Joey Votto had a great story about what he would have done with the baseball from his 2,000th hit

Rest in peace, Maris.

Cincinnati Reds first baseman Joey Votto reached a milestone on Monday that was 15 years in the making: his 2,000th hit.

Votto became the fifth Reds player to record his 2,000th hit, getting there with a seventh-inning single in Monday’s win over the Chicago Cubs.

In his postgame press conference, Votto remembered being asked earlier about what he was going to do with the baseball from his 2,000th hit. And that was when he brought up the story about the baseball from his first big-league hit, which no longer exists.

Votto gave that baseball to his dog at the time, Maris, who passed away last year.

Maris chewed that baseball up and apparently enjoyed every second of it. Good dog.

Joey Votto… great dog dad. pic.twitter.com/W7q5TJ4C1J

— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) August 17, 2021

Votto said of his would-be plans for that 2,000th hit ball:

“If I’m honest with you, if he was still alive, I’d probably give him the 2,000th ball to chew up.”

OK, well, Votto quickly took that back once he realized that it probably wouldn’t have been too good for a senior dog to chew up a baseball. Votto was just being a good dog dad.