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Doc in the Hall

A lot to digest in what's been a busy week, both in terms of my day job and my fanhood.

Since I haven't blogged all that much the past few days, I might put up multiple posts today/tonight on some issues surrounding Toronto sports. There's the Leafs' gratifying win over the champs, with Matthews and Marner playing on the same line. Then the Raptors' "load management" for Kawhi, who has missed four straight games.

But here, I'll cover the most emotional bit of news for me this week: Roy Halladay's induction into Baseball Hall of Fame, just over a year after he was killed in a plane crash.



Memories

I can't say I was surprised with Halladay's induction, but I didn't expect him to get in on the first ballot with such a high percentage (85.4 percent) of the vote.

My bias as a long-time Blue Jays fan aside, there can be no doubt Halladay had a H of F career. You can look up his numbers and read about his brilliance elsewhere. Here, let me just share a bit of my personal memory.

This is the story I've told a lot of baseball fans around me. I was in the stands for Roy's almost-no-hitter in September 1998, the very last game of that season, when he lost his no-no bid with two outs in the 9th inning.

My best friend in T.O., Nghiem, and I had great seats for that game against the Tigers, just a few rows up behind the home plate. Halladay was making just his second big league start.

And the big righty was putting up some zeroes on the board. I'd never watched a no-hitter in person (and still haven't), and by about the 6th inning, you could feel the tension in the air. I kinda of believe in superstitions and I didn't want to jinx it for Roy, but I remember telling my buddy around 7th inning that Halladay was working on a no-hitter and getting all excited about it.

And the crowd started getting into it late in the game. I think I was on my feet for the entire 9th inning. Then with two outs, my heart started pounding. Holy cow, I was about to witness my first no-hitter!

Then pinch hitter Bobby Higginson came on and swung on the first pitch and drove it over the left field wall for a solo home run. I still have extremely vivid memories of that shot: the moment he made contact, how it seemed to take forever for the ball to come down, how Shannon Stewart in left field was running toward the wall and turning away at the tracks, knowing the ball was gone, the feeling of so much air going out of the entire park when the ball cleared the fence, and the collective groan quickly turning into wild cheers.

My legs gave out. I could have fainted. It was such a huge emotional swing for me and I am sure for a lot of others in the park that day.

Here's the short highlight package from that game.



Naturally, some great things were expected of Halladay after that. But just two seasons later, in 2000, he had one of the worst pitching seasons in baseball history. Had a 10.64 ERA in 67 2/3 innings (It boggles the mind to think someone so bad was still allowed to throw that many innings). And he was famously demoted all the way down to Single-A, where he re-invented himself and evolved into a Cy Young winner and eventually a Hall of Famer.

I reckon I attended more than 100 Jays games during my time in Toronto. And this one has really stayed with me for obvious reasons.

And when I found out about Roy's induction, well... I can't really describe the feelings I had. I was taken back to that aforementioned game. I was happy that one of our own made it into the Hall. Robbie Alomar got in wearing a Jays' hat, but Roy is the first one drafted and developed by the Blue Jays to enter the Hall (more on that later). Of course, it saddened me to no end that Roy wasn't going to be there for the induction ceremony. It absolutely broke my heart.

To people who aren't Jays fans, or fans who didn't get to watch Halladay pitch in a Jays uniform, it's really difficult to explain these emotions. I could try for hours to explain just what he means to this franchise and still not be very successful at it.

And this leads me to...

Roy's Plaque

Roy's family decided his plaque will not bear a Blue Jays or a Phillies logo. Instead, he will have a neutral cap. It's out of respect to both franchises, according to the family.

I am going to be 100 percent honest here. I was very disappointed with that decision. I fully expected Halladay to be wearing a Blue Jays cap when/if he got into the Hall. For completely selfish reasons as a Blue Jays fan, I wanted that man to represent my team in Cooperstown.

Alomar played for 7 different teams but he went in with the Jays cap because he won 2 rings with us and he developed into the Hall-worthy superstar during his five seasons in Toronto. But again, he wasn't ours at the start.

We Jays fans watched Halladay go from a hot-shot prospect to a lost soul and finally to an All-Star and a Cy Young winner. The team so wasted his best years that when he asked to be traded to a contender, the only surprise was he didn't made the request sooner. Our Jays teams during Roy's prime were so bad the offense probably cost him dozens of wins.

(Some amazing Roy stats I came across: he had 88 career non-win quality starts, and he was 0-38 with a 2.59 ERA in those games. Of his 105 career losses, Roy went at least 7 innings in 40, and had 15 complete game losses in his career.)

Of all the Jays stars that I grew up watching, there are only two players whose careers I followed closely after they left Toronto: Halladay and Carlos Delgado.

I fully understand and respect the decision by the Halladay family. And I can also see how the Phillies fans would like to claim him as one of their own. Though he only pitched 4 seasons there (and only made 13 starts in his final season), Halladay rose to (U.S.) national prominence as a Phillie and made his mark in postseason in the City of Brotherly Love.  And after retiring, Roy worked with young Phillies pitchers in spring training to maintain his connection with the franchise.

And yet, considering how often Roy had said he always considered himself a Blue Jay, it begs the question. If he were still with us, would he have made the same choice?

This decision by the family induced some angry, visceral reaction from the Blue Jays fan base. Some accused the family of betraying the city of Toronto and the Blue Jays franchise. They said it was a slap in the face of the organization. How could they do this, after all that the team has done for him and the famly, they said.

I am sure the family made this decision precisely to avoid upsetting or disrespecting anyone. But you can't make everyone happy, I guess. And I am sure some Phillies fans would have been upset if Roy decided to join the Hall as a Jay. Again, I understand why the family took this route. The defense, for a lack of a better word, for the family and, specfically his wife Brandy, is that she knew Roy Halladay better than any one of us could ever hope to know him. So who are we to say she made the wrong call there?

But that doesn't lessen my disappointment. My respect for the decision doesn't necessarily mean I have to agree with it.

I could go on and on, but I'll end the post with this exchange Roy had with Sportsnet's Stephen Brunt in 2014.


Q: When did that (decision to retire as a Blue Jay) first enter your head?

A: "I think... as soon as I got traded to Philadelphia. Honestly, I felt like I was a Blue Jay. For a while, I felt like a Blue Jay wearing a Phillies uniform. At the end there, I felt like I was actually a part of the Phillies, but that took a long time. So I knew, as soon as I got traded, I was a Blue Jay, and would always be. This is where everything happened for me. This is where I struggled, this is where I grew, this is where I turned into the person that I am, the player that I am, everything."
 

Q. I guess I don't have to ask you the Hall of Fame question then?

A: "No. The question is getting in or not. That's the question. Not anything else."



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