Today in Blue Jays History: Roy Halladay

It is hard to believe that is is two years since Roy Halladay died in that plane crash. Few deaths have effected me as much. A friend of mine, talking about another friend who died a few years ago, said ‘time flies when you are dead’. It really does.

Side note, I had a teacher that hated terms like ‘passing on’. She said ‘if you are talking about someone’s death say ‘they died’. I try to follow that, but it is hard when it is someone who meant something to you.

If you look back at the he post on his death, we were mourning a friend.

I think part of what made us so sad was that it seemed like Halladay was enjoying his retirement. He didn’t always seem to be enjoying his playing career, but he seemed to be happy in his retirement. Baseball players go into retirement way too young. I always hope they find ways to be happy. Some do, some don’t.

Doc was having pain that we didn’t hear about at the time, so maybe he wasn’t enjoying his retirement as much as we thought. But he seemed to be having fun, coaching his kids, being more of a father and husband than he had been able to as a ballplayer and, of course, flying.

The next day I put up a Remembering Doc post. Looking back on it, it should have been longer. But then, looking back on any post I think ‘it should have been better’. I still like this tweet:

This summer Minor Leaguer and I and friends went to the Hall of Fame Inductions. When Brandi Halladay started talking we were all sniffling. I thought Brandi did a great job. Here is the speech.

Some links:

Erik wrote about him last year.

Here is Doc talking to Scott MacArthur about getting into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.

Sportsnet had a long read on Roy coaching his son’s team.

Dirk Hayhurst wrote about Doc when Doc retired.

A funny moment:

The last out of his perfect game: