Former Toronto Blue Jays star pitcher dies in plane crash.
Blue Jays star was an amateur pilot
Four men’s teams sport 2-0 records at the Home Hardware Road to the Roar Olympic PreTrials curling event.
There are 14 men’s teams and 14 women’s teams competing at Summerside’s Eastlink Arena, hoping to nail down the final two spots in the respective Tim Hortons Roar of the Rings Olympic trials next month in Ottawa.
Edmonton’s Charley Thomas, Toronto’s Glenn Howard, John Morris of Vernon, B.C., and Jean-Michel Menard from Saint-Romauld, Que., are 2-0.
Menard, Quebec’s perennial Brier representative, appeared well in control, leading 5-1 at the fifth end break, but Greg Balsdon of Kingston, Ont., fought back in the second half, closing to within two after nine. Menard, however, got his deuce with hammer en route to a 9-5 win.
The ‘local interest’ game had Halifax’s Jamie Murphy scoring a come-from-behind 9-5 win over a Regina rink skipped by Seven Mile Bay native Adam Casey.
It was Casey’s first game of the competition. Murphy is 1-1.
The turning point, Murphy suggested, was his deuce in eight.
“That’s kind of a control end,” he noted.
It gave Murphy a 6-5 lead, and he added to it by stealing a single in the ninth.
The final end had Casey putting up guards and Murphy removing them, leaving two Murphy stones unprotected on the top of the four-foot.
Casey was left with a narrow strip of exposed granite with his hammer, hoping to remove Murphy’s counters while leaving his two stones right in front of them.
“He almost made it. It was a good try,” acknowledged Murphy, who stole two in the end. “It looked good all the way. It was a very tough shot.”
Thomas rose to the top of the standings in dramatic fashion. He scored three against Dayna Deruelle of Brampton, Ont., in the ninth to tie the score at 7-7, and got the win when Deruelle was called for a hog line violation on his hammer shot in the 10th.
Howard went up 5-2 with a steal of one in the eighth, but Colton Flasch of Nutana, Sask., made it close with a deuce in the ninth. Howard got a single with the hammer in the 10th for a 6-4 win.
Morris took a 3-1 lead with a triple against Sarnia’s Mark Bice in the second end, and then stole his way to a 6-1 lead after six. Morris ultimately won 7-2 in eight ends.
Menard described the fast ice at Eastlink Arena as fair, just what skips want.
“We’re confident, not overconfident. Relaxed,” Menard said. “We’re just happy to be here.
“We’re hoping to give our opponents a good game, which we have done so far.”
While making it to the Tim Hortons Roar of the Rings in Ottawa next month is his team’s goal, Menard said they are realistic about their chances after that.
“If we go through from here it will be amazing, but then in Ottawa it would be really, really tough,” he added.
Murphy, skip of the only Atlantic Canada men’s team at the Road to the Roar, had similar sentiments.
“The game is going to an extremely elite level and I think it’s just different choices for teams on this side of the country,” he said.
“Teams are just choosing to not make the commitment that the really top teams are, and all the credit to the top teams.
“They play a lot, they work hard at it, and they’re very good as a result of it.”
Murphy said his team is really happy to be in Summerside.
“It’s a really balanced field, in our opinion. Every game is extremely winnable. I think towards the end of the week the standings are going to be pretty congested.”
Former star pitcher Roy Halladay, a Cy Young Award winner and face of the Blue Jays franchise for most of the 2000s, died Tuesday when his private plane crashed in the Gulf of Mexico. He was 40.
“He was the bright light,” said former Blue Jays general manager Gord Ash. “He was the guy that everybody pointed to as being the star of the Blue Jays and rightly so.”
Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco said during a news conference that Halladay’s Icon A5 went down around noon off the coast of Florida. The sheriff’s office marine unit responded and found 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.
“Many of you know Roy as a Cy Young winner, future Hall of Famer, one of the best pitchers ever to pitch the game of baseball,” said Nocco, who personally knew Halladay. “We know Roy as a person, as a caring husband who loved his wife, Brandy. He loved his two boys tremendously ... and we are so sad for your loss.”
Halladay, who retired after the 2013 season, was an amateur pilot who often posted on social media about small planes.
“I have dreamed about owning a A5 since I retired! Real life is better then my dreams!!” Halladay tweeted on Oct. 13.
Halladay won his first Cy Young Award with the Blue Jays in 2003 and took the National League honour in 2010 with the Philadelphia Phillies, the season he threw the 20th perfect game in MLB history.
“The Toronto Blue Jays organization is overcome by grief with the tragic loss of one of the franchise’s greatest and most respected players, but even better human being,” the Blue Jays said in a statement. “It is impossible to express what he has meant to this franchise, the city and its fans.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends.”
Halladay was an old-style workhorse who pitched 67 complete games and 20 shutouts. He was a three-time 20-game winner.
Halladay, a native of Denver, Colo., was selected by the Blue Jays in the first round (No. 17 overall) of the 1995 MLB Amateur Draft.
The six-foot-six, 225-pound right-hander made his bigleague debut with Toronto in 1998 and he became a regular the following season. In his
AL Cy Young season, Halladay went 22-7 with a 3.25 ERA and nine complete games over 266 innings.
Halladay was dealt to Philadelphia in December 2009 and took the NL Cy Young the next year after going 21-10 with a 2.44 ERA and nine complete games. He spent four seasons in Philadelphia before retiring.
Halladay retired in 2013, saying he wanted to avoid back surgery.
“As a baseball player, you realize that’s something you can’t do the rest of your life,” Halladay said. “I really don’t have any regrets. You realize there’s other things for you to accomplish in life.”