Roy Halladay Dead (split from Baseball Passings 2017)

[Valadius]

Unconfirmed reports that Roy Halladay's plane went down in the Gulf of Mexico. 1 dead but as yet unidentified.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Geez that's awful. Halladay was terrific.

[Valadius]

Pasco County Sheriff confirms that Roy Halladay has indeed passed away.

[Edgy MD]

Wow. That's a shame.

Halladay's story is really impressive. The guy got sent down from the majors all the way to A-Ball. He and his wife took some books out of the public library, worked together on his mindset and his mechanics, and they remade his career together. His mindset was such that on game day, he isolated himself completely, refusing to talk to or acknowledge anybody except his manager and pitching coach, and after a while, they tended to realize it was best to leave him be and not disrupt his zone at all.

[Centerfield]

Those small planes seem so dangerous. For pitchers especially.

Awful news.

[G-Fafif]

Impossible to despise as a Phillie when the Phillies were still the Phillies we despised at MFY levels, and that's the highest praise that can be directed toward a Phillie.

[Valadius]

Halladay was a throwback to an earlier era of pitchers going deep into games. Hall of Famer in my book.

[Guest Mets Willets Point]

Damn. Joins Thurman Munson and Corey Lidle among those who died crashing their own planes. I’m guessing there are ball players out there who take up flying and never have a problem, but it sure does seem like they have shitty luck.

[Guest cooby]

Sheesh. I heard this on the radio on the way home, and remembered the name, but cripes he wasn't very old so I couldn't place him. Knew he was a Phillie Sad

[Edgy MD]

I have no data, but I get the idea that, as famously safe as commercial aviation is, private aviation is another ballgame.

[Chad ochoseis]

The consensus on the internets is that general aviation is significantly more dangerous than driving on a per-mile basis. It's tough to measure because aviation fatalities are counted per hour and automobile fatalities are counted per mile.

It's unquestionably much more dangerous than commercial aviation.

This got me wondering if the Clemente Rule for HoF ballots still existed. Either way, I think Halladay is eligible for the 2018 ballot.

And, needless to say, this sucks.

[Guest d'Kong76]

I'm sure it's exhilarating as all hell to pilot a small plane but, no thanks.
RIP, sad story...

[MFS62]

Mets Willets Point wrote: Damn. Joins Thurman Munson and Corey Lidle among those who died crashing their own planes. I’m guessing there are ball players out there who take up flying and never have a problem, but it sure does seem like they have shitty luck.

If the old adage "things happen in threes" is true, ballplayer-pilots should be safe for a while.
RIP, Doc.

Later

[Fman99]

Saw him pitch here in the 'Cuse, many years ago.

Learning to fly one's own plane seems like the prototypical way for rich people to piss their money away. Not just athletes, other celebrities too (John Denver, JFK Jr., etc.). Leave it to the pros, I say.

[Edgy MD]

Chad Ochoseis wrote: This got me wondering if the Clemente Rule for HoF ballots still existed. Either way, I think Halladay is eligible for the 2018 ballot.

It still exists, I think, though I tend to think players are better served by the perspective time offers. Darryl Kile went right to the ballot. Ken Caminiti, however, who died in between his retirement and the end of the five-year window, but his case waited until the five years were up.

I don't think José Lima even made the ballot, somehow.

[G-Fafif]

Halladay comes up next year, January 2019 announcement.

[seawolf17]

G-Fafif wrote: Halladay comes up next year, January 2019 announcement.

It wouldn't surprise me if they waived it and let him come up a year early, but at the same time, he's only a year away.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I can see waiving it for someone with a terminal illness (I think they did that for Lou Gehrig) but I'm not sure why you'd do it for someone who has already died.

[Gwreck]

There's also the issue that Halladay is not (like Gehrig or Clemente) a sure-thing, no doubt inductee

[Frayed Knot]

The only negative in Halladay's HoF credentials is his low-ish career stats: starts (390), IP (2,749), Wins (203)
Among regular ballot HoF'ers only Koufax falls short of those numbers [314 / 2,324 / 165] with Pedro kind of in the neighborhood [409 / 2,827 / 219] -- but of course those two are the poster boys
for dominant peak periods.

Halladay himself had a helluva prime and likely deserves to go in, but I don't see his induction as on the level of a Gehrig / Clemente / Gretzky type of no-brainer where you move up the timetable.



oe: crossed w/GWreck

[Edgy MD]

Well the official reason for the five-year rule was to be sure the player wouldn't be returning from retirement, so the official justification for the Clemente Rule was that this wasn't going to be an issue.

But the real reason was probably that baseball had a martyr and there was no time like the present to canonize him. Populists demand this in the church too. When a larger-than-life figure like John Paul II or Teresa of Calcutta dies, a statim Caelitum decerneret! (sainthood immediately!) movement often crops up, when the church prefers to discern these things over decades.

I think some time for discernment would have served Munson better. Clemente too and Halladay too. Baseball is better served, really.

[metirish]

Very sad, tough as nails

[Edgy MD]

Eight All-Star selections, two Cy Young Awards, a perfect game, and a postseason no-hitter. He put up a 2.37 ERA over 38 post-season innings. He inspired the Yankees to declare night games to be pre-emptively rained out at 2:00 in the afternoon based on a forecast calling for 100% chance of Halladay. When the Phils overtook the Mets in 2008, he bulldogged his way down the stretch going 8-3 in August and September. There were no no-decisions.

You know, no matter when folks decide to vote, this guy is a Hall-of-Famer.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I agree that he's a Hall of Famer, but he was still with the Blue Jays in 2008. His first year with the Phillies was 2010.

[Edgy MD]

HAH! I was looking at his 2008, and not even paying attention to his team!

I suck!

[Centerfield]

Reports say he was doing some low altitude maneuvering. I hope the guy wasn't being reckless.

[seawolf17]

Thing is, he was *that good* that he could have won games for both teams at once and we wouldn't have noticed.

FWIW - as Mets, vs Halladay as a Phillie:
Reyes: 8-25, 3K
Wright: 4-24, 12K
Davis: 6-25, 7K
Beltran: 3-15, but one HR

[TransMonk]

Autopsy: Roy Halladay died from blunt force trauma, had morphine in system during plane crash

USA Today wrote: The body of two-time Cy Young winner Roy Halladay showed evidence of morphine, an amphetamine and the sleeping medication Ambien when it was examined after his fatal plane crash off the coast of Florida in November, according to the autopsy report obtained by USA TODAY Sports on Friday. The report by the Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner’s Office also showed that Halladay's blood alcohol content was .01. The antidepressant fluoxetine (Prozac) was also detected.

[Frayed Knot]

And this news comes on the same day that Tom Petty's autopsy reveals he died from an overdose of a variety of prescribed medications.

[TransMonk]

Sickening and sad. RIP to them both.