On Wednesday, Cincinnati Reds star Joey Votto showed baseball fans that he has a bright future in the sports media. His rant to Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo on MLB Network caught the attention of people on air and online.
The Reds’ star went after Mad Dog with tongue planted firmly in cheek, saying that the SiriusXM star looks down on him because he plays in a small market.
With one New York sports talker in the spotlight, others were bound to have something to say about it. ESPN New York’s Bart & Hahn listened to the audio on Thursday. Alan Hahn says the message is pretty clear.
“You talk about a guy that’s making it clear that ‘when I’m done playing baseball, I will be coming for your job,’” her said.
After listening to the audio of the rant, Bart Scott compared Votto to a WWE superstar building up a big match.
“The only thing this was missing was Mean Gene Okerlund because it sounds just like the heel. This sounds just like the All-American guy coming after the champion for the Intercontinental Championship.”
Hahn added that what was really impressive was that Votto knew how to engage Russo, a baseball historian. One of the insults Votto delivered compared Russo to Roger Peckinpaugh, who played in the 1910s.
“I love the whole thing. The delivery, and then he goes, ‘Roger Peckinpah.’ He goes for a guy who played, like, in the 1800s, so you get the historical reference that, you know Mad Doug loves that stuff.”
It seems like a matter of “when” not “if” Joey Votto lands a gig in broadcasting. At 39 years old, it is likely that he is in the last years of a career spent entirely with the Reds.
