Feschuk about Toronto’s Joey Votto.

Question

What did Feschuk say about Toronto’s Joey Votto? Does anyone know the details?

Answer 1

It was something like a decade ago, when Joey Votto was 17 years old, that he asked a baseball mentor one of the sport’s eternal questions: How, exactly, does one become a good hitter? Bob Smyth, Votto’s gravel-voiced coach at the time, laughed a little as he recounted the tale over the phone on Monday afternoon, not long after Votto was announced as the near-unanimous choice for National. “I remember I said to Joey, ‘Swing the bat 500 times a day. And when you get through doing that, swing it another 500,’” Smyth said. “I think he took it (literally). . . . He worked and worked and worked.”