cartersDad26 wrote:yeah that is good. he will be so missed as we start to celebrate the 10 year anniversaries of all those glory days.

phatj wrote:"He knew what he signed up for"

jrollins11I remember the first time meeting Roy...not the guy in a uniform but the man in a Nike shirt, shorts n flip flops on our annual Nike baseball trips and thinking to myself how much I’d love to play with that guy! How many championships would we win if we had a guy like Roy taking the mound every 5 days?!! Then thinking shoot I’ll go play for his team because I want to see what it is that makes him so great! I didn’t fulfill my end of the bargain by winning a championship while sharing the same uniform as Doc but seeing the joy on his face while popping bottles is a memory that endures forever! All that have met, played, laughed, spoke, ate, had a drink or did anything under the sun with Roy realized at some point in that moment that u were in the presence of something...someone SPECIAL!! #RipDoc #foreveryoung

I never met Roy Halladay, but the news of his passing in a plane crash last week off the coast of Florida affected me like the death of a friend.
Halladay was the single most dominant athlete I've ever had the privilege of seeing in person. As a college student living in Philadelphia when Halladay arrived in Philadelphia, I lost track of how many meals I skipped to be able to afford tickets to see Halladay pitch as much as possible. Lunch was nice, but Halladay was better.
So often, you don't know you're seeing greatness live until the moment has passed, but every time Halladay took the mound, you knew you were watching something special.
Even Halladay's arrival in Philadelphia was different from the norm. At the time, the consensus was that Halladay, then with the Toronto Blue Jays, was the best pitcher in the game. Armed with a no-trade clause, Halladay had some measure of control over his next destination and made it clear that he wanted to pitch in Philadelphia.
The idea that the best pitcher in the game wanted to pitch for the Phillies above all else was totally foreign to a fan base that was used to seeing its stars bolt at the first opportunity.
Halladay was everything people ask for in a star: humble, driven, always willing to spread the credit around to others. In the hours following Halladay's death, it was impossible to find a person who had met him that had a bad word to say.
Within two months of his debut, he threw a perfect game, but that's not even the most memorable Halladay moment to me. His no-hitter in the first game of the 2010 playoffs feels like it was yesterday. I remember watching the game in my apartment with a group of people who weren't huge baseball fans, and seeing their confusion as I bounced around the room like a toddler who had plowed through a bag of Halloween candy.
I couldn't adequately explain to them that solar eclipses happen more often than what they were watching.
Some people don't understand the attachment some have to athletes, but they're the impetus behind so many enjoyable moments in the life of a diehard sports fan. Roy Halladay created so many of those moments.

Ace Rothstein wrote:This thing on tv?