ROY HALLADAY DIES IN CRASH
Ex-Jays pitcher piloted plane
Roy (Doc) Halladay was beloved by the Toronto Blue Jays and the team’s fans, but perhaps the truest measure of the late, great starting pitcher came from those who faced him at the plate.
The eight-time all-star and two-time Cy Young Award winner died on Tuesday when a private plane he owns crashed into the Gulf of Mexico.
The death prompted an outpouring of grief and sharing of memories, both from those who knew and worked with him in his 12 seasons with the Jays to some of baseball’s brightest stars.
“Regardless of how good he was as a player, he was just a good guy,” Jays manager John Gibbons told Postmedia from his off-season home in Texas.
“You come across a lot of guys in your career, but he just stood out.
“He was a big presence, one of the elites in the game and he was one of the top dogs of his era,” added Gibbons, who was Halladay’s manager from 2004 to 2008.
The platitudes were mixed with grief over the loss of Halladay under such tragic circumstances. Doc, as he was known by fans and teammates, was 40.
The Denver native’s love of flying and of family defined his post-baseball life, as his Twitter account shows. The plane, which Halladay owned for less than a month, crashed in the Gulf of Mexico and his body was identified near the vessel.
According to police reports, Halladay was the only person on the two-seater plane, which crashed just off Holiday, Fla., north of Tampa.
The sheriff ’s office said a 911 call reporting the crash of a small plane came in at 12:06 p.m. The single-engine plane, an Icon A5, went down in shallow water and was found upside down.
Halladay’s death was announced shortly after 4 p.m. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cause of the crash.
“The Toronto Blue Jays organization is overcome by grief with the tragic loss of one of the franchise’s greatest and most respected players, but (an) even better human being,” the team said in a statement. “It is impossible to express what he has meant to this franchise, the city and its fans. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends.”
Like many of his former Jays teammates, Vernon Wells reached out on Twitter.
“One of the best to ever do it,” he wrote. “I had a front-row seat to watch his greatness. RIP Doc. (Prayers to wife) Brandy and the kids.”
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred offered his condolences as well. “All of us in baseball are shocked and deeply saddened by the passing of Roy Halladay,” Manfred said in a league statement. “A well-respected figure throughout the game, Roy was a fierce competitor during his 16-year career.”
Beloved for his tenacity, Halladay was one of the most accomplished pitchers to take the mound for the Jays. Selected by the team in the first round of the 1995 draft, he made his Major League Baseball debut in 1998.
He was a work in progress from there, however, until he broke out with a 19-win season in 2002. From then on, he was a mustwatch star on often mediocre teams, one good reason to go to the ballpark every fifth day.
He won his first Cy Young Award as the American League’s best pitcher in 2003 after a terrific season that included a 22-7 win-loss record and a 3.25 ERA. His second Cy Young came in 2010, after a trade to the Philadelphia Phillies.
“Shocked and saddened … gone way too soon,” 2017 World Series champ Justin Verlander wrote on his Twitter account. “One of the best ever.”
Verlander’s reaction was typical of that shared by bigname players past and present who recognized the challenge of facing an arm like Halladay’s.
“One of the toughest competitors I ever faced,” New York Yankees star Bernie Williams wrote on his Twitter account. “Don’t think his greatness was truly appreciated.”
After his early struggles with the Jays, Halladay spent some time in the minors, rebuilding and re-working his technique. He came back better than ever, getting his first 20-win season at age 25.
He worked fast and efficient, which wasn’t always good for beer sales, but when it was his turn on the mound, the SkyDome was the place to be. Halladay led the AL in complete games for six consecutive seasons.
“He had a great arm, but he had to reinvent himself,” Gibbons said. “He went down to (Class-A ball) and worked hard at it. He would have told you that once he mastered the mental side of pitching, it really set him off.”
This past summer, Halladay was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. He’ll be eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., in 2019.
Though he finished his career with the Phillies, where he was equally beloved, Halladay signed a one-day contract with Toronto in December 2013 so he could retire as a Blue Jay.
In 2010 with the Phillies, Halladay pitched a perfect game against the Florida Marlins (a 1-0 win on May 29), then later threw the second no-hitter in MLB post-season history, against the Cincinnati Reds in Game 1 of the NL Division Series.