Former Pitcher Roy Halladay Killed in Plane Crash

It’s a heartbreaking day for baseball fans: Roy Halladay has been killed in a plane crash in the Gulf of Mexico. He was only 40 years old.

Halladay played in the Majors from 1998 to 2013, making his debut with the Toronto Blue Jays and ending his fifteen-year career with the Philadelphia Phillies. Known for his two-seam sinking fastball and hard cutter, his career ERA was 3.38, with 2,117 K’s and a win-loss record of 203-105. Halladay was an 8-time All-Star, and a 2-time Cy Young Award winner, one of only six pitchers to have won the award as a member of both an American and National League team.

In addition to his numerous accolades, Halladay had a storied career. In 2010, he pitched two no-hitters, including a perfect game on May 29th. His perfect game was the 20th in MLB history, and he retired all 27 batters, striking out 11, allowing no hits, runs, walks, or errors. Halladay’s second no-hitter of the season came in Game 1 of the NLDS, his first postseason start. It was only the second no-hitter in MLB postseason history, nearly sixty years after Don Larson threw the first in 1956.

We often lose sight of athletes we loved after they leave the game, but only four years into his retirement from baseball, Roy Halladay had so much life left to live. He’d been posting about his new plane on Twitter for the past few weeks, and looked overjoyed to be doing something he loved. So many athletes are unable to move on once they leave the game behind, but that didn’t seem to be the case for him. It’s an absolute tragedy that this is how his story comes to an end.

Condolences to his family. My thoughts and prayers are with them and everyone ever who had the pleasure of seeing Roy Halladay play this beautiful game. Rest in peace, Roy.