Joey Votto spent the years since his 2024 retirement surfing in Sri Lanka, watching cricket in Dubai, and learning to make sushi in Japan. Now he's back in North America and stopping by Starkville for a wide-ranging conversation with Jayson and Doug — what he took away from his travels, and how he sees baseball differently from the outside. Plus, the Pittsburgh Zoo and Boston's Franklin Park Zoo just completed a gorilla-for-gorilla swap — Frankie for Little Joe, straight up — and Jayson and Doug break it down before building their own MLB all-zoo team.

Rundown:

3:00 A Most Unusual Trade Involving Gorillas

6:45 Starkville’s All-Zoo Team

17:18 Joey Votto Joins the Show

20:00 Living the Retired Life

28:17 Greatness of Shohei Ohtani

38:48 Analyzing the Game

41:13 Reaction to ABS

48:07 If You Were Commissioner…

53:23 Living the Retired Life

1:00:06 Coming Back to the Game

1:04:45 Strange But True: Byron Buxton and the Minnesota Twins

Follow Jayson on Bluesky: @jaysonst.bsky.social

Follow Doug on Bluesky: @dougglanville.bsky.social

E-mail: starkville@theathletic.com

Starkville Hotline: (347) 313-8371

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Hosts: Jayson Stark & Doug Glanville

With: Joey Votto

Producer: Jason Potere

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