Baseball Great Passes

Very sad day today in the world of professional baseball. Former Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Roy Halladay was killed when the small aircraft he was in crashed into shallow waters in the Gulf of Mexico near Holiday, Florida. He was 40. The crash happened shortly after noon Tuesday. No word from Police as to where the plane was headed or if anybody else was on board the aircraft.

Once word came down about Halladay's passing, the Philadelphia Phillies released the following statement:

"We are numb over the very tragic news about Roy Halladay's untimely death. There are no words to describe the sadness that the entire Phillies family is feeling over the loss of one of the most respected human beings to ever play the game. It is with the heaviest of hearts that we pass along our condolences to Brandy, Ryan and Braden."

Halladay had two loves of his life outside of the baseball world: family and flying. He was married with three kids and he really loved his family. His other passion was flying aircrafts. A lot of his posts over social media were of views of different plains and a view from the sky from the aircraft he was controlling. Halladay isn't the only baseball player who has lost his life in a plain crash. This sad list includes Pittsburgh Pirates star Roberto Clemente in a relief mission from Puerto Rico traveling to earthquake victims in Nicaragua on New Year's Eve in 1972, New York Yankees catcher Thurman Munson piloting his own plane near his home in Canton, Ohio, in 1979, and Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle piloting his own plane in New York City in 2006.

Just looking at this from a pure baseball perspective, Halladay will go down in the books as one of the best pitchers in the game of baseball in this generation. Halladay was an eight-time All-Star and went 203-105 with a 3.38 ERA in his 16-year career with the Toronto Blue Jays and Philadelphia Phillies. He threw a perfect game with the Phillies during the 2010 season and a no-hitter that postseason. Halladay won the 2003 AL Cy Young Award and went 148-76 with a 3.43 ERA in 12 seasons with the Blue Jays. He was traded to the Phillies after the 2009 season and won the NL Cy Young in 2010. He is one of only six pitchers in MLB history to win the Cy Young Award in both leagues. Roger Clemens, Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson, Gaylord Perry and Max Scherzer are the other five pitchers.

He had a ton of talent and could dominate a game almost at will. He was that good of a pitcher. As good of a pitcher as he was, he was just as good of a human being. He cared and gave so much of himself away from the diamond and nobody ever really saw that much of it. I think it was the way Doc wanted it.

Halladay was one of the greatest to ever play the game and he will be dearly missed.