The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Roy Halladay, 1977-2017
2-time Cy Young pick threw perfect game, postseason no-hitter.
Roy Halladay, a two-time Cy Young Award winner who pitched a perfect game and a playoff no-hitter for the Philadelphia Phillies, died Tuesday when his private plane crashed into the Gulf of Mexico roughly 35 miles northwest of St. Petersburg, Fla. He was 40. His Hall of Fame credentials included a 203-105 record and a 3.38 ERA.
Roy Halladay, a two-time Cy Young Award winner who pitched a perfect game and a playoff no-hitter for the Philadelphia Phillies, died Tuesday when his private plane crashed into the Gulf of Mexico near Holiday, Florida. He was 40.
Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco said Halladay’s ICON A5 went down around noon. The sheriff ’s office marine unit discovered Halladay’s body in shallow water near some mangroves. No survivors were found.
Police said they couldn’t confirm if there were additional passengers on the plane or say where it was headed. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating.
Halladay, who retired after the 2013 season, was an amateur pilot who often posted on social media about small planes.
ICON aircraft had posted a video with Halladay trying out a new plane. The video showed Halladay taking delivery of a new ICON A5, a twoseat “light-sport aircraft” that can land on water.
In the video, Halladay said the terms of his baseball contract prevented him from having a pilot’s license while playing, and that his wife was originally against the idea.
“Hard. I fought hard. I was very against it,” Brandy Halladay said in the same video, before explaining why she eventually understood and approved of her husband’s desire to have the plane.
He is survived by his wife and sons Ryan and Braden.
Halladay spent 12 seasons with the Toronto Blue Jays followed by four seasons with the Phillies. He was 203105 with a 3.38 ERA and an eight-time All-Star.
“Such a sad day,” former Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard tweeted. “We lost a great ball player but an even better human being.”
Other baseball players to die in plane crashes included Pittsburgh Pirates star Roberto Clemente in a relief mission from Puerto Rico traveling to earthquake victims in Nicaragua on New Year’s Eve in 1972; New York Yankees catcher Thurman Munson piloting his own plane near his home in Canton, Ohio, in 1979; and Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle piloting his own plane in New York City in 2006.
Halladay was nominated several times for the Roberto Clemente Award, given by Major League Baseball to players for sportsmanship and community involvement. The Halladay Family Foundation has aided children’s charities, hunger relief and animal rescue.
A 6-foot-6 right-hander, Halladay won the AL Cy Young in 2003 after going 22-7 and the NL Cy Young in 2010 after going 21-10.
He pitched a perfect game for the Phillies at the Marlins on May 29, 2010. That Oct. 6, against Cincinnati in the NL Division Series, he became only the second pitcher to throw a postseason no-hitter, joining Don Larsen, who accomplished the feat for the Yankees in the 1956 World Series.
In 2011, Halladay was part of the “Four Aces” rotation in Philadelphia with Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels and Roy Oswalt.
“To the world, Roy was one of the best pitchers in baseball, but to me, he was an inspiration, a great mentor, teammate, and most important, a friend,” said Hamels, now with the Texas Rangers. “His preparation and work ethic will forever be ingrained in me. Roy was a man of few words, but he lit up when his boys were around. His family and this game were everything to him, and there will never be a day in my own life that I won’t miss him.”