Blue Jays Breaking News: Nightmare confirmed, the Doc is gone

Earlier today we learned that a plane owned by Roy Halladay had crashed off the Gulf of Mexico. At 4:15pm, it was confirmed that Halladay was the pilot.

Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be writing this sentence in 2017, but our beloved Blue Jays’ legend, Roy Halladay, has passed away at the age of 40 years old.

As we learned earlier on Tuesday afternoon, a plane owned by Halladay and his family was discovered to have crashed off of the Gulf of Mexico, and for roughly an hour fans waited with clasped hands hoping that the former star pitcher was not aboard that plane. At approximately 4:15pm, the Sheriff’s county office confirmed that the occupant was indeed Halladay, and that he had perished in the crash. He was the only person in the plane at the time of the crash.

Halladay had taken up a love of flying planes in his retirement from baseball, and was frequently seen on Twitter with photos of a big smile inside of a smaller plane. Earlier this week, he posted photos of flying some dogs who had their ears cut off in preparation for a dog fighting ring. He had found a way to combine his passion for the air with doing some good, in true Roy Halladay fashion.

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At this point there haven’t been a great number of details released about the crash, and it’s likely that it will take a bit of time for the investigation to be completed. There are no suspicions of foul play or inappropriate behaviour from Halladay either, and it appears that this is just an unfortunate case of bad things happening to good people. Life is cruel that way sometimes.

For now we send out our condolences to Halladay’s family, friends, former teammates, and of course to all of you, the fans. I know I’m personally rocked by this news today, as Halladay was one of my heroes as a younger man. It’s always a shame when someone loses their life at a young age, but when it’s someone with the character and reputation for being a great human being like Halladay, it stings even more.

Halladay spent 12 seasons with the Blue Jays organization, and retired from the game after the 2013 season, having won two Cy Young Awards, made eight All-Star appearances, and winning 203 games between time spent in Toronto and Philadelphia. He was originally drafted by the Blue Jays in the first round back in 1995, and appears to be a no-doubt future Hall of Famer. Either way, he’s a virtual guarantee for the Blue Jays “Level of Excellence”, and won’t be soon forgotten.

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