Why is roy halladay called doc

Roy Halladay has made the All-Star team in all but two seasons since it has "counted" and become the determinant of home-field advantage in the World Series. In , Halladay beat the Yankees five times.

That's in just one season. Enjoy our content? Join our newsletter to get the latest in sports news delivered straight to your inbox! Your sports. Join Newsletter. He was the epitome of a gamer and a workhorse morphed into this ultra-competitive freak of nature. He would go to battle for every single one of his teammates and leave it all on the field. He was one of a kind and even though I am saddened he is gone, I am thankful myself and the rest of Canada had the privilege to watch him hone his craft every fifth day north of the border for many years.

Roy Halladay was without a doubt the best Blue Jay player I have seen. So as many of you understand, it was pretty dang painful trying to grow up as a Blue Jays fan sometimes. But Doc made it bearable. I can honestly say that he is the reason I kept watching Blue Jays baseball as a kid.

Every game I went to, I made sure he was the one who was pitching. The way he handled batters with such precision blew my mind and he made me obsess over the art of pitching. I remember when he signed a one-day contract to Toronto, and it was just the ultimate sign of class for the fans.

A great player and a great person. Blue Jays reportedly have interest in a reunion with J. Happ by Hayden Godfrey. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 4. Rating details. Sort order. Jul 15, Margaret Sullivan rated it really liked it Shelves: I just realized I never reviewed this.

It was so interesting and I learned a lot about Roy Halladay but it was also so very sad. I loved Doc when he pitched for the Phillies and was in Cooperstown when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame. I'll always be a fan.

When he was at his best, he was THE best. I just wish I or anyone else could have helped him when he was in pain and so very unhappy. I wish the best to all his family and friends. Jun 19, James rated it really liked it Shelves: autobiography-biography , baseball. Not a traditional biography childhood-death , but its nonetheless very enjoyable. P Doc: I grew up watching this guy at the Dome, and you never would've thought that this guy was tormented in the way he was.

Just goes to show that anyone can struggle and that its OK to ask for help. Jul 06, Alex Lair rated it really liked it. Great tribute to an amazing person.

It can be easy to only focus on a superstar athlete as just that, but this book brings out the human element of Doc in a wonderful way. Jul 03, Kenny rated it really liked it. Sports biographies will always have a soft spot in my heart. In high school, I spent many hours taking the time to read the biographies of athletes that I followed. I always loved to read about the person that wore the uniform. You see, when we look at athletes, we picture them as the epitome of mankind. Often, we forget that they, too, have flaws and struggle with things- they, too, are human.

Todd Zolecki helps paint the story behind the man who wore the numbers 32 and 34 on the baseball diamon Sports biographies will always have a soft spot in my heart. Todd Zolecki helps paint the story behind the man who wore the numbers 32 and 34 on the baseball diamond.

Roy Halladay had a incredible work ethic, almost to a fault, but that is what made the man into who he was. Roy's life has left an impact on the game that can be felt through reading this biography. There is no doubt that Roy was one of the greatest pitchers of this generation.

With all of his talent, he never was able to claim that elusive World Series Trophy. My favorite quote from the book comes from Brandy Halladay's speech at Roy's Hall of Fame induction ceremony: "We are all imperfect and flawed in one way or another.

We all struggle, but with hard work, humility, and dedication, imperfect people still can have perfect moments. A man who became addicted to opioids and needed to learn to personally deal with his problems. There is no doubt that Roy dealt with problems and struggles. After all, he was human. But in striving for greatness, there was the realization that baseball was not the end all.

After the closing of his career, he knew that he could help other athletes struggling with the same problems he dealt with over the course of his career. Tragically, this calling was cut short due to terrible plane crash. We will never truly know the impact that he could have made on the sport of baseball in his post-career role. But this we know, Roy understood that there was more to life than the game of baseball.

It is through the game that a single man is able to have an impact on the life of another. By looking at Roy's life, we are challenged to realize that each of us has the ability to impact the lives of others. This is achieved in how we live and shape those around us. It is only through our own hard work and dedication that we are able to better ourselves, but through our experiences, we can help others that are going through their own struggles.

I pray that we all reach our full potential in this calling. Feb 11, Dave Allen rated it liked it. Straightforward and fairly exhaustive, riddled with minutia from Roy's career Roy himself being a chronicler of minutia - every workout, every batter faced, and so forth but also with extended scenes surrounding major milestones.

Not stat-heavy, exactly, but with a smattering WAR, WHIP, other pitching-based ratios , and while it's far from hagiography, it becomes a bit more of a warts-and-all account as Roy's career comes to a close and he encounters difficulties separating from his baseball Straightforward and fairly exhaustive, riddled with minutia from Roy's career Roy himself being a chronicler of minutia - every workout, every batter faced, and so forth but also with extended scenes surrounding major milestones.

Not stat-heavy, exactly, but with a smattering WAR, WHIP, other pitching-based ratios , and while it's far from hagiography, it becomes a bit more of a warts-and-all account as Roy's career comes to a close and he encounters difficulties separating from his baseball career and entering retirement. Zolecki really goes deep, and even as someone who was consuming a lot of coverages of the Phillies in those years, there's a ton I hadn't known or read before.

In particular, Roy's wife Brandy comes across very strongly on the page - what an unbelievably strong, patient and kind person. The recounting of both the perfect game and postseason no-hitter in are exhilarating, even all these years later, and the contributions from Phillies players both heralded and less so some great quotes from Kyle Kendrick and Chad Durbin, if you can believe it both reminded me of "good old days" and how hard it was to see those teams come up short for several years before totally falling off the table.

The whole thing is super-inside-baseball pun very much intended , so it's not for everyone - although I'd even bump it up to four stars for real baseball die-hards, and for casual-to-serious Phillies or Blue Jays, I guess?

Aug 06, Zach Koenig rated it it was amazing. During the mid-to-latter years of the s, Roy Halladay was perhaps my favorite single MLB pitcher. I absolutely loved his tenacity and consistency on the mound. In an era where starting pitchers were just starting to really trend downward in terms of innings per game, Doc was still a workhorse who routinely pitched deep into games.

Zolecki's bio provides a good reckoning of his career both on and off the field. What really stood out about "Doc" was how Zolecki takes a unique approach. Here, however, such narrative-building is not found. Instead, Zolecki leans heavily on source materials such as interviews or quotations from Roy himself or others affiliated with him. The book is laser-focused on Roy, yet still manages to be compelling from beginning to end.

No big thesis here--just a solid, thorough look at a professional athlete of the highest order. Sadly, the reason why this book is trending now is due to Halladay's sudden and unexpected plane-crash death in One of the little gems in "Doc" is how Zolecki tactfully and respectfully navigates that issue, addressing head-on the theories and insinuations while also providing important context.

He awoke to a phone call from his agent, Marc Kligman. Chooch could tell something was wrong. Kligman told him that he had bad news. Was he ready for it? Chooch said yes. Kligman told him. Big Roy got a call from his daughter Heather, who heard from Brandy. He could not believe it. He wondered if there was a mistake. He was in his backyard in Phoenix when a reporter from Mexico called for comment. Castro had not heard. He cried. Jesse Biddle got advice from Halladay in the spring of They talked on the phone a few times, but lost touch over the years.

He got a notification on his phone. Is this real? He felt like he was in a movie. He picked up the phone and called his parents in Philadelphia. Halladay considered Pat Hentgen one of the most important mentors of his career.

Every fall Hentgen hosted a two-week hunting camp at his cabin in Ontario. Hentgen pulled out his phone and scrolled through Twitter. Hentgen never got more texts and calls in a single day before or since. Ken Huckaby caught Halladay 30 times with the Blue Jays. He cherished every moment. He was in the dugout in the Arizona Fall League. Huckaby had a bad feeling as soon as he read the text. He called Bellinger, who told him.

Huckaby went home. His wife was crying over the news. Few people spent more time with Halladay during his career than Donovan Santas. He was driving when his wife called. He said he got a text from him a few days earlier. Halladay thought the kids could be something special. She did.