am a capable player, that I’m able to do my job, able to perform well, able to give the fans their money’s worth. And that’s really all I’m thinking about.”
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