Roy, special on and off the field
There have been two no-hitters in postseason play in the entirety of baseball history, and I was fortunate enough to cover one of them. Roy “Doc” Halladay meant so much more to so many people than simply the pitcher who joined Yankees perfect-game author Don Larsen in that exclusive club with a nono against the Reds in the first playoff start of his career for the Phillies in Game 1 of the 2010 NL division series.
The news of Halladay’s death on Tuesday in a single-engine plane crash off the coast of Florida, sending shockwaves and devastation throughout Major League Baseball and beyond, immediately brought me back to that October night at Citizens Bank Park. The throwback workhorse also tossed a perfect game earlier that season and notched his second Cy Young Award, making him one of only six pitchers to win it in both leagues.
The most unforgettable aspect of that night – aside, that is, from the reporter from another paper seated next to me not realizing until the eighth inning what was happening – was the genuine humility and appreciation Halladay appeared to exude afterward about his rare feat after he had waited 12 years in Toronto without a postseason appearance until joining the Phils as preceding ace Cliff Lee’s replacement that season.
“Just one of those special things you’ll always remember,” Halladay said that night. “The best part about it is the playoffs take priority.”
Indeed, Halladay was a special breed on and off the field, an eight-time All-Star who led the American League in complete games seven times and threw 67 of those in his career, an impressive number for this era of pitch counts and innings limits. With a career record of 203105 and a 3.38 ERA before injuries forced him into retirement at age 36, he’s a Hall of Famer in my book as soon as he becomes eligible in 2019.
The son of a commercial pilot, Halladay often talked during his career and since retirement about his love for airplanes. He excitedly posted photos on Twitter of himself recently inside the ICON A5 light sport aircraft he was flying before the 40-year-old’s plane went down 10 miles west of St. Petersburg in the Gulf of Mexico around 1 p.m. on Tuesday.
The shocking and grim news immediately reminded everyone old enough to recall where they were the day we learned that Yankees captain Thurman Munson similarly had died on Aug. 2, 1979 while practicing takeoffs and landings while home in Ohio to be with his family on a team off-day.
It immediately also reminded us of another Yankee, pitcher Cory Lidle, who was piloting his own plane and crashed it into a high-rise apartment complex on the Upper East Side four days after the 2006 season had ended in the first round of the playoffs.
Undoubtedly, there have been far too many like instances in and out of the sports world over my lifetime.
That is why, on this day, I can’t help but reminisce about the night Roy Halladay made history in Philadelphia and being fortunate enough to witness it in person.