A CHIP OFF THE OL’ DOC
Roy Halladay’s son Braden would’ve made the Jays legend proud.
DUNEDIN, FLA.— Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s dad tweeted out a photo and message the other day. “Happy Birthday to my boy.” Squeezes at the heart. The apple that doesn’t fall far from the tree: baseball dad and hall-of-famer, and baseball son and the bluest chip prospect for the Blue Jays.
But then another boy — just 17 years old, with a light spray of adolescent pimples on his cheeks, all gangly limbs in his Team Canada red-and-white threads — steps into a waiting media scrum. And the heart cracks a little. Because this is Braden Halladay. He won’t ever receive birthday tweet-outs from his dad again. His father won’t be beaming approval from the crowd, watching his kid on the mound. But oh, how proud the late Roy Halladay would have been on Saturday, as the eldest of his two sons took the bump in relief — a 1-2-3 eighth inning — at Dunedin Stadium, where his father spent a dozen springs.
It was almost achingly poignant. Until Braden opened his mouth, sounding every bit a normal teen, not overwhelmed by the circumstances, not paralyzed by the attention, and not, outwardly anyway, crushed by his loss. Roy Halladay was killed when the small sports plane he was piloting crashed into the Gulf of Mexico on November 7.
Braden Halladay is explaining how he never understood, in his early years, the privilege he was enjoying, growing up in a clubhouse amidst major-leaguers. “I remember my first day at T-ball, I was asking where the locker rooms were, where the bullpen is.”
He cracks himself up. “But just being able to grow up (around) baseball players, it helps you grow up a little faster, mature a little faster. You get to learn a lot earlier. Not just in baseball but in life.”
One hopes that Braden hasn’t had to learn too much, too soon in life.
Some reporters can remember Roy Halladay changing baby Braden Halladay’s diaper in the Toronto clubhouse. There is a ghost of his father in his youthful face. But none of the, well, maniacal intensity that characterized his dad.
Of course Braden has pitching genes in his DNA and his youth teams were coached by his dad, following retirement.
“From my perspective, he knows everything about everything as far as pitching goes,” says Braden, speaking in the present tense, as if his father is still here. “From a pitching perspective, it was everything I could have asked for and more.
“Every time I make mistakes, I still hear him drilling me about them in my head, just because he’s done it so many times before. From a mindset standpoint, I don’t think … that I could have had a better teacher.”
Obligingly, the spindly right-hander provides a scouting report on himself: “Definitely not a power pitcher.” Guffaw.
“Definitely a ground ball guy. Projectable, considering I probably weigh the least of anybody on the team. Compared to the guys who are getting looked at, at the draft from my class, I don’t throw hard. I’m definitely more a hit-your-spots, get-quick-hits kind of guy.”
Pondering the differences further: “My dad, when he was growing up, he was more of a power arm. So, like, playing in Colorado, he could just blow it by guys where I’m not that at all. If I try to throw a fastball down the middle and it goes 400 feet, I’d look stupid.”
Yet fireballs are what many people expect to see, when they hear his name. The only criticism that really gets under his skin “is when people think, ‘Oh, he’s Roy Halladay’s son, he should throw 95 at 12 years old.’ ”
It’s obvious that the personality taking shape — and that took plenty of poise yesterday, a high school junior facing a media throng — is very much his own. His baseball arch, whatever may come of it, is not his father’s baseball arch.
So when Braden was asked whether his entry into baseball was made easier because he’d been surrounded by it since infancy, he wavered. “Um, I guess so. But at the same time its kind of a different journey. ’Cause that’s kind of a whole different aspect and this is kind of new. A player, not so much just being there.”
Not just a lucky kid observer. A player.
He was eligible for this annual rite of spring training, Jays versus Canadian juniors, because he was born in Toronto. He lives in Florida now but fondly recalls T.O. “I just remember living inside the city. Going to all the different restaurants with my mom and dad and how welcoming everyone was. Just the comfort that the city gives is awesome. I love it.”
The young Halladay started thinking about the junior training camp in Florida when his father was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame last June.
A made-in-Canada Halladay. “One hundred per cent. I find myself, on the first day of school, when they ask you for a fun fact, my fun fact is always that I was born in Canada. Even on my glove, I have a Canadian flag stitched in it.
“Even though I’m not living there, I still feel it’s a part of who I am.”