Roy Halladay: baseball's perfect gentle knight

The phone rang early Wednesday evening, in the top of the sixth inning to be precise, when Roy Halladay was pitching for the Philadelphia Phillies against the visiting Cincinnati Reds in the first game of the 2010 American League Division Series.

"Nearly six full and no hits," said my son, who was watching the game at his home well north of Toronto. We chatted a bit more until he said, "Six complete, still no hits. Call you later"

Roy (Harry Leroy) Halladay started with the Blue Jays in 1998. I've had a baseball crush on this guy for 12 years. I've also had him on my fantasy baseball team for a decade, during which time I managed to finish no higher than sixth in our 12-team fantasy league. My son won the championship this year, the second time he's done it I finished 10th and he had Halladay on his team because I dealt him in a three-for-one trade late in August.

Halladay, 33, is as perfect as a major-league pitcher gets, perhaps as perfect as any major-league athlete gets. No sulky tantrums, thoughtful, a study in concentration, always the exquisite professional. If I could have a fantasy son I have no doubt in the world I'd have adopted Halladay.

He was born in Denver, stands a mighty six-feet-six-inches and weighs 230 pounds. I never thought of him as an exceptionally big guy pitchers tend to be among the biggest players on any major-league team but I guess he is, if you go by what the TV announcers were saying throughout much of Wednesday's no-hit performance.

Big Roy

Now they're calling Halladay "Big Roy," in contrast to Philadelphia's newly acquired pitcher Roy Oswalt, whom they call "Little Roy." (For the record, it was former Blue Jays announcer Tom Cheek who christened Halladay with the nickname "Doc," a felicitous moniker inspired by legendary gambler/gunslinger "Doc" Holliday from the wild west of the 1800s.)

In appraising Wednesday's no-hitter against the Reds, one must also take into consideration that but for one lousy base on balls Halladay would have pitched a perfect game, equalling Don Larsen's accomplishment.

And that would have meant two perfect games in one season (which still isn't over if we include the playoffs and World Series, meaning Halladay could toss another one before the 2010 season ends, which I wouldn't bet against it. Halladay also got a hit and knocked in a crucial run early in the game.

OK, so he makes $15,750,000 US a season. For Halladay, it's an appropriate salary, and if his contract is renegotiated it soon will be it's sure to jump a few million more and whatever it adds up to it would still be appropriate.

Don Larsen? I remember the day he pitched a perfect game for the Yankees against the Brooklyn Dodgers back in 1956. I watched it one afternoon at a friend's house when I was playing hooky from Grade 10. It was Larsen's big moment. Other than that perfect game Larsen's baseball career was fairly mediocre.

Two years earlier he went 3-21 playing for the Baltimore Orioles. He ended up losing more games than he won (81-91) in a journeyman career that included playing for nine teams, including the old Houston Colt .45s, the only sporting team I can think of named after a handgun.

Not Halladay.He's already won one Cy Young Award and could win a second this year with his 21-10 season record. He's a manager's joy, a superb athlete who gets along with everyone on any team he has ever played, someone baseball likes to consider "a character player." I hated to see him leave Toronto but he did it with class and left behind fans who didn't begrudge him a trip to a team that could contend in the post-season.

Admiration for Halladay

My son and I wrote a book on the 1993 Blue Jays, the year they won the World Series, and the year Joe Carter's colossal home run nearly landed in our laps in the auxiliary press box beyond left field. We could see the seams of Carter's home-run ball as it spiralled downward to our desks.

My team contact that year was John Olerud, a poor choice as the laconic first baseman rarely spoke three words when he could get away with one. What I would have given back then to have been able to choose Halladay, but he didn't arrive on the Toronto scene until 1998.

So, why did I trade Halladay to my son as the 2010 season was ending? Easy, I did it for the same reason Halladay left the Blue Jays to pitch for the Phillies. I wanted him to pitch for a contender in our league, too.

Man, is he ever doing that.

About the author: At least one generation of Canadians knows the line, "The state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation." Pierre Elliott Trudeau made it famous, but the line belongs to veteran Canadian journalist Martin O'Malley, who wrote it when he was with The Globe and Mail. He's written eight books, on topics such as the Canadian North, medicine, murder, media literacy and baseball. He's also a keen observer of the rituals of sport.