by Ice Cream Jonsey » Mon Sep 02, 2024 9:36 pm
I liked baseball well enough growing up, I wasn't good enough to play in high school. They had a non-HS-affiliated travel league that I was allowed to be on when I was a sophomore (batted last, played right field) and after that season, that was the end of my playing of the game in its non-softball sense. My favorite team, the Toronto Blue Jays, won the World Series in 1992 and 1993. If you ever get a chance for your team to win the World Series during your freshman year of college, DON'T LET THEM. At the same time the Blue Jays were marching toward a championship, my mind and world were utterly, positively blown by the college experience where I fit in and made life long friendships and had lifelong experiences. The players on those two teams should have been the ones I am fondest of, but I wasn't even watching every single game. I was a bad fan.
My roommate was and is the most sports-crazed person I ever knew and it had an effect on me. After college, I happily paid more attention. I joined fantasy baseball leagues. My brother moved to Colorado for four years and started a softball team that I played on. (Catcher, this time. Catcher for softball is the right field of baseball.) Within a few years, I joined an online, seasonal league of Diamond Mind Baseball ("text baseball") with keepers that I still play to this day. I spend a lot of time thinking about baseball.
It was in the early 2000s when Roy Halladay became a star for my team, the Blue Jays. So in a real way, Roy became "my guy" in the same way that Willie Mays was that dude for my father, and Ken Griffey Jr. or Edgar Martinez was for my brother.
I was able to get Disney+ working, legitimately, for free today and a documentary about Halladay's life was one of the first things that came up. I spent treadmill time watching it tonight.
Roy Halladay came up to the major leagues, threw a no-hitter for 8 and 2/3rds innings and then proceeded to experience the league figuring him out. He was getting shelled. He completely rebuilt himself as a pitcher in the minor leagues, made his way back to the major leagues and played well enough for Toronto and later the Philadelphia Phillies that he put together a hall of fame career. He was dead by 40.
"Imperfect" features interviews with Roy's wife Brandy, one of his two children that he left behind, his father, his teammate Kyle Kendrick and a few others. When Roy's back started to go, he took opiates to numb the pain. He got addicted to them. The documentary paints a picture that Roy was a stoic perfectionist that took his job seriously. When his body started to betray him, he didn't simply
go on the disabled list and cash a check indefinitely, instead, he took whatever he could get his hands on to numb the pain and get back on the mound.
His father was a pilot, and after retirement, Roy got into flying tiny, two-seat planes. On November 7, 2017, with a combination of drugs in his system, Halladay died when he crashed his ICON A5 amphibious plane into the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida.
It was a senseless, avoidable catastrophe. This documentary does, I think the best job possible in explaining what happened, but also who Roy Halladay was, how he got to the position he was in when he took his life and what a total tragedy his death was. I doubt I'll ever enjoy watching a guy in sports more than I did Roy Halladay. I wish it hadn't ended like this.
I liked baseball well enough growing up, I wasn't good enough to play in high school. They had a non-HS-affiliated travel league that I was allowed to be on when I was a sophomore (batted last, played right field) and after that season, that was the end of my playing of the game in its non-softball sense. My favorite team, the Toronto Blue Jays, won the World Series in 1992 and 1993. If you ever get a chance for your team to win the World Series during your freshman year of college, DON'T LET THEM. At the same time the Blue Jays were marching toward a championship, my mind and world were utterly, positively blown by the college experience where I fit in and made life long friendships and had lifelong experiences. The players on those two teams should have been the ones I am fondest of, but I wasn't even watching every single game. I was a bad fan.
My roommate was and is the most sports-crazed person I ever knew and it had an effect on me. After college, I happily paid more attention. I joined fantasy baseball leagues. My brother moved to Colorado for four years and started a softball team that I played on. (Catcher, this time. Catcher for softball is the right field of baseball.) Within a few years, I joined an online, seasonal league of Diamond Mind Baseball ("text baseball") with keepers that I still play to this day. I spend a lot of time thinking about baseball.
It was in the early 2000s when Roy Halladay became a star for my team, the Blue Jays. So in a real way, Roy became "my guy" in the same way that Willie Mays was that dude for my father, and Ken Griffey Jr. or Edgar Martinez was for my brother.
I was able to get Disney+ working, legitimately, for free today and a documentary about Halladay's life was one of the first things that came up. I spent treadmill time watching it tonight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUoOHFBBLmU
Roy Halladay came up to the major leagues, threw a no-hitter for 8 and 2/3rds innings and then proceeded to experience the league figuring him out. He was getting shelled. He completely rebuilt himself as a pitcher in the minor leagues, made his way back to the major leagues and played well enough for Toronto and later the Philadelphia Phillies that he put together a hall of fame career. He was dead by 40.
"Imperfect" features interviews with Roy's wife Brandy, one of his two children that he left behind, his father, his teammate Kyle Kendrick and a few others. When Roy's back started to go, he took opiates to numb the pain. He got addicted to them. The documentary paints a picture that Roy was a stoic perfectionist that took his job seriously. When his body started to betray him, he didn't simply [url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/rendoan01.shtml]go on the disabled list and cash a check indefinitely[/url], instead, he took whatever he could get his hands on to numb the pain and get back on the mound.
His father was a pilot, and after retirement, Roy got into flying tiny, two-seat planes. On November 7, 2017, with a combination of drugs in his system, Halladay died when he crashed his ICON A5 amphibious plane into the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida.
It was a senseless, avoidable catastrophe. This documentary does, I think the best job possible in explaining what happened, but also who Roy Halladay was, how he got to the position he was in when he took his life and what a total tragedy his death was. I doubt I'll ever enjoy watching a guy in sports more than I did Roy Halladay. I wish it hadn't ended like this.