Roy 'Doc' Holladay (1977 - 2017)

The baseball world is in mourning, as Roy Halladay perished in a plane crash at age 40.

Halladay was a bit old school compared to the other pitchers in the game during his time, pitching 67 complete games during his career... to put it in perspective, the leading active pitcher in complete games is CC Sabathia with 38, while pitchers like Felix Hernandez (25 CG), Clayton Kershaw (25) & Justin Verlander (23) all further behind.

Many of these above pitchers have a legit argument for their place at Cooperstown, much can be said in the case for Halladay.

He won two Cy Young Awards, one with the Toronto Blue Jays (2003) and later on the National League side with the Philadelphia Phillies (2011). He finished with 203 wins, while winning 20+ games in a single-season, three times... plus a career 64.7 WAR.

To put his 64.7 career WAR in perspective, it's higher than Bob Feller (63.6, granted he had some years serving our country), Vic Willis (63.5), Juan Marichal (63.1), Mickey Welch (63.1), Hal Newhouser (63.0), Clark Griffith (61.8), Early Wynn (61.3), Stan Coveleski (60.2), Dazzy Vance (59.9), Jim Bunning (59.4), Al Spalding (59.0) & Rube Waddell (58.6) who are all Hall of Famers to go along with a small handful of other Hall of Fame pitchers not named ranking below this bunch.

He had a 3.38 career ERA with a very respectable 1.178 WHIP, finishing with 2,117 strikeouts... his strikeout rates was much higher in the later part of his career, as he recorded 200+ strikeouts for four consecutive seasons (2008-2011).

He may have been the best pitcher in all of baseball during his 2008-2011 stretch, which he went 77-37 (.675 winning pct), 2.59 ERA, with 853 K's in 969.1 innings (7.9 K / 1.3 BB per 9 innings). During this stretch, he logged 35 complete games with a 1.065 WHIP, while his ERA+ stood at 160.

In the history of Major League Baseball, there are not much better four-year periods than this, add this to his already impressive accomplishments, we should see him in Cooperstown someday... the sad part is that he won't be able to enjoy this accomplishment down here with the rest of us.

Just recently, my friend Rich Zawadzki won the 2017 Fall/Winter edition of the Chicagoland APBA Baseball Tournament with the 2011 Philadelphia Phillies, a strong 102-win team that in reality probably should have won the World Series (knocked out by St. Louis in LDS), in which Halladay would have gotten his first & only World Series ring.... but a Chicagoland Championship will have to do for the Doc.

It's great when APBA Baseball imitates life, as Halladay went 3-1, with a 2.05 ERA in regular bracket, while he had 0.50 ERA in 2 playoff games.

Bostonia

I want to lead off by expressing my sympathy to Bostonians, my heart and thoughts go out to the families and  the city that were affected by this cowardly event that transpired yesterday, my wish is that everyone in this country will wake up & realize how important and precious life is -- and that we keep moving forward to making this a safer country by learning from these events.

So not to keep the post going with a sad note, I wanted to kind of continue my Boston trend towards a positive note at least. I decided to switch my profile pic & cover photo to that of Boston, a nod, a shout-out to Boston, that we are all with them during these troubling times. It also got me thinking about the time that I owned a Boston Red Sox cap.

For those that don't know me, I have been born and raised in Michigan -- and I love my Tigers, and I also happen to be an Atlanta Braves fan as well. I have, of course, owned ball-caps of these two franchises, but I have owned caps from other franchises as well.

First off with the Boston cap, I owned it maybe just prior to 2004's title season until about 2006 when I met the wife, I wore it because to me, it represented the "working man", a man getting by, making ends meet -- I thought of all the New Englanders, that year after year bled for the Boston Red Sox, despite year after year of dramatic disappointment by the team, I felt the working man's pulse; and that is why I wore a Boston cap. The wife loved how it looked on my head, and that also my last name also started with the letter "B" -- I got the hat with another hat for a 2 for $25 dollor deal, so I also got myself a Washington Nationals hat at the time. My wife would learn plenty of baseball from me in time, not having an ounce of baseball in her blood before me; she would learn about Fenway & the Red Sox, the curse, and she loves how Fenway looks, and she has always loved the idea of visiting Boston long before meeting me -- so she eventually got herself a Boston Red Sox hat as well.

I have probably 5 different Tiger hats at the moment, but below is a list of the ball-caps in my entire life I have owned, some are a bit surprising looking back:

• Baltimore Orioles - Bought it visiting my cousins in Maryland at the Baltimore Mall.
• Boston Red Sox
• Chicago White Sox - Shortly after they switched to black again with the classic Sox logo on their hats,  never I would have imagined that I would really grow to hate these guys.
• Cleveland Indians - The team was starting to thrive with young talent in the early 90's, loved "Major League" the Movie, and always liked their uniforms.
• Detroit Tigers
• Atlanta Braves
• Florida Marlins
• Washington Nationals
• Los Angeles Dodgers - The Dodgers cap I owned was a darker blue, with a red trim around the white "LA" on the caps, got it at Dodgers Stadium with my best friend who loves his Dodgers -- it was a really nice hat, I believe I wore it out/got ruined -- one of my favorite hats.
• San Diego Padres - Probably the dullest hat I've ever owned, let me note that my favorite player was Tony Gwynn. One day I hope to own a Gwynn jersey, but which of the many horrible uniforms should I choose from?

I also like to note that my brother & I owned those hard plastic helmets of the old 80's Blue Jays and red Cardinals caps.

Rest in Peace to Earl & Stan "The Man"

The Baseball world is mourning with the deaths of two greats of the game, I just found out about both an hour ago via Facebook.

Stan "The Man" Musial passed away at the age of 92. He still remains fourth all-time in career hits with 3,630 hits (and has the most hits for playing with one team), he is also tied with Willie Mays for a record 24 All-Star Game selections. He has 3 World Series rings (1942, 1944 & 1946) and has won the N.L. Batting Title seven times! Also finished his career as a three-time MVP & was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969.

An image of the SN cover.

I actually own a Sporting News of my favorite player Tony Gwynn with Stan Musial, Gwynn would end up passing Musial with 8 N.L. Batting Titles for his career (tying himself with Honus Wagner for 2nd all-time & most N.L. titles). The cover says "The Naturals", and it was a very interesting article, sitting with two class acts in the game of baseball.

Earl Weaver managed the Baltimore Orioles for 17 years, for the franchise's most successful run during it's history in the Majors. During his time at the helm, he won 58% of his games, winning 1,480 games, 4 A.L. Pennants (1969 - 1971, 1979) & a World Championship in 1970, over the Cincinnati Reds. His #4 was retired by the Orioles, and he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1996.

We will miss both, but their spirits will live on in the Baseball world.