Off Day: The Beauty of Joey Votto and the Jays do Monday Night Football



Joey Votto, our beautiful Etobicoke superstar, has always seemed a little unhinged to me. Not in a negative way, but in a delightfully interesting way. Votto's amazingly talented. He's in the middle of another stellar season. Look at these numbers:


So pretty.

He's also very handsome and all of this comes together in a very nice package. Votto's talent combined with his oddness makes him special and exciting. Baseball with a twist.

Joey Votto was ejected from a Reds/Pirates game on September 9th. It had apparently been building all evening (though Votto maintains that wasn't happening.) It finally came to a head when Votto asked for and was denied a time out call.

He lost his damn mind. It was a helmet slam. It was veins in the forehead. It was red faced screaming right in home plate umpire Bill Welke's business. There was spit. The pictures look a little like they might either kill each other or maybe make out. There was seeming violence with no violence. As Will Leitch put it so beautifully:

Votto is a generally even-tempered Canadian sort, but he totally loses his mind here … but not so much that he's in any danger of actually hurting anyone.

It was like Votto just needed to exorcise some rage at the baseball gods. He raged against the machine. It was a beautiful thing.

I thought this performance was great, but I wasn't prepared for the absolute masterwork of Votto explaining the whole situation. It hit Twitter in the middle of the second Jays/Yankees game on Saturday and I was mesmerized by it.




Notice how he places himself against the background before he starts to speak.

There is something in his voice, in the quiver, in the wavering of his voice. It tugs at me. I want to nod in agreement. And say, "I hear you, Joey. I understand." When he talks about being in the batter's box and feeling metaphorically "boxed in", which necessitated his call for time, he makes it sound like it was a plea that wasn't heard. I want to say, "I hear you now, Joey. Talk it out."

"I felt boxed in as a person....like I'm a regular person....I'm boxed in, not only physically, but metaphorically, in the most intense part of the game...."

He had simply asked to be allowed to break the tension and it was denied. Denied!

Votto seems to be trying to collect himself a few times in the ten minute video. Votto talks about how he doesn't play the balls and strikes game. That he is intense and focused when he plays. 

“Did I overreact? Yeah, I did overreact,” Votto said. “But I felt so compelled and was in such an intense place. Who’s to decide how angry I’m allowed to get as long as I follow the rules? I didn’t touch him.

“I disagree with the suspension. I disagree with the ejection.”

I love this guy. 

The Blue Jays spent their off day in Atlanta at the Monday Night Football game between the Atlanta Falcons and the Philadelphia Eagles. 



Joining Edwin was Jose Bautista , Ben Revere , David Price




Kevin Pillar  , Josh Donaldson and Marcus Stroman. And probably others. I like that EE's, Revere's, Pillar's and Donaldson's are essentially the same picture.

Hometown Atlanta won. Half of Outkast let me know.




What the heck, here's more Outkast.

Ah ha, hush that fuss

Finally, Cabbie talks to baseball players about snacks.