Ava Aleixo
University of Guelph, 2025
Above is an academic poster written about Canadian baseball legend Joey Votto for a Legends Project. Created by: Ava Aleixo, in association with the University of Guelph’s Italian Heritage and Digital Applications Program (2025).
Table of Contents
Introduction
Joseph Daniel “Joey” Votto is a Canadian-born retired Major League Baseball player who has represented Canada extremely well on the national and world stage. Born on September 10th, 1983, he grew up in Etobicoke playing baseball. His father, Joseph, who is Italian, was his first baseball coach and his biggest supporter throughout his entire minor and major league career. Votto was drafted 44th overall in the second round of the 2002 MLB draft by the Cincinnati Reds and made his MLB debut on September 4th, 2007 with the same team. This was just the beginning of a 17-year career with the Cincinnati Reds. His illustrious career earned him the National League’s Most Valuable Player in 2010, he was named to the National League All-Star Team six times, and he won two Lou Marsh Awards as Canada’s Best Athlete. As of today, he is one of the best Reds players in Major League history and is at the top of the list for several Reds records. He represented Canada once at the 2009 World Baseball Classic. Despite never playing for the only Canadian team in the MLB, his hometown Toronto Blue Jays, he has been an example to other young Canadian baseball players in perseverance and shows that Canadians can dominate in a sport that has historically been dominated by others. After recently retiring, Joey Votto is expected to be inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in the coming years to commemorate his accomplishments and the way he represents Canada, as well as the Baseball Hall of Fame for his contributions to baseball as a whole.
Votto’s career has been widely reported on and publicized on various sports websites and news websites, not only in Canada but also in the United States. Research has been conducted on these websites such as TSN, Sportsnet, and ESPN, while his career statistics have been regularly updated on MLB.com and MiLB.com. His early life and personal stories have been covered on Toronto news sites such as Toronto Star and CBC. Research has been gathered from a variety of sources in order to reach a large amount of information and to verify its accuracies.
Analysis
Joey Votto’s connection to Italy is through his father, also named Joseph, who was of Italian and English descent. The younger Votto was born in Canada, as were both of his parents, and he was granted United States citizenship in 2022 after his career playing in Cincinnati, Ohio. As a Canadian, he grew up a fan of the Toronto Blue Jays until he got drafted to the Reds, when his baseball loyalties changed. Despite this change, he still continuously expressed gratitude and appreciation for Canada, and he represented the country well with his impressive stats and performances in the Major Leagues.
Votto grew up in Etobicoke, Ontario, where he began playing baseball at the age of 8. He played for various teams in the GTA, as well as for his high school team at Richview Collegiate Institute. He was spotlighted by the Toronto Star in 2002 as the best Canadian baseball prospect of the year, just after he had been drafted by the Reds and signed his first entry-level contract. Before even making a major league roster, he was expected to be something great, and Canadians all over the country were watching his progress as he moved towards his career in the MLB.
Votto’s long and successful career has put him at the top of several lists for the team and the league as a whole. As of the end of the 2025 season, he is 1st in Reds history in walks, 2nd in home runs, doubles, and on base slugging. He’s also 3rd in total runs and 4th in hits for the Reds. These, along with his National League MVP win and 6 NL All-Star Team wins, have solidified him as one of the best players in Reds history, and one of the best Canadian-born players in league history. Despite not being able to win a World Series for Cincinnati, his impact on the sport and on the city brought new life to the fanbase and cemented him as an all-time great in the sport.
Another accomplishment of Votto’s was winning the Lou Marsh Award twice. Votto won the award in 2010 — when he beat out Sidney Crosby after the iconic Golden Goal at the Vancouver Olympics — and in 2017, when he finished the season hitting .320 and with a 1.032 in On-Base Plus Slugging. The award, named after a sports journalist, is given annually to Canada’s best athlete of that year based on their performance and contributions to Canada. Some other notable winners are Terry Fox, Wayne Gretzky, Christine Sinclair, and, most recently, Summer McIntosh.
Baseball has historically been dominated by players from the United States and from various Central American countries. While there have been other notable Canadian baseball players, namely Ferguson Jenkins and Russell Martin, Votto reached heights that few other Canadians came close to, especially with his strong hitting power and extremely high On-Base percentage. Despite only representing Canada on the big stage at the 2009 World Baseball Classic — in which Canada, as a team, did not perform very well — he signed with the Toronto Blue Jays for one year after his contract ran out with the Reds in 2023. Sadly, he only played for their Minor League team as his age and the strain on his body started leading to poor performances. However, he expressed that he wished that it had worked out that he was able to play for the Toronto Blue Jays, in front of his home country and all of his family members.
Votto’s representation of Canadians shows that we are determined, talented, and don’t shy in the face of adversity. Joey Votto was an integral part of the Reds franchise for almost two decades and he made contributions to baseball that were unmatched. He represented Canada well in the major leagues and paved the way for other Canadian baseball players growing up and let them have a role model who proves that Canadians have the power and the drive to be great in the MLB.
Reflection
Throughout my research on Joey Votto, I’ve come to realize just how much he did and how much he means to Canada. His accomplishments in baseball and the way he represented Canada make him an exceptional topic for research. Before beginning my research, I knew of Joey Votto as a beloved Canadian baseball player, but I wasn’t aware of how significant his dominance in the league was. Canadians tend to have a major appreciation for Canadian representation in sports in practically everything other than hockey, even if their statistics aren’t placing them at the top of leaderboards. Votto joined a Reds team that was lacking true star power and, since I knew the Reds had not won a championship in his time on the team, I wasn’t sure how big of an impact he had on the team.
However, Joey Votto was an example of a Canadian-born player whose skill and power won him many awards and accolades against American players. He had incredible skill in hitting and defensive play which has led him to be at the top of many lists for the Reds, and for Canadian-born players. My research allowed me to have a better understanding of Canadian baseball, as well as the journey young Canadians take when they are aiming towards their goals in professional sports. This experience has also showed me the loyalty and appreciation people have for their home country. Despite spending almost half of his life in Cincinnati, Joey Votto always vouched for and played for his home country and as a representative of Canadian sports, making him an excellent example for young kids.
In the future, I will approach this research similarly to how I did. I would start with the childhood and move forward throughout their life, focusing on their accomplishments and their contributions and representations of Canada.
Gallery
Citations
Apstein, Stephanie. “The One That Stayed: Reds Star is Finding Satisfaction in Abandoning Perfection. September 22, 2021, Sports Illustrated. https://www.si.com/mlb/2021/09/22/joey-votto-daily-cover
“Joey Votto.’ MLB.com. https://www.mlb.com/player/joey-votto-458015
“Joey Votto Announces his Retirement from Baseball on Social Media.” August 21, 2024, MiLB.com. https://www.milb.com/news/joey-votto-announces-his-retirement-on-social-media-buffalo-bisons
Ngabo, Gilbert. “The Starchives of Joey Votto: Flaming Baseball Bats, Toronto Chess Clubs and Plenty ofHardware.” August 23, 2024, Toronto Star. https://www.thestar.com/sports/blue-jays/the-starchives-of-joey-votto-flaming-baseball-bats-toronto-chess-clubs-and-plenty-of-hardware/article_beba8c4a-609f-11ef-a7a1-cfab74c41045.html
Stewart, J.D.M.. “Joey Votto”. The Canadian Encyclopedia, 12 December 2017, Historica Canada. thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/joey-votto.
West, J. Thomas. “Northern Star Award”. The Canadian Encyclopedia, 10 December 2024, Historica Canada. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/lou-marsh-trophy