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Cincinnati Reds first baseman Joey Votto, left, gestures as he speaks to the media in Sarasota, Fla., Monday, Nov. 22, 2010, after being named the National League Most Valuable Player.Chris O'Meara

The answer was vintage Joey Votto. No sooner had he received the National League's most valuable player award on Monday than discussion focused on the price he would exact from the Cincinnati Reds.

Votto is entering salary arbitration for the first time, and there is every reason to expect that while he won't likely break Ryan Howard's record first-year arbitration award of $10-million (all currency U.S.), the $500,000 that Votto earned in 2010 will become a minimum $7-million in 2011.

After the Reds made the playoffs for the first time since 1995, getting Votto's name on a multiyear contract is an article of faith with Cincinnati fans.

"I've got nothing [for you] man," Votto said of negotiations. "And that's okay right now. There's a time and a place for contract stuff, and right now I'm just kind of enjoying being National League MVP."

Why wouldn't he? After all, Votto has a whole country to enjoy it along with him, after the 27-year-old native of Toronto became the third Canadian-born major-leaguer to win baseball's top individual award.

And it wasn't even close.

Votto came within a vote of being a unanimous selection, getting 31 of 32 first-place votes in balloting among members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America. He accumulated 443 points, well ahead of Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals, a three-time winner who had captured the past two MVP Awards, and third-place finisher Carlos Gonzalez of the Colorado Rockies.

Votto, who hit .324 with 37 home runs and 113 runs batted in, joins Larry Walker of Maple Ridge, B.C., (1997, Rockies) and Justin Morneau of New Westminster, B.C., (2006, Minnesota Twins) as previous Canadian-born MVPs.

Canada has become fertile territory for major-league players, but Votto's a rarity in that most of the honey flows from B.C., where a well-organized junior system flourishes.

"I don't put a lot of stock in the whole longer playing season thing," said Bob Smyth, a part-time scout for baseball's Canadian scouting bureau who is based in B.C. and is a former Seattle Mariners scout.

"I think the quality of the parks the kids play in has something to do with it," added Smyth, who was Votto's coach for three years in Toronto. "And another major factor out here is that soccer in the Lower Mainland or [Vancouver]Island starts in September, so there's not a competition between soccer and baseball for athletes out here. When you add in that the hockey season seems to go 10 months in southern Ontario, I really believe that means that we never get to see some of the best 12 to 13-year-old ball players there."

Smyth couldn't get the Mariners to draft Votto, who played four years at Richview Collegiate under coach Stath Koumoutseas. The school is an athletic powerhouse, but Votto's baseball team practised on a softball diamond.

"The NL MVP practised on a field without a pitcher's mound," Koumoutseas said. "Think about that."

Votto did not lead the NL in any of the Triple Crown categories, but he did lead the majors in on-base percentage and led the NL in slugging, two measurements that carry more weight in the modern game. Making the playoffs was also a factor in the minds of MVP voters.

Votto's 2009 campaign was by some measures as impressive and very much a harbinger, considering he spent three weeks on the 15-day disabled list while being treated for anxiety attacks and depression brought on by the death of his father, Joseph, in August of 2008. Votto admitted he cried when he was told he'd won the MVP award and, yes, he thought of his father.

But asked whether it gave him a different perspective on the award, he said: "I think I'm going to need a little more time to get that perspective. You usually need distance and time to see the landscape."

That will come for Joey Votto. As will the big contract. Let us all enjoy another landscape with him: from sea to sea, once again we have a Canadian MVP.

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