Roy Halladay, Hall of Famer. It has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?
The Baseball Writers’ Association of America has elected Halladay, Mariano Rivera, Mike Mussina and Edgar Martinez to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Rivera, the legendary closer and five-time World Series champion with the Yankees, is baseball’s all-time saves leader. He is also the first player to be unanimously elected to Cooperstown. Martinez was arguably the most feared designated hitter during his career with the Seattle Mariners, and Mussina was a dominating big-game pitcher who won 270 games with the Baltimore Orioles and Yankees.
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Harry Leroy Halladay III, who baseball fans came to know as Doc, played 12 of his 16 seasons in the major leagues with the Toronto Blue Jays, where he won the Cy Young Award as the American League’s top pitcher in 2003. He also won the Cy Young in the National League with the Phillies in 2010, his first of four seasons in Philadelphia.
Halladay, Rivera, Mussina and Martinez will be inducted in July, along with Harold Baines and Lee Smith, who were elected by the Today’s Game committee in December.
However, it is a bittersweet day for the Halladay family, the Blue Jays and their fans. Halladay is the first player to be elected to Cooperstown posthumously since Pittsburgh Pirates star outfielder Roberto Clemente in 1973.
Halladay died on Nov. 7, 2017 when the small sport plane he was piloting crashed into the Gulf of Mexico. He was 40.
It would have been amazing to see Halladay’s reaction to receiving the customary phone call to inform him that he had been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Sadly, we can’t and it stings.
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For a man who worked so hard on and off the field to be the best baseball player he could be and not get to experience the highest honour in his sport is an absolute shame.
But Halladay, who is only the second Blue Jay ever to gain entry into Cooperstown (Roberto Alomar, 2011), will never be forgotten. His legacy as one of the best players of his generation is now cemented for all of eternity.
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