Roy Halladay was the first pitcher that ever caused me to make a funny sound whilst watching baseball. This strange noise escaped my mouth, like a whistle through my teeth, and it was a noise I had never made before and haven't made since.
It was June 2008 and I was enjoying a lazy Sunday afternoon at home. I was channel hopping to find something decent to watch and came across the Orioles on the road in Toronto. I was relatively new to the game still, having only taken a serious interest in baseball in late 2007.
I had never watched either team before and was only vaguely aware of the ace pitcher known as ‘Doc’ Halladay. I had read about him in a couple of books but I quickly found those pages would not do justice to the man, nor his ability on the mound.
Roy Halladay was the first pitcher who changed my perception on pitching. Before I saw Roy, I was basically a baseball neanderthal. I thought the game was all about the hitters, all about those home runs. Everything else was secondary.
The Indians in 2008 were not very good. It was weird, because they should have been. Their rotation was pretty bad but they still had Cliff Lee, who won the AL Cy Young that season, but I hadn't really discovered him yet either.
And so it was Roy who got to me first.
Straight away in the first inning I could tell that he was on a different level to most major league pitchers. Brian Roberts, the Orioles' second baseman, stepped into the box to kick things off and Halladay went to work immediately. Roberts quickly found himself over-matched and with the count at 1-2, Halladay cocked back and fired a strike past Roberts to catch him looking. One out, please take a seat Brian.
The game was only five pitches old and I was already captivated. This right-handed pitcher wearing number 32 was in complete control, a master of his craft. Even a rookie like me in 2008 could see that. At this stage of my baseball education I was well aware of fastballs and curveballs. But I had never seen a cutter like Halladay’s, never seen a ball thrown so violently with such precision. Watching Halladay helped me appreciate the finer art of pitching, and from that point onward I wanted to learn as much as I could about the subtleties and skills of pitchers.
The rest of the game was actually pretty standard, unremarkable even. Halladay picked up the win, despite giving up 2 home runs, and lasted 7.2 innings whilst striking out 7 Orioles. It doesn’t rank as one of his finest performances and probably doesn’t even register in most fan’s memories. It shared few similarities to his epic 2010 perfect game in Florida and was nothing close to his unbelievable post-season no-hitter against the Reds that same year. Do yourself a favour and YouTube those games.
But that Sunday afternoon performance against Baltimore definitely registered with me. In the back of my head I knew I had seen someone special, one of the greatest players of his generation. Halladay really stood out to me and I never forgot that moment. I won’t lie to you - I didn’t suddenly spend every day following Halladay’s performances. In fact I probably only watched a handful of his starts over the following years up until his retirement, so I was hardly his biggest fan. Toronto and Philadelphia fans will have much stronger feelings and memories than I do.
However with the news of his passing, this memory came back to me and I wanted to share it. Because without Roy and without that game in June 2008, I’m not sure if I would have remained a baseball fan.
So thank you Roy. You’ve left us far too soon and will be sorely missed.
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