Absolutely heartbreaking news: two-time Cy Young Award winner, future Hall of Famer, and overall beloved guy, Roy Halladay died today at just 40 years old in a plane crash off the Gulf of Mexico. He leaves behind his wife of 19 years, Brandy, and their two sons Ryan and Braden. It's a cliche often used in sports but is true, we forget these guys are real people with families and their own lives. Can't imagine how they're feeling right now. Halladay was quite the family man and seeing stuff like this is absolutely heartbreaking. 40 is so young. So much life left.
I was at work when the news broke and immediately was shook, never saw this coming, an absolute tragedy. I can honestly say I'm bummed tf out about this. Just utter disbelief. After a few hours I'm still finding it hard to believe, this just comes as a total shock. Felt like I had to get a blog out to pay my respect to one of the greatest pitchers of my lifetime. Probably the most dominate pitcher of the 2000's. Despite spending much of his career as a rival of my beloved Red Sox Roy "Doc" Halladay was one of the those guys that you couldn't dislike, didn't hurt that the Sox kind of had his number. But he was just too good to let the uniform make you not like him. He absolutely dominated. He was well liked and spoken of as a true professional, while at the same time a light-hearted, funny guy.
Doc was beloved in the game no matter who you rooted for. The baseball community is aching today.
He was the face of the Toronto Blue Jays, and for the majority of his career, their best player. Holladay routinely finished in the top 5 of Cy Young voting, winning the award in 2003 despite never appearing in the postseason while in Toronto.
That all that changed in 2010. After 12 seasons in America's Hat, Halladay was pitching in the city of brotherly love with the then defending National League champion Phillies. 2010 was Halladay's signature season. On May 29th, 2010 Roy Halladay thew a perfect game against the Florida Marlins, striking out 11 in a 1-0 victory. Halladay would win his 2nd Cy Young award in 2010 posting a 21-10 record with a 2.44 ERA, striking out 220 batters over a league leading 250.2 innings. The signature game of that signature season came in Game 1 of National League Division Series against the Cincinnati Reds. After waiting until his 13th season to pitch in the playoffs Halladay did something that hadn't been done 1956: pitch a postseason no-hitter. I can still remember that night, it was a Wednesday night during my freshmen year of college, I had test that night, missed most of the game because of it. I was so pissed I had a test because I really wanted to watch that game. I loved those Phillies teams', I was (and still am) a huge Chase Utley guy. I wanted to see watch Roy Halladay would do in his first postseason start. Just threw a fucking no-no. NBD. After that I really thought the Phillies would win it all. After starting the playoffs with a no hitter didn't seem that outrageous to think. However the Phils would lose in 6 in the NLCS to the eventual World Series Champion San Francisco Giants. The Phils were the best team in the National League for a four year span (2008-2011), and ironically it was the their 08 team, the team with the worst regular season record of that run that won it all. The next year the Phillies came back reloaded, re-acquiring Cliff Lee to add to a rotation that included Cole Hamels, Roy Halladay and Roy Oswalt. They were called R2C2 and finished 2011 with the majors best record of 102-60. The Phillies were upset in the NLDS by the wild-card St. Louis Cardinals in 5 games. In the 5th and decisive game of the series Halladay went up against former teammate and friend, Chris Carpenter and was on the wrong side of a 1-0 game. After battling injuries in 2012 and 2013, Doc called it a career. In 16 season Roy Halladay went 203-105 with a 3.38 ERA, 2117 strikeouts (69th all time, nice), and won a Cy Young award in both leagues, something only four pitchers had done before him (Gaylord Perry, Pedro Martinez, Roger Clemens, and Randy Johnson) and one since (Max Scherzer). It's an absolute tragedy that Roy Halladay has passed away at just 40 years old, he died doing what he loved in his retired life, flying. Doc seemed to be enjoying life after baseball, both in the air and coaching his son's baseball teams. His final tweet showed how much he still loved the game, and how much it meant to people.
R.I.P. Roy "Doc" Halladay. May 14, 1977- November 7, 2017. 
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