Joey Votto’s illustrious MLB career is finally over. The man who posted an OPS over 1.000 in four different seasons and led the National League in on-base percentage seven times has called time on his career after toiling in the minor leagues this season trying to get back on an MLB roster.

He finishes with 2,135 hits and 1,365 walks in 8,746 at-bats. But his final at-bat will go down as a funny story.

Votto, upset about an inside ball being called a strike, yelled from the dugout to home plate umpire Shane Livensparger. He was promptly ejected. The game was over. And as we later found out, his career was over too.

“I made a strikeout, went back to the dugout, went under (the dugout) and hit a bat on it… (I went back) to the dugout, grabbed an iPad, looked at the at-bat and saw that it wasn’t a strike,” Votto explained on the Dan Patrick Show. “During the at-bat, when you don’t normally get upset, I start yelling at (Livensparger). He’s a great umpire with a calm demeanor. But you can’t bully from the bench or disrupt the game. And he ejected me. And I ran to him and I wasn’t even mad. I said, ‘The ball was in. This could be my last game!’ That’s what I said! And he said, ‘Then why did you get ejected, Joey?'”

“Yeah, you’re right, I’m sorry. Well, enjoy the game, take care,” is how Votto hilariously recalls the end of the conversation. It was the 15th and final time he was ejected from an MLB game.

Aside from getting on base, an incredibly heartfelt argument over the ejection might be the only real way to end Votto’s career.

Votto’s final baseman win will go down in history as a hit against the Pittsburgh Pirates in Cincinnati on September 24, 2023.