Joey Votto

They're like, I didn't get to go to an Indy 500 or the Kentucky Dirt.

You know, like normal things that we can go to.

but it felt like you had a bucket list of these are places I want to go and things I want to do?

Not to be disrespectful to the athlete community in general, but I get scared of being someone that talks about the past, that talks about the days of yore and how special I was and how I did this and that and magazine covers and all this stuff.

celebrity type experience.

And I promised myself, you're going to go see the world and you're going to see how people live and you're going to participate.

Maybe not live it exactly, but like witness it and be reminded you're not special at all.

Nobody cares about you.

Nobody even wants to hear about your story.

And the more I travel, the more I feel like

It humbles me in the best of ways.

And I had a terrible, during the course of my career, you develop a terrible ego, an awful ego.

And even though I come off as I can act like I have humility, inside I thought I was special.

and and just the traveling alone reminded me that you're not special at all get in line when i was in the line for 75 minutes outside of a you know a taco stand or a coffee shop or something and i'm standing there like everybody else and i'm thinking if i was back home i'd be able to call in and get to the front here they're like dude beat it yeah so where was the strangest place you were recognized

You know, some places in Europe you cross paths with people, but almost nowhere.

And that was such a gift.

I mean, I'm not a famous person, and I played in a small market, but to be able to just really be left be, and it was just the constant reminder of how unspecial you are.

It was being shoved in the subway.

You know, you're in Mexico City or you're in Tokyo, and people are hissing at you because of, like,

because you're too much in their space or you're stepping on their foot or your bag should be between your legs.