Joey Votto is very familiar with All-Star Games. After all, he’s played in six of them during his illustrious Major League career.
One thing Votto couldn’t do in those Midsummer Classics, though, was get selfies with all of the mascots on hand for the festivities.
But Votto has found a way. On Saturday afternoon at Scotia Bank Arena in Toronto, the Toronto native was in attendance at the NHL All-Star Game, and he made sure to get a photo with every mascot he could find.
The veteran first baseman shared the photos on his Instagram account, where we see him with Blades the Bruin (the bear mascot of the Boston Bruins), Nordy (Minnesota Wild), Stormy the Ice Hog (Carolina Hurricanes), Hunter the Canadian lynx (Edmonton Oilers), Gritty (Philadelphia Flyers), Ice Berg the penguin (Pittsburgh Penguins), Bernie the St. Bernard (Colorado Avalanche), Bailey the lion (Los Angeles Kings), Sabretooth (Buffalo Sabres), Mick E. Moose (Vancouver Canucks), Louie the polar bear (St. Louis Blues) and Spartacat (Ottawa Senators).
Votto had a few comments on his Instagram posts, too.
“Gonna collect 'em all” was on his first photo, with Blades the Bruin. When he got to his pic with Stormy the Ice Hog, he wrote: “I’m not playing around. All of 'em.”
When he got to Gritty, he had a message for the orange mascot -- who, incidentally, bears a striking resemblance to Justin Turner.
“Gritty NOT friendly,” was Votto’s post. That apparently had something to do with Gritty not being willing to show his face for the camera. Votto even took it a step further, capturing a screenshot of one of Gritty’s social media pages and posting the caption: “You had your chance. I’ll never forgive you. Go Penguins.”
Ouch.
Later on in the slideshow, Votto noted that he could “do this allllll day,” and that he would “NOT stop.”
And, quite frankly, who would want him to?