Roy Halladay Works Harder Than All of Us

Roy Halladay has been one of the best pitchers in baseball for nearly his entire career, but until this season, that career was spent in the relative anonymity of Toronto. It’s not that people didn’t know Halladay, himself, was great – the guy has been an All-Star six times and won the Cy Young Award in 2003 – it’s more that Toronto has been nothing more than a baseball afterthought in the AL East. With Boston and New York – and even Tampa Bay – getting to the playoffs, the Blue Jays haven’t been close to postseason relevance in a very long time. In fact, the closest the Blue Jays have been to the playoffs since Halladay’s 2003 Cy Young season was eight games. The closest they’ve come to winning the division was 10 games.↵↵That’s not likely to happen in Philadelphia. Well, anything can happen and the Phillies could falter this season, but the three-time defending NL East Champions are expected to contend for another World Series crown. Fans may start jumping off bridges if the Phillies don’t at least make it back to the Fall Classic for a third-straight year. In short, there’s a lot of pressure on Halladay’s shoulders this year.↵

↵↵The interesting thing about Halladay is that he seems unaffected by the pressure of pitching for a contender. Why? Because Halladay’s already been working harder than almost everyone in baseball for nearly a decade.↵

↵↵Bob Elliott of the Toronto Sun had the chance to follow Halladay around for a day to see what the former Blue Jay and current Phillie does to prepare for the season. Elliott’s day began at 5:42 a.m. and, if you go by Halladay’s clock, the reporter was already late.↵

↵↵⇥There are three cars in the lot, one belonging to [a security guard], one black BMW belonging to the former Blue Jays right-hander, now a member of the Phillies.↵⇥↵⇥“I got in about 5:30, left the house around 4:45,” Halladay said later.↵⇥

↵↵This was a day that Halladay was not pitching, mind you. Later that morning, Elliott joined Halladay as he spoke with the Phillies minor league pitchers, and he explained why he works so hard every day.↵

↵↵⇥Halladay tells of his first-round selection in 1995, making the big leagues — leaving out how he almost threw a no-hitter in his second start — his struggles in 2000, how he still holds the record for the highest ERA (10.64 in 672/3 innings) and being sent to class-A Dunedin.↵⇥↵⇥“It was a reality check,” Halladay said. “I made a decision if I made the majors or not. I wanted to be able to look myself in the mirror and know I’d given every thing. I was going to re-dedicate myself.”↵⇥

↵⇥↵⇥Halladay ticked off examples, working hard in pitcher’s fielding practice, paying attention when coaches speak, getting your rest, staying away from drinking.↵⇥

↵⇥↵⇥As for the mental aspect, Halladay told pitchers how much the book The Mental ABCs of Pitching by Harvey Dorfman helped him and how he carries a copy with him.↵⇥

↵⇥↵⇥“If you can find it, buy it,” Halladay said.↵⇥

↵⇥↵⇥The room was silent, You couldn’t even hear anyone breathing.↵⇥

↵↵There’s a whole lot more to Elliott’s day with Halladay, including Halladay’s advice that if faced with doing something fun or doing an extra 30-40 minutes of a workout, players should always do the latter. Read the full day’s transcription if you can. And when you hear that a pitcher “has a book” on a hitter, for Halladay, it’s quite literally the case.↵↵⇥[Pitching coach Rich] Dubee is amazed at Halladay’s binders. One lists his workouts, number of pitches thrown in a game, a bullpen session or long toss, how many minutes lifting and how much he ran.↵⇥↵⇥He has another book on hitters he began keeping seven years ago and what pitches he threw.↵⇥

↵↵Seven years of pitches. That’s 1,471 innings pitched…in a book. Do you think it’s broken down chronologically? Maybe alphabetically by batter? How does he find everything in there? Do you think he has tabs? He probably has tabs.↵↵[H/T The Fightins]↵

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