Family, friends, teammates say goodbye to Halladay
CLEARWATER, Florida — Toronto Blue Jays pitching great Roy Halladay was remembered Tuesday as an amazing husband, father, friend and teammate who was one of the best pitchers of his generation but an even better man.
A 91-minute “Celebration of Life for Roy Halladay” attracted more than 1,000 people to Spectrum Field, the spring training home of the Philadelphia Phillies, one of two franchises the twotime Cy Young Award winner played for during a stellar 16-year career.
“The man made the ballplayer,” Phillies owner John Middleton said, “not the other way around,”
Halladay died Nov. 7 at age 40 when the private plane he was piloting crashed into the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida.
The eight-time All-Star who pitched a perfect game and a playoff no-hitter, Halladay played for the Blue Jays from 1998 to 2009 and for the Phillies from 2009 to 13, going 203-105 with a 3.38 ERA.
The public memorial began with a video tribute and ended with Halladay’s wife, Brandy, and sons, Braden and Ryan, standing on the mound and releasing butterflies from a container.
“All eyes are on me,” the pitcher’s wife, the last of nine speakers, said from a rostrum perched behind the mound, flanked by pictures of Halladay with the Phillies and Blue Jays, along with floral arrangements bearing the 34 and 32 jersey numbers he wore.
“I’m really fortunate that I’ve gotten used to that feeling. I’ve literally been standing next to a man for 21 years that people could not take their eyes off of,” she said. “He was beautiful inside and out. Without saying a word, he seemed to always have just the right thing to say. When he did speak, people listened.”
Other speakers included Halladay’s dad, Roy Sr., former teammates Cole Hamels, Chase Utley and Chris Carpenter, longtime baseball executive and former Blue Jays GM JP Ricciardi, exPhillies manager Charlie Manuel and Blue Jays trainer George Poulis.
Former Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston and one-time teammates Cliff Lee, Jimmy Rollins, Ryan Howard, Jose Bautista, BJ Ryan, A.J. Burnett and J.A. Happ were among other guests.
Utley lauded the pitcher’s relentless work ethic as a player. “I saw every day what it took to be a man among boys.”
Former teammates echoed those sentiments, insisting that as great a pitcher as Halladay was, they were more impressed by the man off the field.