Phillies news: ESPN to feature late Roy Halladay on May 29
By Matt Rappa
The life and career of late Phillies pitcher Roy Halladay will be featured by E60 on the 10-year anniversary of his perfect game against the Marlins.
May 29, 2020, was supposed to be the night that the Philadelphia Phillies retired No. 34, belonging to their late star pitcher Roy Halladay, who tragically passed away in a plane crash in November 2017.
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The date holds significance, as it marks the 10-year anniversary of Halladay’s perfect game opposite the Florida Marlins.
While the Phillies will not be playing that night and holding a number retirement ceremony as planned, the life and career of Doc will still be at the focus of the sports world.
On Thursday, ESPN announced it will release an “E60” feature about Halladay on May 29 titled, “Imperfect: The Roy Halladay Story.”
The released trailer begins with Halladay’s celebrating with teammates after recording he final out that late spring night in Florida. Then, his widow, Brandy, appears and is asked: “What comes to mind when I say the word perfect?”
She replies, “Unrealistic expectation. I don’t think there’s such a thing as perfect.”
Following in the trailer are accounts of Roy from several current and former baseball figures who knew Roy well, including Alex Rodriguez, ESPN’s Buster Olney, Robinson Cano, and his former Phillies teammate Kyle Kendrick.
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“There are few pitchers that you can think think about that you have this supreme respect for. He was the epitome of what a perfect pitcher should look like,” Rodriguez said.
“One of the greatest pitchers of his time. This absolutely stoic warrior,” proceeded Olney, followed by Cano saying Halladay was “one of the toughest in the game. Nobody wanted to face [him].”
Kendrick then followed by describing Doc’s work ethic as the best he has ever seen.
While in baseball, Halladay had a lot of expectations on him. After playing several years in Toronto, upon joining the Phillies he entered right in the middle of a playoff window with a good opportunity to achieve success at baseball’s pinnacle point, the World Series. Halladay always strived to pitch every start in red pinstripes to the best of his ability, most of the times showing up to the ballpark in the very early hours of the morning.
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Brandy then is heard in the trailer saying, “A man who is expected to be perfect or seen as perfect, I saw how hard that was on him.” Then, she was asked if she thinks her late husband was an addict. She agreed, but said Roy was “tormented.”
“His body was dependent on these medications just to function. A.D.D, depression, anxiety, [and] paranoia,” Brandy said. “Roy had a lot of demons and a lot of demons he was trying to work on all the same time.”
When the Phillies held a Wall of Fame retirement ceremony for Halladay in July 2019, Brandy took to the podium for an emotional speech. One of her most remembered quotes from that evening, which also saw Pat Gillick added onto the Wall of Fame, is her saying that she thinks Roy would want everyone to know that “people are not perfect. ”
“We are all imperfect and flawed in one way or another,” Brandy continued. “We all struggle, but with hard work, humility and dedication, imperfect people can still have perfect moments.”
Roy was indeed perfect for the Phillies, leading them to 55 wins in just 103 starts from 2010 to 2013. While the Phillies will likely reschedule their number retirement ceremony, ESPN’s “Imperfect” will still explore the right-hander’s career on that night, while also seeming to dive into his off-the-field battles.