By Hal McCoy
FOX Sports Ohio
January 16, 2011
Tom Browning, Mr. Perfect, was the speaker at a baseball banquet in Portsmouth, Ohio, last week, where he talked about hard work.
As an example, the former Cincinnati Reds perfect-game pitcher used Joey Votto to illustrate the benefits of diligence.
"The first time I saw Joey Votto after the Reds signed him, he couldn't catch a ball and he couldn't hit a bull in the butt with a snow shovel," Browning said. "That just shows what hard work can do."
The hard work put in by Votto not only earned him the National League MVP award this year, it earned him a new three-year $38 million contract from the Reds.
By signing him to the three-year deal, the Reds bought out Votto's free agency and eliminated arbitration. Votto can become a free agent after the 2013 season.
With all the hard work, both in-season and during the offseason, Votto's offense came around quickly. He had nearly identical seasons his first two years
