Joey Votto's storied MLB career is finally over. The man who secured a 1.000-plus OPS in four different seasons and led the National League in on-base percentage seven different times has called it a career after working in the minor leagues this season attempting to break back through to an MLB roster.
He ends with 2,135 hits and 1,365 walks in 8,746 plate appearances. But his final plate appearance will go down as a funny story.
Votto, miffed over an inside ball called a strike, yelled from the dugout over to the home plate umpire, Shane Livensparger. He was promptly ejected. Game over. And as we would later find out, career over.
"I struck out, went back to the dugout, and I went underneath [the dugout], slammed a bat... [I went back] to the dugout, snagged an iPad, looked at the at-bat, saw that it was not a strike," Votto explained on the Dan Patrick Show. "During the middle of the at-bat, which is typically when you don't get upset. And I start hollerin' at [Livensparger]. And he's a great umpire with a steady demeanor. But you can't holler from the bench bullying, or just disrupting the game. And he threw me out. And I ran up to him and I wasn't even angry. I go, 'That ball was inside. This could be my last game!' I said those words! And he said, 'Then why'd you get thrown out, Joey?'"
"Yeah, you're right, I'm sorry. Alright, have a good game, take care," is hilariously how Votto remembers the conversation ending. It was his 15th and final time getting ejected from an MLB game.
Other than getting on-base, the only proper way for Votto's career to end might just be an incredibly cordial ejection argument.
Votto's last time reaching base will go down in the books as a hit against the Pittsburgh Pirates in Cincinnati on September 24th, 2023.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Ump Had Blunt Seven-Word Message After Ending Joey Votto's Last MLB Game on Ejection.
