Top 55 Joey Votto Quotes

I didn’t know if it was possible, but I wanted to some day be the highest paid Canadian player.

Basketball is my favorite sport.

I’ll be disappointed if I retire and I am not part of a championship club here in Cincinnati specifically.

I will admit when I was 16, 17 years old, the thought of playing for the Jays was at the top. There’s something about joining a club and being embraced by a club and then building a relationship and commitment to a team.

I will not be a very satisfied, happy person if I don’t perform at the level that I expect.

I think we’re in a new era of baseball where it’s not OK to have a lumbering slugger in the corner of the outfield not catching the ball, and not taking the extra base.

He would watch every single Reds game. He was the first one to teach me how to play baseball. I played catch with him on a daily basis when I was really young. He was a big fan. He was just in love with what I did and me. He was a great father to me.

Each and every day, I think about the importance of earning my paycheck and playing well.

I come into camp every year with the hope and expectation of playing every game I’m available, every game that is available to me.

I was raised in Mimico, a small neighborhood just outside of Toronto, Canada. One of the most culturally diverse cities in the world.

Randy Johnson had a tell. If he thought you knew what was coming, he would hit you. So that was his tell. That’s probably, that’s a tell. That’s a tell from Randy Johnson. He’d hit you, happily.

There’s nothing more fun than standing at the plate and hitting the ball really hard, see the ball go over the fence. It’s really a satisfying feeling. It always makes you feel like you’re doing your job.

I legitimately would like to drive a yellow bus when I’m older so I’ve actually thought about – I want to be either a crossing guard or drive a yellow bus. Drive the kids to school or let them cross to school so, you know, that’s something I’m excited about. I’m serious about that. I think that will be great.

I don’t perceive a lot of the things that a lot of people perceive as negative as a negative – and the inverse, I don’t think a lot of the things people think are positive are positive, necessarily.

The challenges of my career have made me better and tougher overall and made me resilient.

If I’m on the field not performing well, it’s because I’m not performing well, not because I’m not healthy.

Hitting is very challenging, you never get it solved.

Some players just have the natural stroke that you throw them in the lineup and all of the sudden they turn on a ball and hit it out of the ballpark.

I just do my best to put the ball in play and put it in play where no one’s going to make a play on it and hopefully drive some runners in.

I’m a guy that has the skills to hit the ball hard.

I know that one day I won’t be good enough to play baseball anymore. But as long as I have an opportunity to, I want to keep fighting.

I love competing against the best and I take a lot of pride in it.

I spend most of my time thinking about – whether I am making the minimum or a big number, salary-wise – how can I be competitive as long as I have an opportunity to play.

I think that I’ve proven when healthy that I’m a healthy part of the team.

I love to play at a really high level.

I’m all about neutralizing talent and making things fair, and evaluating a player based on what he does all the way around.

I think if I let the team’s performance dictate how I behave or how I perceive my performance, or whether or not there’s value, or whether or not anyone even cares, it’s a dangerous and slippery slope.

I look forward to batting practice. I look forward to practice work.

When you are raised in a restaurant you really don’t want to go to one that often, I’d rather cook.

I, personally, have standards that I have set for myself. I’d like to achieve those and look back without regret.

Cincinnati is a prettier city than people give it credit for, I like it here, like the people. They’re so polite.

If I was just a guy who hit 24 home runs and drove in 100, I wouldn’t be a special player.

I just want to be in the middle of the order, playing solid defense, playing every day, being competitive and earning that my manager, the coaching staff, the front office, my teammates have faith that I’m going to be a helpful teammate. I want to do that until the very end.

When I was younger, I was like, ‘I’m working now, and you go work.’ That was all I knew, because I was trying to keep my head above water. Now I’m more willing to say, ‘Let’s do our work side by side and cooperate.’ That’s really difficult to do in this sport sometimes because it can be so individualized.

I kind of want to go play in the Caribbean Series to be honest. I’m not even kidding about that.

I’m part of the entertainment industry.

Almost all the great players I admire performed well deep into their 30s and their 40s, almost all of them, and I don’t think I’m any different.

If you give a guy 1,000 opportunities and he hits 30 home runs or 500 opportunities and he hits 30 home runs, it’s not the same thing. I know. This is what I do for a living, and I know who is better at what I do.

Baseball-Reference has been very good to me during my career.

I know the feeling of being in a city – and a team winning a championship – as a young person, and then seeing the impact in the community, seeing the excitement for days, for weeks, for long stretch of time, and how special it can be.

I don’t think materialistic things are my priority.

Baseball has been very good to me, but baseball has evolved into a hybrid of work and passion.

The best hitters can do everything.

I know a lot of athletes, they want to play until their 45 or 50 or whatever, some athletes claim, but count me out on that.

I think the smart teams are chasing those well-rounded players, making that well-rounded lineup, having that well-rounded team.

I think I am boring. That’s good. I strive for boring in all elements of my game.

My teammates, my friends, the ones that I shared great times with, faced prejudices that I never did and when they shared their experiences… I did not hear them.

Great players have bad years.

I’ve been in a Reds’ uniform, in Cincinnati, owning a house here, part of the community. I cross paths with tons of people. Every time it’s about ‘let’s win, let’s keep going, let’s win a championship here.’ And the support has been tremendous. And I want to be a part of the team that gives that back to the community.

I’m very fond of coming to St. Louis.

In this league, if you’re going to be tested, you have to answer quickly. I feel like if you show signs of weakness, people attack that pretty quickly.

I think people do things and say things emotionally when they make it personal.

My goal is to play as often as possible and help the team in any way, shape or form I can.

I’ve got some teammates telling me I can play for a long time, ooh, boy, I don’t want to play for a long time.

No matter what, I’m being paid to perform.