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| 2014 Chachi Transactions #10 |
During his emotional press conference, Halladay revealed he had literally been pitching the past two seasons with a broken back, which definitely explains his uncharacteristic 5.15 ERA in 2012 and 2013. He pitched through two pars fractures, an eroded disk in his vertebrae and pinched nerves.
Accolades started pouring in immediately from his former teammates, coaches and managers, with the common consensus being that he was one of the most hard-working, dedicated and competitive pitchers to have ever played the game. I'm definitely looking forward to Halladay's induction speech into Cooperstown in 2018 and I'll cherish the 196 different Halladay baseball cards currently in my collection.
Halladay came to the Phillies in December 2009, six months into the life of this here blog. If you browse the blog's archives, I've documented each of his 103 starts with the Phillies in the regular season and his five postseason starts. The list that follows contains links to some of the key posts from the last four seasons of Halladay's Hall of Fame career:
12/16/09 - Acquired from the Toronto Blue Jays for three prospects
4/21/10 - Shut-out the Braves, 2-0, on the day our second son Ben was born
5/29/10 - Threw the 20th perfect game in Major League history
10/6/10 - No-hit the Reds in Game 1 of the N.L.D.S.
11/16/10 - Named 2010 Cy Young Award winner
4/2/11 - Received his 2010 Cy Young Award in a pre-game ceremony
7/12/11 - Started the 2011 All-Star Game
10/7/11 - Outdueled by Chris Carpenter as the Phillies lost Game 5 of the N.L.D.S., the team's last postseason game to date
4/6/12 - Combined with Jonathan Papelbon for a 1-0 Opening Day win over the Pirates
4/14/13 - 200th career victory
9/23/13 - The final game
And here's the super short-printed Blue Jays variation of Doc's final Chachi card.
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| 2014 Chachi Transactions #10b |
Love the SSP! :->
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks for the links too. Among his notable games that I saw in person were:
- his first Phils game, in DC, Opening Day 2010, an 11-1 win
- his 20th win in 2010
- 2010 NLCS G1 (a loss to Lincecum, unfortunately)
- Opening Day 2011 in Philly (a loss)
- 2011 NLDS G1 (a win over Kyle Lohse)
- 2011 NLDS G5 (the most painful Phils game I have seen, the 1-0 loss to Carpenter in which Howard blew out his Achilles)
- Opening Day 2012 in Pittsburgh (the 1-0 win)
Doc pitched 5 postseason games in his career, 4 at home. I saw 3 of them. Unfortunately, the one game game I missed was the no-hitter!
He was a true competitor. I will miss him. And I'm actually happy he retired as a Blue Jay. He obviously loved being a Philly, but he showed respect to the team where he played most of his career with that move. That's two cities where he'll never have to pay for a drink again.