After overcoming severe, debilitating bouts of depression last year, one of Canada's best baseball players is making life miserable for Major League Baseball pitchers.

Joey Votto of the Cincinnati Reds might rank behind B.C. boys Justin Morneau of Minnesota Twins and Jason Bay of the Mets on the awareness charts of Canadian baseball fans, but the Toronto native is backing up his breakout 2009 season with another outstanding campaign.

Votto is the offensive catalyst for the Reds, who have surprised many experts with their long stay in first place in the National League Central Division this year. As of early July, Votto put together a streak of reaching base in 41 consecutive games, the NL's high for 2010. The streak was snapped July 4 when Votto was ejected after arguing a first-inning third-strike call.

Early in 2009, the Reds didn't know whether Votto could be counted on for anything other than unpredictability. His father's death at age 52 sent Votto into a severe, mentally damaging funk, and he had to spend time on the disabled list while he dealt with his depression. At one point, while the team was on the road and Votto was on the DL, he had such a severe anxiety attack, he wound up in the hospital.

“It was just a very, very scary and crazy night where I had to call 911 at like three or four in the morning,” Votto said. “It was probably the scariest moment I had ever dealt with in my life.”

“I couldn't take it. It got to the point where I thought I was going to die.”

That was 2009. This is 2010. And Votto is on a tear. As of July 4, he was batting .312 with a team-leading 19 home runs and 57 runs batted in. “He's not batting third in this lineup for nothing,” Reds manager Dusty Baker said of Votto.
Votto has beaten tremendous odds in two areas of note: That a Canadian can make a serious mark among Major League Baseball sluggers; and that he is living proof that depression is treatable, and can be overcome. He is a role model for Canadians on and off the field.

• Norman Chad of the Washington Post tells his favourite sports gambling story: “There's a fellow who bets football every weekend, and for three straight months he loses every weekend. He's a bookie's dream. Then, when football season ends, the bookie — fearful of losing his best customer — tells him he can bet hockey. “Hockey?!?” the man exclaims. “What do I know about hockey?

• Chad again: “This year, NASCAR decided to let its drivers race even more roughhouse to give fans more bang — and banging — for their buck. Robin Pemberton, NASCAR's vice president of competition, said they wanted to put racing ‘back in the hands of the drivers, and we will say, ‘Boys, have at it.'' Boys, have at it? That's like the National Rifle Association asking gun owners to be a little more trigger-happy.”

• Janice Hough, of leftcoastsportsbabe.com: “The 49ers filed a claim with the city of San Francisco, asking for a rent decrease because Candlestick Park is in such bad disrepair. On behalf of Candlestick Park, the city filed a counter claim, saying the same thing could be said about the 49ers.

• Bill Simmons, ESPN.com: “We don't have to watch 82 mostly half-assed games to get to the playoffs. We don't have 10 graphics on the screen at all times. We don't have to sit there for four hours waiting for a winner because pitchers are taking 25 seconds to deliver a baseball. The World Cup just bangs it out: Two cool national anthems, two 45-minute halves, a few minutes of extra time and usually we're done. Everything flies by. Everything means something. It's the single best sporting event we have by these four measures: efficiency, significance, historical context and truly meaningful/memorable/exciting moments. You know . . . as long as you like soccer.”

• Brad Dickson in the Omaha World-Herald writes, on the 2012 London Olympics keeping BP as a major sponsor: “The Games are scheduled to go off on schedule, but afterward the cleanup will take 16 years.”

• Ex-NFL lineman Conrad Dobler, to the L.A. Times, on fellow Wyoming alumnus Dick Cheney: “When he was there, he wrote a book; when I was there, I read one.”

• Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni, to ESPN, on his team's sales pitch to free-agent prize LeBron James: “You mean after the groveling?”

• Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun on former Blue Jay pitcher A.J. Burnett, now with the Yankees: “Burnett is a .500 pitcher with .750 stuff and a .250 brain.”

• Vancouver comic Torben Rolfsen, after Nigerian midfielder Sani Kaita received more than 1,000 e-mail death threats from his fellow citizens after getting red-carded in a World Cup defeat: “The good news is none of them asked for his bank-account number.”

• Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle: “The Pirates fired their pierogi — a man who dresses like a piece of Polish fried meat-filled dough and races other “foods” at the ballpark — because he criticized the team's general manager and manager on his Facebook page. The Pirates should have just sent him down to the minors for more seasoning.”

Care to comment?

Email: bruce
penton2003@yahoo.ca