The news hit us like a fastball that was high and inside. Disbelief. Sadness. An empty feeling.
Roy Halladay, who in my opinion is the greatest pitcher in Toronto Blue Jays history, died Tuesday afternoon at the age of 40 when his ICON A5 plane crashed into the Gulf of Mexico.
When the crash of Halladay’s two-seater plane was first reported, there was no confirmation that he was the one piloting the aircraft, but the reality soon hit us and hit us hard.
Doc is dead. It is still hard to believe.
Halladay is one of my all-time favourite Blue Jays players, and not just because he was a big game pitcher.
His story is an inspiration to anyone and his work ethic was legendary.
A first-round draft pick who nearly threw a no-hitter against the Detroit Tigers in his second big league start in 1998 was sent all the way down to Single-A Dunedin in 2001 to rework his delivery with the help of pitching coach Mel Queen.
Halladay came back to Toronto and dominated, winning 20-plus games twice with the Blue Jays and once more after being traded to the Philadelphia Phillies in 2010.
He won the Cy Young Award as baseball’s best pitcher twice, in 2003 with Toronto and 2010 with the Phillies, at the time becoming only the fifth player in history to win the award in both the American and National Leagues.
When Doc got the ball every fifth day you knew the Jays had an edge over the other team and a victory was almost assuredly in the bag.
Roy Halladay was a winner, a pro’s pro, a great family man and he will always have a special place in the hearts of baseball fans in Toronto.