Toronto Blue Jays: A.J. Burnett writes emotional tribute to Roy Halladay
On the anniversary of Halladay’s perfect game former Toronto Blue Jays pitcher, Burnett wrote a tribute to his former teammate.
Throughout his career, Roy Halladay had many great performances with the Toronto Blue Jays but his most memorable one came with the Philadelphia Phillies. Eight years ago to the date “Doc” became the 20th pitcher to throw a perfect game against the Miami Marlins.
It was an achievement that will continue to live on even with Halladay gone and for people who were close to him, there are personal memories which they hold dear. A.J. Burnett wrote a tribute in the Player’s Tribune to his former teammate on the anniversary of Halladay’s perfect game.
Burnett starts the piece by sharing a story about the two of them fishing in Florida then moves on to describe the friendship they formed as members of the Blue Jays.
At one point Burnett brings up a conversation that the two of them had while he was in a cold tub and Halladay asked him about his approach to pitching.
"“Umm … I just try to throw heaters by guys. And if I get ahead, I throw my curveball as hard as I can.”Roy just started laughing.Like for a while.And I’m just shaking my head, like, What? What! Dude, what’s so funny?The more I went on and tried to make my case … the more Doc laughed. And that one conversation we had early on, with me sitting in that freezing cold water, was really kind of the start of it all for me in terms of transitioning from being a hard-thrower to being a pitcher."
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Burnett explained that Halladay helped him reinvent himself as a pitcher because he had someone who would who lead by example. Not only did he show him how to mix up different pitches and locations but showed him with every start.
He also emphasized how nothing was impossible for Halladay because his preparation was unlike anything he’d seen from anybody else and nothing made him divert from that.
At one point Burnett points out that Halladay gave him a book called the Mental ABC’s of Pitching. For those who may not know, that book was instrumental for Halladay because it helped him get over struggles early on in his career.
Burnett probably wonders how different his career would have been if he was never a member of the Blue Jays.
At the same time, both players shared quite a special bond as the video below explains how Burnett would try to keep Halladay from being too serious all the time.
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It was refreshing to hear someone talk about Halladay in the way Burnett did because we only hear about how Halladay prepared himself for every start but rarely in the way that Burnett did.