Kepner: Mourning Roy Halladay, a master who craved the biggest moments
From SABR member Tyler Kepner at the New York Times on November 7, 2017:
Roy Halladay never threw a pitch in the World Series. He expected this to bother him, someday. For most of his dozen years with the Toronto Blue Jays, Halladay was probably the best pitcher in baseball, and only a trade to the Philadelphia Phillies could bring him to the postseason. He made it twice, in 2010 and 2011, without winning a pennant.
“I remember in Toronto just sitting watching the playoffs, wondering how I would do — if it would change me, if I would be a different kind of pitcher, if I would have success,” Halladay said in March, at a picnic table beside the Phillies’ spring training practice fields in Clearwater, Fla.
“I just always wondered what it would feel like to be in those situations — and the whole time I was thinking what it would feel like to win a championship. And then, after being in it twice, I realized I was just wondering, How would I stand up? Would it be everything that I thought it was? And it was.
“So, for me, just having the opportunity meant every bit as much as winning it or not winning it. The rest, as they say, it’s in the cards. But as far as what you can control, just having those opportunities was all I ever wanted.”
Read the full article here: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/07/sports/baseball/halladay-death-plane-crash.html?_r=0
- Related link: Read the SABR biography of Roy Halladay
Originally published: November 7, 2017. Last Updated: November 7, 2017.