Originally Posted by
jup
An except from an Athletic article:
“I haven’t been excited for baseball going down the stretch in a long time, and that’s not a good thing,” Votto said. “That’s not a good thing wearing a uniform that I love to wear, to play in a stadium that I love to play at, and obviously when the fans are here, playing in front of great Cincinnati fans. But I haven’t done that in a long time.
“It’s been … you get used to it in a bad way, if that makes sense. You don’t get used to it, but you get used to it, if that makes sense. You can’t stay angry endlessly, so you’re thinking to yourself, ‘OK, I have to do well, and I hope we do well.’ And then year after year, you just continue to play collectively poorly, and not win and be out of it so early, and you’re like ‘ugh.’ And in the most unhealthy sort of way, you get acclimated to it.
“All of the years where we were successful earlier in my career, I got used to winning and the inverse. You just show up and, of course, we were going to clinch. Of course, we were going to win the division. Of course, we were going to play well collectively. You get used to it, and it feels so good to be playing meaningful games because if anybody were to throw a uniform on and play any sport, be competitive in anything, it feels so much better to feel like you have a shot, to feel like the games are meaningful, to feel like you’re playing in front of people that care. It feels great. It feels great.
“And by the way, I don’t want it to come across like I was a content loser or comfortable loser. It wasn’t that way at all, by any means. It’s frustrating each and every year. Very clearly, it just creeps up on you. It just creeps up on you, and you just have to do your best to fight it off.”