Roy Halladay dies plane crash
November 7, 2017 2:32 PM   Subscribe

Roy Halladay, former pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays and Philadelphia Phillies, has died in a plane crash off the Gulf coast of Florida. Halladay is one six pitchers to win a Cy Young award in both the American and National Leagues, and only the second person to throw a no-hitter in the post-season. He was 40.
posted by thecjm (41 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
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Loved watching Doc pitch.
posted by indianbadger1 at 2:34 PM on November 7, 2017


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posted by Fizz at 2:38 PM on November 7, 2017


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posted by DreamerFi at 2:39 PM on November 7, 2017


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posted by epj at 2:39 PM on November 7, 2017



posted by NoMich at 2:41 PM on November 7, 2017 [6 favorites]


Damn, that's awful.
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posted by chococat at 2:45 PM on November 7, 2017


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Shit.
posted by delfin at 2:48 PM on November 7, 2017


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posted by drezdn at 2:51 PM on November 7, 2017


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posted by SansPoint at 2:57 PM on November 7, 2017


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The guy who went to the zoo with Roy Halladay is going to be gut punched by this.
posted by Major Matt Mason Dixon at 3:24 PM on November 7, 2017 [2 favorites]


@zoowithroy (twitter) was literally the first person I thought of when I heard the news.

RIP, Doc.
posted by kimberussell at 3:29 PM on November 7, 2017 [2 favorites]


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posted by JoeXIII007 at 3:31 PM on November 7, 2017


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posted by dfm500 at 3:34 PM on November 7, 2017


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posted by saturday_morning at 3:36 PM on November 7, 2017


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He was awesome.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 3:52 PM on November 7, 2017 [1 favorite]


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posted by St. Hubbins at 4:44 PM on November 7, 2017


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What a tragic loss. He seemed like a great person in addition to being a great ballplayer.
posted by Elly Vortex at 5:03 PM on November 7, 2017


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posted by vrakatar at 5:10 PM on November 7, 2017


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posted by Special Agent Dale Cooper at 5:30 PM on November 7, 2017


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posted by TheWhiteSkull at 5:52 PM on November 7, 2017


His perfect game was one of the most amazing moments in sports I've ever watched.

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posted by cmfletcher at 5:53 PM on November 7, 2017


I loved it when Doc took the mound.
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posted by graymouser at 6:22 PM on November 7, 2017


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posted by dudemanlives at 7:11 PM on November 7, 2017


I remember coming home late from work and hearing the Doc pitched a perfect game. I stayed up to watch the replay.

The dude was a monster. I was dissapointed the Phillies bats couldn’t come through and get him a ring. He certainly did his part.

Great pitcher and a great guy. RIP.

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posted by eagles123 at 7:29 PM on November 7, 2017


I've got a lot of memories of watching Roy pitch and a lot of feelings right now. I've been crushed all evening.

This Ringer piece comes closest to explaining exactly how good Doc was, how influential, and how focused/serious he was as a player and how it melted away and how fun he seemed once he retired. As the article points out, there are intense players, and there are well-liked player, but very few are both. Halladay was both
posted by thecjm at 8:00 PM on November 7, 2017 [5 favorites]


I know Phillies fans have a rep for being a tough crowd, but we loved the hell out of him and are FUCKED UP over his untimely death. Rest in peace, Doc. Damn.
posted by desuetude at 9:05 PM on November 7, 2017 [2 favorites]


This is the second Icon A5 crash this year.

The previous one, in May, killed two Icon engineers. The NTSB report determined the probable cause to be "the pilot's failure to maintain clearance from terrain while maneuvering at a low altitude."

Halladay's own tweet from October 31st: "I keep telling my dad flying the Icon A5 low over the water is like flying a fighter jet!"

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posted by JoeZydeco at 9:17 PM on November 7, 2017 [3 favorites]


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posted by dirigibleman at 9:23 PM on November 7, 2017


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posted by dbscissors at 9:52 PM on November 7, 2017


I'll always remember him best for coming within one out of no-hitting my Tigers (in just his second big-league start!) for Toronto on the last day of the '98 season.

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posted by non canadian guy at 10:33 PM on November 7, 2017 [1 favorite]


Godspeed Roy.

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posted by Sphinx at 11:32 PM on November 7, 2017


This is the second Icon A5 crash this year.

Second fatal crash; there was another crash in Miami earlier this year, but the people were uninjured. I believe that Halladay got only the 23rd Icon A5 to roll off the line when he got his less than a month ago. There are almost 2000 people with deposits in on the wait list.
posted by Homeboy Trouble at 6:22 AM on November 8, 2017


Tyler Kepner's essay in the NY Times was a really nice remembrance.

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posted by ChuraChura at 6:27 AM on November 8, 2017


Second fatal crash

Thanks for the correction. I saw the A5 at Oshkosh and there was a ton of enthusiasm around the aircraft. I'm not knowledgeable enough to know if there's something inherently flawed about the thing, or if the plane itself encourages riskier behavior.
posted by JoeZydeco at 7:17 AM on November 8, 2017


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posted by whuppy at 8:15 AM on November 8, 2017


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40 is too damn young.
posted by DigDoug at 11:50 AM on November 8, 2017


Plane in Roy Halladay fatal crash made by Vacaville’s Icon. Detailed story in the SF Chronicle about the plane, which is made near SF. As noted above this brand new aircraft is having a lot of crashes.

A couple of low-quality sources are talking about video showing him flying aggressively low. nj.com, Daily Mail. Presumably the NTSB will have a report eventually; even if he weren't a celebrity this accident will get special attention because of the plane involved.
posted by Nelson at 12:47 PM on November 8, 2017


non canadian guy, I was at that game! Up in the nosebleeds but behind home plate. Still the closest I've been to seeing a no-hitter in person.

I was contemplating Halladay's Hall of Fame case a couple of months back and came to the conclusion that he was going to have a rough ride to make it because his win total is so low -- "just" 203. The long-term switch to understanding that pitcher wins don't mean much wouldn't be far enough along to help him by the time he dropped off the ballot, or so I think.

Now? The HOF voters love players who die young, so he's probably a cinch in 2018. But, oof, what a way to do it.
posted by Quindar Beep at 1:21 PM on November 8, 2017 [2 favorites]


".@JohnBarrESPN shares his own personal story about #RoyHalladay" [Twitter Video]

Requiem aeternam dona ei, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat ei. Requiescat in pace.
posted by ob1quixote at 9:15 PM on November 8, 2017


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posted by sillygwailo at 12:53 PM on November 12, 2017


My first post on Metafilter was inspired by Roy Halladay. And even though I know his formative years and most of his career belongs to Toronto, I was hoping that he'd come back to the Phillies as a coach. I knew the Phils hired him as a "mental skills coach," but I thought that was sort of fluff position just to keep Roy around the organization. Instead, he really was around the Phillies minor leaguers -- bringing a massage chair, making PowerPoint presentations for them, holding office hours. I hoped that Roy might eventually get a WS ring as a coach, bittersweet as that would be for him. His death still feels like a loss for baseball because he was just getting back to being part of it again.
posted by gladly at 7:45 AM on November 13, 2017


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