Wednesday, November 8, 2017

Thoughts on Roy Halladay, RIP

I king of expect to get shocking headlines across the newsfeed on my phone these days, but I wasn't expecting to see one reporting that Roy Halladay had died in a plane crash.  Maybe it's just me, but we seem to have come a long ways in understanding airplane safety and it's not quite as common to hear about them as when I was growing up.  Roy Halladay's career was too long and too stupendous to write an exhaustive post about it.  You all know the story of his career as well as I do.  He as more of an east coast star anyway and spent most of his career in the AL which I don't follow as closely as the NL because, well, the Giants.  Instead, I will offer some maybe random thoughts about Halladay.

His remarkable career was all the more remarkable because he played most of it in the AL Beast.  His 10 year peak was longer and higher than most star pitchers while spending all of it in home parks that are extremely hitter-friendly and most of it in an extremely hitter friendly division.

I remember how unbeatable he seemed going into the 2010 ALCS.  It was his first season with the Phillies.  He had pitched a Perfect Game early in the season then pitched the second no-hitter in the entire history of MLB postseason play in the NLDS.  It looked like two sure losses for the Giants which meant they would have to win 4 of the other 5 games in the series. Then Cody Ross kicked his front leg and swung from the heels at a cutter that caught just a smidgen too much of the plate and suddenly we dared to dream.

I am struck by the almost eery similarities between Roy Halladay's death and John Denver's.  Both had fathers who were pilots who they apparently idolized.  Maybe they both deep down felt like they had something to prove to their dads?  Both found extreme success in other lines of work.  Both apparently had a fascination with exotic aircraft.  Both died while flying exotic planes over the ocean.  I don't know what that all means.  Probably nothing.  I just have always had a fascination with historic parallels, and this one is striking.

RIP Roy Halladay.  He was a great pitcher who will be long remembered.  Perhaps someday his family will see him inducted into the Hall of Fame.
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2 comments:

  1. MojoNovember 9, 2017 at 2:43 AM

    Very sad. Especially considering his wife's unease with Halladay's flying. So tragic.

    His numbers look pretty solid for the HOF. A little shy (not much) on the counting numbers. JAWS likes him. And I think there will be a bit of emotion going into the vote. He's on the 2018 ballot I think. Might have taken a few years before this happened, but now...1st ballot?

    I don't know a ton about aviation, but they say a pilot's friends are altitude and airspeed. This plane was built to fly low and slow. A Sport Pilot plane. Some pilots online called it an ATV-type plane. Going on the little info that is out there right now, and the video, I'm guessing he caught a serious gust of wind and didn't have time to recover.

    Halladay was really closely associated with ICON, the manufacturer of his A5 plane. That company is out of Vacaville. A few years ago, the company had a really onerous user agreement that more of less prevented the owner of the plane from suing ICON should something happen. (They no longer have that user agreement.)

    But this is a small company that apparently had Halladay video testimonials on their webpage. They've manufactured 20 of the 2018 version A5s so far. (Halladay got the first one, I believe). Out of the 20 flying, 3 have crashed/been damaged. One hard landing, serious damage (Pilot OK). 2nd crash, was a pilot error on Lake Berryessa (resulting in two fatalities), and unfortunately Roy Hallady's.

    Once a plane has a rep as an unsafe one, well ICON is in a tough place. It's probably a safe plane that is designed to fly in situations with little margin for error.

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  2. Halter TopNovember 9, 2017 at 12:39 PM

    I also thought of the John Denver crash right off of Pacific Grove. Two other crashes come to mind: that Yankee pitcher (Cory Lidle??) and JFK, Jr.

    I was in the US Navy and part of my job involved reviewing crash files - I had the folders with intimate details of training accidents.

    My boyhood friend died in a horrific helicopter crash. Around 1999 a San Jose police helicopter fell out of the sky in the South Bay. It was all over the
    news. My friend Desmond Casey (aged approx 38) was the pilot. He had always wanted to fly.

    Then a few years later there was a helo crash involving one of my Navy friends. He lived in El Paso and flew for US Customs after having left the USN where he was an instructor pilot in Florida. His chopper was flying over backyards chasing a suspect. An officer from another agency was in the passenger seat. My friend, the pilot, died (aged 46) and the passenger lived.

    May your number of landing equal the number of takeoffs. That is sentiment you often see on Navy Pilot cards/banners.

    RIP Roy Halladay.

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