Joey Votto Plays Final Home Game Against the Pittsburgh Pirates

There are some players in Major League Baseball who are known as "Pirate Killers". Oftentimes times these players are flying under the radar against other competition but light up the Pittsburgh Pirates. A player like Darwin Barney, who was a career .246 hitter but hit .280 against the Bucs.

While those off-the-radar players seemed like "Pirate Killers" there were the really good players in the division who tortured the team as well. The Cardinals trio of Yadier Molina, Adam Wainwright, and Albert Pujols for instance. The same can be said for the Brewers and Ryan Braun's career and former Cubs ace Jake Arrietta. All of them had really good careers and absolutely gave the Pittsburgh Pirates problems.

The same can be said for Joey Votto. The difference for guys like Votto and Pujols and other prominent players is that they were just really good baseball players, who had the opportunity to face the Pittsburgh Pirates a lot. So it should not be that surprising that those players likely excelled in those situations as well.

It appears however that Joey Votta might be calling it a career. Votto received multiple standing ovations during the Cincinatti Reds final homestand against the Pittsburgh Pirates. In fact, he was given one in what is presumed to be his final at-bat at what has been his home stadium his entire career.

In his career against the Pittsburgh Pirates Votto appeared in a total of 211 games.

In those games, he posted a batting average of .300 and an impressive OPS of .910. He had 112 runs batted in, posted 29 home runs, and 56 doubles. All numbers above his career norms.

Joey Votta deserves a lot of credit for having such a successful career in one place. He is/was the face of the Reds for a long time. As a fan of the Pittsburgh Pirates, I am more than happy to not have to deal with him anymore. However, it still should be noted that he was in general just a really good player who was good for the game.