Baseball Community Mourn The Tragic Passing Of Blue Jays’ Roy Halladay

Roy Halladay was one of the greats to have represented the Toronto Blue Jays and he left his mark on baseball.

He passed away on Tuesday at the age of 40 after his private plane in which he was flying solo crashed into the Gulf of Mexico. The authorities confirmed his death and said that no mayday calls was received by the Tampa Air Traffic Control.

Halladay began his association with the Blue Jays back in 1995 when he was selected in the amateur draft. He made his professional MLB debut in 1998 for the Blue Jays and played with them for over a decade before switching to the Phillies. He would later resign with the Blue Jays for just one day in order to finish his professional career with the Jays.

Halladay won numerous awards during his professional career but the two that stand out the most is two Cy Young awards in 2003 and 2010 along with being an 8 time all-star. Halladay will go down as one of the greatest players to have worn the Jays jersey and holds the record for being second in all-time strikeouts, wins, strikeouts per 9 innings and shutouts. He comes in third place for starts, innings pitched, ERA and completed games.

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He will become eligible to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2018 and will very likely also feature on the Blue Jay’s Level of Excellence list. His contributions as one of the best pitchers to have represented the Jays in terms of quantity and quality will be remembered by Blue Jay fans for a long time to come.

In a statement, the Toronto Blue Jays said

The Toronto Blue Jays organization is overcome by grief with the tragic loss of one of the franchise’s greatest and most respected players, but an even better human being

Tributes poured in from former Blue Jays players who took to social media to express their condolences to Halladay’s wife and two sons. Former team mate Vernon Wells called him one of the best to ever do it and said it was a pleasure for him to have a front row seat to watch greatness.

There were also tributes from current Blue Jay players such as Dwight Smith Jr, Marcus Stroman, Roberto Osuna, Aaron Sanchez, Ryan Borucki and Tom Koehler who paid their respects to a player they grew up admiring.