That's a shocker about Halladay. One of the Jays' best ever. There have been quite a few baseball players who have died in plane crashes, several while piloting. Munson, Hubbs and Lidle come to mind as pilots who died, and of course, Clemente while a passenger.

This is very sad news. Halladay was, of course, a great pitcher and a fine example for younger players.

I haven't checked this but has anyone exceeded Halladay's innings counts since he retired? Doc was regularly in the 220 to 250 inning range with a high of 266.

damn. damn. damn.

RIP the greatest Jay.

He, Pedro and Roger were the best I ever saw but I never loved any pitcher like I loved Doc.

Oh no.  He was an all-time great Jay, but that just means we got to spend more time getting to know him as a person, not just a player.  Halladay always struck me as a fine person, not just an ace pitcher.   40 is far, far too young.

I have written many other things about him over the years but the one thing I will always tell people is that you could learn more from watching what Doc did than you could from watching anybody else. He was a master craftsman.

Sad, sad news about Roy Halladay passing away way too young.  It always seemed to me like his playing career was just a prequel to what was to be the next chapter of his life, whether it was to be in coaching, upper management or broadcasting. 

He was a seriously intense competitor who really seemed to know his own self, and a helluva pitcher to boot.  He had 67 complete games in his career,  which crazy to think about when you compare it to the active leaderboard (CC Sabathia leads with 38). 

RIP Roy.

Very shocking and sad news. I was always proud of Roy Halladay, not just because he was a great Jays pitcher, but also because we shared the same surname, albeit spelled slightly different.I thought it was a class act to take out a full page newspaper ad thanking fans and the city of Toronto for his time there. It's too bad he never got to pitch a playoff game for the Jays.

Remember kids: throw strikes, work quickly.

Wow, this is tough. As noted above, the knowledge that you were watching an all time great every ~ 5 days got me though many a summer of non-contention with the Jays. I watched that video of Roy picking up that fancy plane and his wife's concerns over flying just recently....my condolences to the family.

Everything about this is unbearably awful, but it's the fact that he seemed to be enjoying his life after baseball so much that really hurts. Not everyone can do that. Vaya con Dios, Doc, and thanks for baseball memories I'll have as long as I have a memory.

Sad news. For a few years, I used to only go games he was pitching because he was such a pleasure to watch. The best game I saw him pitch was his 10 inning shutout of the Tigers.

This is devastating. Doc truly was a gentle giant, and one of the greatest Jays, but on and off the field. I wrote a retrospective here on the box when he retired. I still can't believe this.

https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=2013120915381748

He will be missed.

Doc was the main reason I went to so many games in the 2000s. I loved watching him pitch, the way he seemed to own the game, the way he left the opposition with so little to work with. There were days when the Jays would score a run and you had a very good feeling they'd end up winning. I recall other days when it seemed like every other out was a lazy grounder to first. One of the best memories was the game when AJ Burnett and the Yankees came to down. Just looked it up. Complete Game, one ER, 103 pitches, game time 2:22.

So sad to lose him and at such a young age, but what an honour to have seen him at work.

Jose Bautista was just asked for a personal memory of Halladay as a teammate, and he told a nice story about how played first base for the first time in his life with Halladay pitching. He says he made a couple of errors, the Jays lost a close game, and Halladay gave him some encouraging words after the game, how he knew he wasn't a first baseman and things like that.

That sort of thing is pretty easy to look up, and while it's mostly Jose being nice, there's probably a grain of truth in the story. To this day Bautista has never made an error playing first base, and Halladay actually beat the Yankees in Bautista's first game at the position. But about ten days later, in Bautista's third game at the position, Doc lost to the White Sox 6-5 and the Sox scored twice in the first inning after a messed-up pickoff at first base. (The error actually went to Halladay.)

Much too young. Doc Holliday famously died at 36.

He ever shone so brightly. The first years I watched the Jays the rotation was often "Halladay and pray for rain".

Hopefully he gets his wish that Clemens never gets into the Hall.

He had me at what I think was his his first mlb start-a no hitter broken up in the ninth....in my Jay pantheon with Stieb, Alomar, Delgado. So very sad.

Dang.. Almost feel like saying "your candle burned out long before your legend ever did".. RIP Doc. What a tremendously sad day.

Doc is my favourite player of all time.

I am in shock.

Tough news.

He was such an incredible pitcher and person. I'm a jays fan first and always but my favourite moment was his playoff no hitter.

He legitimately seemed happy in his retirement with his family. Thoughts and prayers with them obviously.

So sad. At least he got to be inducted this past summmer into the Canadian baseball HOF in St Mary's. A happy day for his family, his sons got to share it with him. Such a great and humble man.
What are his chances for Cooperstown? He goes on the ballot in 2019.

I'm floored. I'm just numb with this news.

Here's a look back on his return trip to Toronto with the Phillies.

RIP Doc Halladay. Condolences to his family and friends.

As shocked as everyone, and enjoying the memories.

I was going to mention a game in 2009 (May?) Jays in first place, going against Yankees. Place had the vibe of the old contending days. Best of all, it was Halladay pitching against AJ Burnett who'd just dumped the Jays.

Boobirds were in full force, basically yelling AJ sucks, Yankees suck, A-Rod sucks, AJ sucks.

So AJ got hammered, pulled mid-inning to jeers and boos. I remember it because I got a photo of Burnett walking off, and looking right at Halladay sitting in the dugout.

Ahhh... and I see my photo has made its way here already via uglyone (I'd posted it here once), so I don't need to again.

Other memories: After last game of 2003 season, he was interviewed on field after his wife embraced him after his 22nd win. And how much I looked forward to looking at box scores after one of his games when he was on a roll. I'd check IP (I expected 8!), number of ground balls, how few pitches thrown...

The memory that just popped into my head isn't quite about playing.

I was watching a game when the Blue Jays' Wives were doing a charity auction on-line as the game was going on. Brandy Halladay was their leader at the time and she came on to the broadcast to plug it during the game. The biggest ticket item was a personal pitching coaching session with Doc. There ended up being a bidding war between two people and the price got fairly high. Eventually one of the bidders bowed out and Brandy announced that they were so excited about these two bidders willing to do so much for the charity that Roy would give a coaching session to BOTH of them for their top bids.

Buck (I think) kind of laughed and said, 'Shouldn't you clear that with Roy first?'

Brandy just kind of shrugged and said, 'No need. He'll do it.'

Some cynical people would say that he had to do it because she told him to. I prefer it as these were two people who were a team and knew each other well enough that there literally was no need to ask.

Damnit! My brain can't even.
Such tragic news.

I have to agree. As a kid I loved Dave Stieb, but when Roy Halladay came along I was smitten.

I'm three years older than Doc. This hurts.

This one really hurts. In another universe he's still pitching for our Blue Jays with 300 wins and a pair of world series rings.

Awful news. He was one of the few (only) bright spots in the dim 2000's for this franchise, and was everything you want a starting pitcher to be. Still hate the fact that the Jays couldn't make the playoffs with him on the roster. Halladay in his prime with the 2015-17 fanbase would have been awesome.

And now 17 year old Red Sox prospect Daniel Flores has died of cancer.

Yeah, that is a very odd one. Cancer is a terrible disease and it even gets children and teenagers. A person I used to work with had a daughter with cancer when she was 6 iirc. She was one of the lucky ones to survive and now is a spokesperson for Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto but the poor kid (only 12 now) has had to see friends she made there die from it. Really hits me as one of my daughters is the same age as that girl. Scary that my oldest is older than Flores was. 17 is far too young to die.

Opinion:

If the 2nd wild care existed while Halladay was with the Jays not only would we have made the playoffs multiple times but we would have won a world series.

Agreed. With both Halladay and Carpenter pitching in the post season, I like our chances. Both have shown that they can pitch well in the playoffs. Too bad we were unable to keep Carpenter.