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He's Joey Votto. He played 17 years and he was a six-time All-Star. He won an MVP. He'll be working for NBC Sports later this summer with their baseball coverage in the wild card playoffs. Great to see you again. Great to see you. Where have you been in the last year? I have been all over. I spent about 3 months in Japan, a couple months in Mexico City, all over Europe. I've I've seen some incredible places around the world. I spent a month surfing in Sri Lanka. I could keep going, but you know, you travel and you think I'm going to see the whole world and you realize there's only so much you can see as you'll in not too long experience.
Okay, did you become a sushi chef? I did. I did a 5-week course at the Tokyo Sushi Academy in Shinju Shinjuku. The best part about it was nobody knew who I was and so they bullied me the whole time. I was raised in a kitchen. My father was a chef. My parents had a restaurant for 5 years and it brought me back to when I was 7 years old being told to sweep this up and mop this up and carry that bucket. And I didn't say anything for the 5 weeks and it wasn't until the end that I thanked them and I shared what I did for a long time. And then you went surfing in Sri Lanka.
How was the surfing in Sri Lanka? Yeah, fantastic. The best. But I've been all over. I surfed in Ireland. I surfed in Portugal, Spain, Japan. I've surfed all over the world, so. Wait, surfing in Ireland? Fantastic. Like the best. It's my favorite place actually. It's because the traffic is there's so there's much less people there and the conditions are excellent. Yeah, Ireland's great. Are you doing a TV show about your travels? No, why? I've I've got nothing to say. I'm not that interesting. This is my best moment in life right here exchanging with you.
Wait, wait, you're the most interesting man in the world. Forget the guy on the Dos Equis commercial. No. No, I didn't do I don't think it's a good idea to do that. And really um I don't think anyone's interested. I am. I was fascinated when I saw that you were all over the world doing all these great things. And you know, you spent 17 years in the major league. So probably add another what, five or 10 to that where you didn't get to do these things. And a lot of athletes are that way. After they retire, they're like "I didn't get to go to a Indy 500 or the Kentucky Derby, you know, like normal things that we can go to." But it felt like you were you had a bucket list of these are places I want
to go and things I want to do. Not to be disrespectful to the athlete community in general, but I get scared of being someone that talks about the past, that talks about the days of yore and how special I was and how I did this and that and magazine covers and all this celebrity type experience. And I promised myself, "You're going to go see the world and you're going to see how people live and you're going to participate." I maybe not live it exactly, but like witness it and be reminded you're not special at all. Nobody cares about you. Nobody even wants to hear about your story. And the more I travel, the more I feel like it humbles me in the best ways. And I had a terrible during the course of my career, you get a you develop a
terrible ego. An awful ego. And even though I come off as I can act like I have humility, inside I thought I was special. And just the traveling alone reminded me that you're not special at all. Get in line. When I was in a line for 75 minutes outside of a you know, a taco stand or coffee shop or something. And I'm standing there like everybody else. And I'm thinking, "If I was back home, I'd be able to call in and get to the front of the line. Here, they're like, "Dude, beat it." Yeah, so. Where was the strangest place you were recognized? God, you know, some places in Europe you cross paths with people, but almost nowhere. And that was such a gift. I mean, I'm not a famous person,
and I played in a small market, but to be able to just really be left be, and it was just um the constant reminder of how unspecial you are. It was being shoved in the subway, you know, you go you're in Mexico City or you're in Tokyo, and people are hissing at you because of like because you're too much in their space, or you're stepping on their foot, or your bag should be between your legs. It was just a you know, the a constant reminder of, "Dude, you couldn't be less special." But the amazing part, you were wearing your Cincinnati Reds uniform when you were traveling, and nobody recognized you. Wow.
My eye black. Yeah, you had My number on the back. Um are we taking Ohtani for granted? He hasn't even gotten hot. I know that he's had a really nice start to the pitching side of things, but offensively, I don't even sense that. And I was reading that he's still not satisfied, but I saw some stuff yesterday in his swings that tell me we really and I don't like using hyperbole. I think I'm going to try to in the course of my media career to be as tame as possible, but I really think we might be in the middle of one of, if not, the greatest season in the history of baseball. And I say that because, first of all, most of the all-time great seasons have asterisks \{slash\} question marks. And the other few
uh were before uh integration was even a part of the game. And so, the extreme ends of greatness were mitigated because of because integration was a part of the game. And he's playing against the very, very best in the world now. So, to me, I think we're on we have a chance to see one of the great seasons of all time. It feels like the Cy Young's really important to him. And I mean, he's got I don't know if you say unfair advantage, he created the unfair advantage that he gets to hit and pitch at a very high level. He's going to win another MVP this year. Right? No, nothing's for sure. You we the starting pitcher for the Philly Sanchez has had an excellent start. We typically don't give away
the MVP to pitchers. But now, it's going to be 5 and 6 years if he wins it. It's going to be unanimous if he wins it. I really think we're talking about Tiger Woods in our lifetime, Michael Jordan in our lifetime. I think we're talking about one of the great athletes of the 20 21st century. And I don't know if it's because of the nature of baseball in that you watch us every day and we don't wow you and we ask you to kind of tune in on a daily basis and evaluate us at the end of 6 and 7 months. But at the very end of the season, Shohei's not only going to give you the goods, but he's also going to do it on both sides of the ball. And I don't think we'll have ever I don't know if we'll ever see this sort of greatness for a
long I don't know if we'll see it in our lifetime unless you know, Sam Altman and Elon step in and extend our lives a couple hundred years. So, we'll see. I got you facing Ohtani once. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Funny enough, that ended my career essentially. And it was the day he got his second Tommy John. So, it was like the uh it was a bad moment for the both of us. Wait, what happened? Well, he in this after his second after the maybe the third or fourth inning blew out his arm for his second Tommy John. He left one of the most impressive I'll tell a quick Shohei Ohtani story.
One of the most impressive things I've ever seen on a baseball field. He got taken out in the third or fourth inning because he needed a second Tommy John. He before he came out of the game, he went up to bat and hit a ball 117 miles an hour into the right field stands for a home run against a left-handed pitcher and then left and had surgery. I mean, what who is this alien? And then me, I just I ended up popping out against him and you know, so yeah. He's a big guy.
He's a big 6'4, probably 240. Yeah. And uh he's as fast as anyone also, so he's got a lot of things going for him. I was wondering about this that the uh baseball players association talking about there should be a minimum level of spending. I've I've been preaching this for years. And you have certain ownership that they will spend just enough. But the players association saying, you know, you want to get up we want you to move up. We want to raise the floor. We may not have a ceiling, but we got to raise the floor. What do you think about this proposal? Well, I'm guessing that in any negotiation if you make such a grand ask, there's going to be you know, a reaction to it in that don't
owners will ask for something pretty specific on the top end. And is that what you want to do? I don't know enough about the goals of the players association, but I can say that if they're asking a floor, then there's going to be some real serious asks on the top end, but you know, if some of the smaller market teams can afford it, then it should be done, but I'm I'm not sure if that's the case. I don't know. Do you see a salary cap at some point with baseball? During the entire course of my career and the generation before, the constant fight was no salary cap. It was always that if there was anything we stood for, it was we don't even want to hear
the language of a salary cap. I'm not in the game anymore. And I'm apprehensive of speaking on what the current group of, you know, players their goal is. If that's what their objective is, then, you know, respect to them, but when I played, even mentioning even in even mentioning a salary cap might get you in a fight. And I'm talking about like an actual in clubhouse confrontation. So, you know, we'll see. The automated balls and strikes, how comfortable would you be stepping in with that part of the game looming? I was one of those players that I'm the type of guy to defer. And I think it's in my nature to be deferential, whether when I was a younger player,
um I would defer to the veterans, whether it was like the big tough guys on the team, I would defer. And I think I would have had a really hard time I think I would have had a really hard time with the taking a strike away from my team and us needing it in later in the game, like getting it wrong. And I And so, I think I would have more most of the time just passed, unless I was like for sure that in this moment the team needs me to get it right. So, I don't know. I think I would have taken a lot of balls and let them be called strikes and on the rare occasion, you know, stepped in.
Do you like the automated balls and strikes? I In some occasions, yeah, but it makes me a little nuts seeing guys be consistently selfish. You know, there's moments where you'll see a pitcher emotionally react and tap his hat and the ball's half a foot outside and it's like, "Dude, we only got two of those and the game's 2-1 in the eighth inning and we needed that." And so, I think that there's there's going to be times where there's going to be, you know, inside of the clubhouse head butting, but I don't know. I like it fine, but I'm always about protecting the team and the culture of the team and I just don't I worry that one particular player can ruin the entire vibe because they're selfish with the ABS.
I hope that we get to the point like tennis where they just have it and it's up on the jumbotron and the umpires are going to be there to call people out and safe and maybe catcher's interference, but balls and strikes Do you have any problem if it's out of the umpires' hands and it's just basically you're doing computers here? No, I think that they found the right sweet spot. The umpires need to be held to account, the players need to be held to account and then the fans need to be satisfied. I do like the language from the umpires that will yell at the dugouts, "If you don't like the call, challenge it." And you've seen that over and over again because unfairly they're both being called out by their name. They're
both being they're being embarrassed on the big board and on replays in a game that happens like that and people are saying and then they get endless criticism, but then when they get it wrong and you don't challenge them, you get to criticize them also and I really feel for the umpires in that in this because might embarrass you with a bad call. Nobody feels intentional. It's not intentional. You never felt an umpire intentionally. Well, Yeah, you can say it now. Oh, multiple occasions, but that's that was more so this was ego against ego. Like they had a problem with you.
Yeah. Yeah, but it was a bit more of a wild the wild west when I first came up. There was like we're hey young buck, you have nothing to say to us. Strike. Was this Joe West? No, Joe was very professional. He was very professional. I have no, he had a he had the strike zone that he called perfectly for years and there was no games to be played. But that being said, if you checked him, he wouldn't ding you with a below the belt strike. He would walk up to you face to face like this and say, do you have something to say young man? But do you be done. But do you agree that Maddux and Glavine and Smoltz, uh, Bonds and Boggs and Carew and Gwynn,
like they got the benefit of the doubt? Like should players get the benefit of the doubt? Then they may have. But not now with ABS. Not now but with ABS. But I think that back then for sure, but you have to remember those guys bent the ball. Maddux bent the ball horizontally and that appears as if it's in the zone and it exits the zone. And it's the same with same with Glavine, same with all the guys you were describing. Roy Halladay was the main recipe is the exact same way. They would bend the ball in and out of the zone and that was the game they were playing. They were trying to create the illusion of strike ball. Who had the best stuff that you ever faced where you just said this is this
is somebody from a different planet? I'll tell you a quick story. CC Sabathia got traded over to the Milwaukee Brewers and he's 6'7" 285 lb. Big, intimidating guy. And left-handed pitcher and Milwaukee has these shadows. And Dusty Baker went on my birthday, September 10th, on my birthday said, "CC's throwing tomorrow. I want you to take the day off." And I go, "No, I want to face him. I want to face him." And he starts strikes me out four times, fires a few balls up and in at my chin. And he's the type of guy that not only will strike you out, not only will he dominate you, but he'll throw a ball at you, walk up
to you, snatch the ball, and be like, "You want to fight?" sort of thing. So, CC was the toughest guy for me because of the combination of stuff and intimidation factor. And he'd fight you. Paul, do you have his numbers against CC? Of course we do. Joey Votto was three for 16 in his career, hit 188 versus Sabathia. Okay. All right. You got three knocks off of you. And the rest were strike outs or, you know, my Little tappers. No tappers.
Feeble tap Imagine if you tried to bunt on Nolan Ryan back in the day. You know, these guys It was a different and I'm going to go on with BK later on MLB Network and talk about Juan Soto and how the game has changed in terms of how the celebration is a part of the game and how it used to be a threat to your own livelihood, a threat to your health if you celebrated. And the game has changed I think for the best because the pitchers don't get to police the game anymore. But, you know, sometimes it gets a little out of hand. It's great to talk to you again. Good to see you. Where's the next trip?
I've got a round of golf on Saturday. That's the farthest I'll go down the street. Okay. [snorts] Uh we'll talk to you later. Maybe this summer when you start your baseball coverage with NBC. Can't wait. Thanks, Dan. Thank you, buddy. Joey Votto, the most interesting man in the world. He'll be an analyst for NBC Sports later this summer, wild card playoffs.
