Little Halladay never met her namesake. She never saw him pitch. In fact, she has never been to a Major League Baseball (MLB) game.
But thanks to the power of social media, Roy Halladay knew who she was.
In April, Michael Paterson’s wife Melissa tweeted a photo of their daughter ahead of her first birthday.
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“Our daughter Halladay (named after Roy) turns 1 in June. We would LOVE for her to get a bday card from @RoyHalladay…Pls RT?”
There were hundreds of likes and dozens of retweets. Then finally on July 1, the Ottawa family received a reply from their baseball hero.
It read: “Happy Belated 1st Birthday Baby Halladay!!! So glad your parents didn’t name you Harry like mine did!!! BTW Happy Canada Day!!!”
“Doc,” as he had come to be known by baseball fans, was born Harry Leroy Halladay III in Denver, Colorado. He was the son of a homemaker mom and pilot father.
The seemingly simple gesture of an online reply meant more to the young family than words could describe.
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“He’s the kind of player you want on the team you root for,” Michael Paterson recollected.
He and his wife often took the Greyhound bus to Rogers Centre to take in games. Their love for the sport has been immense, even before they began dating.
“It’s up to stars like Roy Halladay, who come along only once in a generation who can actually bring you back to the game, if you kind of leave it for a bit.”
It was Melissa who decided their little girl should be named after the two-time Cy Young Award winning pitcher.
“You don’t expect it,” Michael Paterson said of the gesture made by Halladay on Twitter. “Considering how busy he is and for him to actually take time out of his busy life, and he was a very private person too.”