Toronto retires Halladay’s No. 32
TORONTO — John Gibbons never had to worry much when Roy Halladay was on the mound. Until it came time to take his star pitcher out the game, anyway.
Gibbons, who managed the late Halladay from 2004 to 2008, remembers a specific game against the Boston Red Sox in which he pulled the two-time Cy Young winner after eight innings, replacing him with closer Miguel Batista, even though Toronto had a substantial lead.
“Batista goes in there and then all hell breaks lose,” Gibbons recalled with a smile Thursday, before the Blue Jays retired Halladay’s No. 32 in an emotional pre-game ceremony to kick off their new season.
“I think the game ended with a smoking line drive to centre field, we caught it, but the go-ahead run was on base. We got out of it and we’re shaking hands and I said to Roy: ‘I’ll never do that again, trust me,’ and if I remember correctly he just said: ‘Don’t worry about it.’ But I learned my lesson.”
Halladay died last November when the small sport plane he was piloting crashed into the Gulf of Mexico. He was 40. “He was elite in the game when he was pitching here,” Gibbons said, “so from a manager’s standpoint, the biggest decision was when do you take him out.
“That was always a battle. It was never a good feeling walking on the mound in case he looked at you like: ‘What are you doing?”’
The towering right-hander quickly became a fan favourite in Toronto, where he spent 12 of his 16 major league seasons. Halladay won the American League Cy Young with the Blue Jays in 2003 and took the NL award with the Phillies in 2010, his first season in Philadelphia.
He signed a one-day, free-agent deal with Toronto in December 2013 to retire as a Blue Jay.
The club returned the favour Thursday, enshrining him on the Rogers Centre’s Level of Excellence and unfurling a No. 32 banner from the centre-fielder rafters to thunderous applause. Halladay’s number is only the second to be retired by the Blue Jays. Hall of Famer Roberto Alomar’s No. 12 was retired in 2011.
Halladay’s wife Brandy and two sons, 17-year-old Braden and 13-year-old Ryan, were on hand for the ceremony wearing white No. 32 Blue Jays jerseys.