happy canada day! to celebrate, here's joey votto's card that i have in my hall of famer collection:
over the course of votto's career in cincinnati, he put up what i consider to be hall of fame worthy numbers. he recorded over 2,100 hits and 1,300 bases on balls - in fact, he reached base by hit or walk exactly 3,500 times! he also hit over 350 home runs and had an ops of .920. he was the 2010 mvp and had two other seasons in which he finished in the top three of mvp voting.
votto compares favorably to a number of hall of fame first basemen using modern metrics if not counting stats. his war/162 games is the same as frank thomas', and his jaws rating places him between future hall of famer miguel cabrera and should be hall of famer rafael palmeiro (and higher than hall of famers willie mccovey and todd helton, among others). regardless of what happens with future hall of fame voting, he's in my hall of famer collection.
i decided to hold on to some of his 2024 topps cards in case he retired or doesn't return to the majors to put in my final tribute collection. here is his 2024 topps base card
with what would be his complete career stats on the back
and here is the same from 2024 topps big league
with limited seasonal stats on the back
and 2024 topps heritage
with, once again, full career stats on the back
i saw votto play in cincinnati back in 2019. he was 1 for 3 with a double, a hbp, and two runs scored. one of those runs came on matt kemp's only home run as a red. i was happy to be there to see it. if he does return to the big leagues with the blue jays, i hope he's playing at the end of august so i can see him in person again at target field.
as a reminder, you can see votto and the other members of my hall of famer collection here!
