April 24-25, 2017 – In his first 11 seasons (2007–16), Joey Votto’s statistics placed him among the elite hitters in the history of Major League Baseball. According to the March 27, 2017 issue of Sports Illustrated, his career “slash line” of .313/.425/.536 (batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage) had been equaled or surpassed by only five players: Ruth, Williams, Gehrig, Foxx, and Hornsby. What makes his record even more impressive is that Votto is a native of Toronto, Canada, not exactly a cradle of big-league stars.

Drafted out of high school by Cincinnati in the second round in 2002, the 6-foot-2, 220- pound left-handed hitter became the Reds starting first baseman in 2008. As of 2021, he was a six-time All-Star, a Gold Glove winner in 2011, and the National League’s MVP in 2010, finishing in the top seven five other times. A patient hitter, he led the NL in on-base percentage seven times and in walks five times. He also played for Team Canada in the 2005 Baseball World Cup and the 2013 World Baseball Classic. Votto is a seven-time winner of the Tip O’Neill Award, given by the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame to the player judged to have excelled in individual achievement and team contribution while adhering to baseball’s highest ideals.

A devoted student of the art of hitting, from his early days Votto studied the techniques of past greats in order to improve his game. His primary role model was Ted Williams, whose book, The Science of Hitting, he virtually memorized. Notwithstanding his impressive offensive output, there were those who criticized Votto at times, as others once criticized Williams, for refusing to swing at pitches outside the strike zone, even with runners in scoring position.

Here Votto discusses the fine points of hitting, the challenge of sustaining excellence over time, the “rabbits” he chases, and the changing nature of baseball, maintaining that it is his obligation, and that of all major leaguers, to progress and evolve so as to make the game better.