I’m a baseball fan.
I’m sure that this comes as a shock to no one reading this. I love the game. I can spend (and love to spend) hours talking
on the subject. I am a baseball fan
first and a Blue Jays fan second. The
Blue Jays are my favourite team and they always have been. I like other teams as well but the Jays have
always been number 1 in my heart. That’s
always been a constant. My favourite
player though I will admit has changed a few times over the years.
My love affair with baseball started fairly early for
me. From the time my parents first took
me to the then Sky Dome in Toronto as a wide-eyed 9 year old I’ve loved the
game. The Blue Jays lost that day to the
Seattle Mariners. However what I took
away from the experience (and my only real memory of the game) was Fred McGriff
hitting a home run. From that day forth
I decided that Fred McGriff was my favourite player. Apparently all it takes to win over a 9 year
old is a home run. I still have a soft
spot for McGriff and I am quite disappointed that he is not in the hall of fame
(but that, my friends, is a rant for another day). I was a pretty devastated when he was traded
that offseason. I had never heard of Joe
Carter or Roberto Alomar and wanted no part of either one of them. McGriff was gone. That was all that mattered to me. Pat Gillick was my new arch nemesis.
Then this Alomar guy came in and won my young heart. The plays, the uncanny ability to make an
off-balance throw, the range… He was unbelievable. A complete five-tool player. He could hit, he could run, he could throw,
he could field like no one else and occasionally he could hit for power. Especially when it mattered (ahem Dennis
Eckersley). Alomar became my favourite
player and remained so throughout his playing career.
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| Roy Halladay vs Baltimore Orioles. April 24, 2005 |
Then came a player like no one I had ever seen. Now I mention that I am a baseball fan, but I
haven’t always been an engaged one. Oh
I’ve always loved the game, I have since that day at the ball park back in 1990. However after the strike in 1994, I like many
other Canadians lost interest for a while.
It was early in 2005 when Rogers offered my wife and I a discounted rate
on a Blue Jays ticket flex pack. Stef
asked me if I was interested in going at all and I said “sure, I love baseball
I just haven’t watched it since the strike.
It would be fun to go to a few games though.” We were young and didn’t have any kids back
then (or any money) so we thought it would be a fun thing to do that wouldn’t
cost a lot. This was when everything
changed for me and my love for the game was re-ignited. Sunday April 24, 2005
was officially my first game back. The
first game of our shiny new six game flex pack we had just purchased. Roy Halladay and the Blue Jays against Sidney
Ponson and the Baltimore Orioles. I had
heard about this Halladay guy and how great he was, so I was excited. Although I soon wondered what all of the fuss
was about. Halladay gave up six runs
over six innings including home runs to Melvin Mora and Sammy Sosa. Sosa ended up going deep twice that game in
an effort to silence the Toronto faithful who had come armed with anti-Sosa,
anti-steroid and corked bat signs seen all around the ball park. It was not Halladay’s best outing. Lucky for me it was the first of many Halladay
starts we would attend and I am pretty sure the only one I ever witnessed live
where he would give up more than three earned runs.
Halladay very quickly became not only my favourite pitcher,
but my favourite player as well. He was
one of the best pitchers I’ve ever seen.
His work ethic, his character and his dedication to be one of the best is
nothing short of admirable. I admired
him. If you know me at all you don’t
have to look far to see this. There is
an autographed photo of him hanging in my office. An autographed jersey and baseball on display
in my home. Numerous photos, cards,
bobbleheads, collectibles etc. Even my
car has a Toronto Blue Jays license plate with Halladay’s number 32 proudly
displayed on it. I loved watching him
pitch. Hell, I loved watching him warm
up.
On November 7 I received a text shortly
after 3:30 in the afternoon from a friend. Did you hear? A plane
registered to Roy Halladay has crashed in the Gulf. I started searching
for details online and while searching my phone continued to go off with text
messages, BBM's and Facebook Messenger messages from family, friends and
acquaintances asking if I'd heard the news. Did they know how many
people? Had I heard if it was him yet? Do they know what happened
yet? It was heart wrenching. I immediately thought of his young
family and hoped it wasn't him. Later that afternoon during the press
conference we all learned the worst.
Now I’m a little late to the party here. Roy Halladay passed away over two weeks ago
and his memorial service was last week.
The truth is it took me a while to process my thoughts and how I felt
about this. By now we have all heard
what happened, so I don’t want to revisit that. I don’t want to bore you by rhyming off stats,
awards and achievements that he earned because we have all heard them before
and we already know how great he was. Any
Google or YouTube search can quickly provide you with any highlights or
statistical information you could ever want on Roy Halladay.
If you haven’t watched his memorial service I highly
recommend that you do. If you have then
you have heard from many different accounts, not only what kind of player he
was, but also what kind of man he was off of the field. I didn’t know him personally, so I don’t
think it is fair that I talk about that either.
What I do want to tell you about is what Roy Halladay meant to me as a
fan, how he impacted me and what I will always remember him for.
I remember his curve ball.
My word, what a curve ball. If
you have never had the pleasure of watching Roy Halladay pitch please do
yourself a favour and Google Roy Halladay highlights. Even if you are not a baseball fan, you can
appreciate what he could do. I once told
a friend of mine that I could sit and watch Halladay throw curve balls all
day. There wouldn’t even have to be a
batter there. I would just simply watch
in awe as he sailed in that pitch at letter height and then have it drop like a
stone over the plate. The weekend after
Halladay passed away, a good friend of mine who lives in a different city came
to visit us at our home just to hang out and catch up. The conversation turned to Halladay passing
away and he mentioned that he had never seen Roy pitch. My nine year old son immediately said “Oh,
you gotta see this” so we quickly pulled up a Halladay highlight video on YouTube. “My goodness” my friend exclaimed “How did
anyone even hit that?” The simple
answer: When Halladay was on, you didn’t
hit it.
I remember being in attendance when A.J. Burnette returned to
Toronto after opting out of his contract with the Jays and signing with the
Yankees in the offseason. Halladay
schooled him. Throwing a complete game
allowing just five hits and leading the Jays to a 5-1 win. The
fans ate it up. It really was an
experience to be there.
I remember his competitiveness. One time Stefanie and I got to really see
what Halladay could do. Whenever
Halladay pitched, he pitched efficiently and worked quickly. He always had. That’s one of the reasons why he was able to
throw as many complete games as he did. However
sometimes inducing lots of ground balls doesn’t mean getting outs. At this particular game Halladay was on the
wrong end of four close calls on the field in one inning and there had been
others before then in the previous innings.
After the fourth of these calls (which was obviously a blown call),
Halladay was visibly frustrated. This,
of course, was long before video replay was a thing. So, rather than continuing to get hosed by
the umpires, Halladay simply decided to get the batters himself. He struck guys out. Repeatedly.
He struck out the next three batters that inning. Struck out two the following inning. Two more the inning after that and then
struck out the side the next inning.
Even though he lost that start, it was amazing to watch. He was a machine. He really showed that if he wanted to go out
there and dominate by beating hitters that he could. He chose to put balls in play to get outs.
He was tough. I was
there when Kevin Mench hit a line drive back to the mound that broke Roy’s
shin. Halladay picked up the ball and
made a perfect throw from his ass to first base to get the out. Another time Nyjer Morgan hit a ball off of
Halladay’s head and it was later learned that the first thing Halladay said to
Rod Barajas when he got to him was “Did we get the out?” For the record, they did get the out.
I will never forget the autographs that we were able to
obtain from him. He signed autographs
like he played the game. Like he was in
a zone. The first time we had the
pleasure was at a game in Cleveland in 2007.
Stef and I had taken a sign with us that read “Roy Halladay may I please
have your autograph”. When we reached
the park we went down to field level and soon spotted Halladay shagging fly
balls during batting practice. When he
finally looked our way we held the sign high and it was evident that he turned
and read it. Didn’t acknowledge it, but
had clearly looked in our direction and stopped on the sign. Then immediately snapped back to looking
forward and paying attention to the hitters again. I was afraid we had picked the wrong time and
didn’t expect him to come over. He
did. On his way off of the field he came
to where we were standing and we each got our photo ready. He reached us and we greeted him but didn’t
get a response. He saw that we each had
a photo, and he very carefully took the photo from Stef and signed it. Then signed a few other items for other fans
and was gone as quickly as he had arrived.
Many of us greeted him and asked how he was etc. However the only words the man spoke were
“you’re welcome” after each thank you he received. The second time was an organized signing, but
wasn’t much different from the first.
Again, Halladay was in “the zone”.
This was at a game honouring some Blue Jays pitching alumni during the
2016 season. Pat Hentgen, Duane Ward,
Mike Timlin, Juan Guzman, Dave Steib, Tom Henke and Roy Halladay were each
there. Halladay was at a table by
himself down at the end. I approached
him and greeted him with a “Hi Roy, good to see you”. No response.
I handed him my jersey and he very carefully took it from me. “How are you doing today?” I asked.
No response. Instead, he was
staring very intensely at the jersey.
With great care, he took his sharpie and slowly and carefully signed his
name below the letters and above the number.
It is a great autograph. He
inspected his work, and only when he decided he was satisfied with it, handed
the jersey back to me. “Thank you so
much Roy, have a great day” I said.
“You’re welcome” was the first and only response I received from
him. When Halladay had a job to do, any
job it seems, he was going to do the best job he could do.
I will never forget Roy Halladay for his love of
Toronto. For signing here and avoiding
free agency more than once when he could have gotten more on the open
market. Then when he finally did leave,
he signed a deal with Philadelphia for much less than some of his counter parts
did that same off-season. All because it
was where he wanted to play and have a shot to pitch in the post season. It was another testament to his character. He wasn’t in the game to make as much money
as he possibly could.
I remember the first time I saw him in person in a Phillies jersey. Four of us went to Pittsburgh to watch the
Phillies and Pirates play two games. A
good friend and I wore our Halladay Jays jerseys with Phillies caps to both
games. We took a pretty good verbal
beating from the Pittsburgh fans. They
didn’t understand that we were Halladay fans, only that we were two idiots
wearing Jays jerseys to a Pirates/Phillies game. It was worth it though, an experience I won’t
forget.
I have so many memories.
I remember being in Toronto and watching Halladay and Buehrle go toe to
toe in a game that lasted only an hour and fifty some minutes. It was a gem.
I remember watching Halladay and Scott Kazmir also throw a game that was
also under two hours. Between the two of
them they only gave up 3 hits if I remember correctly. I remember his first perfect game on May 29,
2010. I was watching on television when
he threw his no hitter in the playoffs against the Reds that same season. I will never forget game five between the
Phillies and Cardinals. Halladay and his
good friend Chris Carpenter pitched one of the best games I have ever had the
pleasure of watching. Two aces in their
prime going head to head. I loved every
second of it.
So really what I am saying is: Thank you Roy. Thank you for everything you did for the city
of Toronto. Thank you for all of the
charity work that you did while you were here, and throughout your life. Thank you for everything you did for the
fans. Thank you for all of the wonderful
memories. Thank you.
I have a feeling that if Halladay were here and I could
thank him in person exactly what his response would be. The only words he ever spoke to me. A very plain and simple:
“You’re Welcome”
