About nine months ago, the Philadelphia Phillies traded pitcher Cliff Lee and prospects in order to acquire pitcher Roy Halladay.††††††††††† A friend, Jason Filatov, immediately told me that Halladay would win the NL Cy Young Award.† I laughed.† He’d have to beat out the man that I thought was the best pitcher in baseball, Tim Lincecum of the San Francisco Giants, winner of two consecutive Cy Young Awards, on top of adjusting to a new team in a new league in one of the best hitters stadiums in America.† We fought about it endlessly. I was wrong.
Every time I thought there would be a challenger to Halladay’s Cy Young race, they faded, and Halladay only got better as the season wore on.† He’s set career highs in strikeouts, lead the league in innings pitched, and made the Phillies one of the hottest teams in baseball towards the end of the regular season.† He’s even pitched a perfect game.
In an age of babying pitchers by limiting their innings pitched, Halladay demands the ball every start and expects himself to pitch until he’s no longer effective.
More importantly, Halladay doesn’t just have millions of new fans in Philadelphia.† He’s kept all of his Toronto supporters, too.† When he was traded, Halladay did nothing but ooze appreciation for the Blue Jays organization.† This was an organization that had never been to the playoffs, let alone a championship!† Still, Halladay was proud of the organization.
Halladay wasn’t the only big-name star to leave the city where he’d spent his entire career.† Mark Cuban recently discussed Lebron’s decision to leave the Cavs.† Cuban, like many others, viewed Lebron’s decision as one that was well within his rights.† Where Cuban takes issue, though, is that “[Lebron] humiliated the organization, he humiliated the state of Ohio, the city of Cleveland.” (the Dunham and Miller show on SportsRadio 1310 The Ticket)† I couldn’t agree more.
Staging a press conference, and holding the entire city of Cleveland hostage until that moment was unprofessional at best.† I’d characterize it as cowardly.
Contrast this with Roy Halladay, who, on the day he was traded took out a full page in the Toronto Sun thanking the fans of the Blue Jays for all the love and support that they had shown him.† Lebron James never mentioned the city of Cleveland until a week after choosing to play for the Miami Heat.
Roger Clemens, upon signing with (ironically enough) the Blue Jays after playing for the Red Sox for his entire career, didn’t mention them once.
More often than not, fans over emphasize the loyalty that a star has towards his team.† We treat these people like heroes and saviors when, in reality, they’ve been trained to be mercenaries, going to the highest bidder to destroy people and win.
That’s why it’s so refreshing to see someone who, despite numerous reason and opportunities to demand a trade or hate a franchise, has acted totally professionally and acknowledged the way us fans view sports.
Pitch on, Halladay.† You’ve got a new fan.