NEW YORK — Roy Halladay was drafted and developed by the Toronto Blue Jays. He spent 12 of his 16 big-league seasons with the Jays and earned 148 of his 203 victories with that club.
It would be completely understandable — even in Philadelphia, where Halladay spent four memorable seasons — if he were to go into the baseball Hall of Fame with a Blue Jays cap perched atop his head on the bronze plaque that will hang forever on the hallowed walls of Cooperstown.
But Halladay’s cap will carry no logo at all.
“I know we spent the majority of our time in Toronto,” Halladay’s widow, Brandy, said at Wednesday’s official Hall of Fame news conference. “Toronto gave us that chance, that base, that start. But Philly also gave us a chance to win a ring and the passion that we wanted. There’s no way to choose and so we’ve decided that he’ll go in with no team.”
Brandy Halladay was joined by the couple’s two teenage sons, Braden and Ryan, at the Manhattan news conference. The three of them had flown to New York on Wednesday morning. They were initially supposed to take a sunrise commercial flight out of Tampa. Phillies managing partner John Middleton caught wind of the family’s travel plans, surmised that it would be too stressful on them, and sent his private jet to the Tampa area to deliver them to New York.
Roy Halladay was elected to the Hall of Fame on Tuesday, in his first year of eligibility. The honor comes less than 15 months after he was killed when the small plane he was piloting crashed off the west coast of Florida in November 2017. Halladay will be officially enshrined into Cooperstown on July 21, along with closer extraordinaire Mariano Rivera, another first-ballot selection. Designated hitter Edgar Martinez and pitcher Mike Mussina were also elected Tuesday and outfielder Harold Baines and pitcher Lee Smith were elected by a special committee in December.
Mussina split his career between the Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees. He said Wednesday that he was undecided which team’s cap would adorn his Hall of Fame plaque.
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The Halladay family had no indecision.
“It was a quick decision,” Brandy said. “The Hall walks you through this. They say, ‘Don’t feel rushed,’ but I kind of already knew how I felt.
“We think that this is the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. It’s not the Phillies’ Hall of Fame or the Blue Jays’ Hall of Fame. Roy is going in as a Major League Baseball player and I think that is important because that’s what he is.
“I would hope that he represents something to all of baseball, not just to Phillies or Blue Jays fans, but to baseball as a whole and I think that is how he should be represented.”
Halladay spent just four seasons in a Phillies uniform and though he never got that ring, he had some incredible highs with the club. He pitched a perfect game and made it to the postseason for the first time in his career. He pitched a no-hitter in the playoffs. He won the National League Cy Young award as a Phillie in 2010 and finished second in the voting in 2011. He had won the American League Cy Young Award with the Jays in 2003. He is on the Phillies’ Wall of Fame and the Jays’ Level of Excellence.
Though the family professed its love and gratitude to both cities, going into the Hall with no direct team affiliation could be translated by some as a sign of respect for Halladay’s time and accomplishments in Philadelphia. After all, he spent just a quarter of his career with the Phillies.
“It was an amazing opportunity,” Brandy Halladay said of her family’s time in Philadelphia. “It’s the most loving, passionate, insane city. It was everything we hoped to have a chance to be part of.”
Several players have gone into the Hall of Fame without a team logo on their cap. Catfish Hunter, who split his career between the Oakland A’s and Yankees, has a blank cap. Recently, Greg Maddux could not pick between the Chicago Cubs and Atlanta Braves and went in with a blank cap. Ditto for manager Tony La Russa, who skippered World Series winners in Oakland and St. Louis. Though the Hall of Fame technically has final say on which cap a player wears on his plague, it usually works with the player and defers to his wishes.
In this case, the Hall of Fame will defer to the Halladay family’s wish. Out of respect for his two baseball homes, Roy Halladay’s cap will be blank.
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