Saturday, July 18, 2009

DocTalk: Prognosis negative from the Doctor's wife

A Blue Jays fan seeking reassurances about Roy Halladay might not have got any from his spouse.

For those who aren't following the Red Sox-Jays game on radio today, Brandy Halladay fought tears during a fifth-inning interview with The FAN 590's Alan Ashby and Jerry Howarth. She was on to talk about the food drive the players' spouses and girlfriends, the Lady Jays, are holding this weekend at Rogers Centre, but her voice could be read like a book. Howarth asked an easy question, something like, "What do you get from doing this?" Halladay steered her answer around to, "I've been here a long time and I love this city and I love these people" and it got kind of emotional. She touched on how accommodating GM J.P. Ricciardi has been, how gracious fans have been to her, how it could "my last homestand" and how "rumours are stronger than they have been in the past" and "I really hope the fans know that the Blue Jays have been great to us."
Halladay: "If something happens before trade deadline, I won't be back. That's difficult. That's really difficult. I just broke into tears four minutes ago. I'm in tears now."
Ashby: "It sounds like ... maybe to us, maybe to me, the possibility might be stronger than we've all thought it was going to be."

The bottom line from a Jays fan's vantage point is that Brandy Halladay was really projecting. What she said and the way the words came out belied any talk that the Blue Jays are just dipping a toe in the water with respect to trading Roy Halladay before July 31.

By the same token, surmising that Doc is destined for an American port of ball based on his wife tearing up in an interview is only one space on the Jump to Conclusions mat. Baseball spouses, and not necessarily solely those of the ballplayers, have a ton on their plate. In Brandy Halladay's case, she was helming a 3-day food drive outside Rogers Centre and, as she told Alan and Jerry, was also getting organized to move the family (two young sons) out of Toronto, presumably to their full-year, off-season home. One can only assume there's some stress involved, plus you never pretend to understand how someone else's committed relationship works.

As a fan who only knows what you hear and read in the media, one cannot claim to know what might happen. You can only prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Let's just say hearing Brandy Halladay on the radio makes for a better post-game story than rookie left-hander Marc Rzepczynski harnessing his control and gettng his first major-league win Saturday.

The Jays' brief switch to a four-man rotation, forced by off-days, would mean Halladay would start Friday, July 24 vs. Tampa Bay after he throws on Sunday.

(Not that they need to be told, but Alan and Jerry did a great job handling that interview and getting Ms. Halladay. They got her to open up, but did not exploit her emotion and steered it back on course. Work commitments prevented hearing what she said during an interview with Rogers Sportsnet during Friday's game ... but that interview didn't lead to a friend calling up to say, "Doc's gone, it's bullshit," either.)

7 comments:

Dave said...

Great arm and a classy guy. So, where would you Jays fans like to see him go, if he has to? Obviously not in the division. St. Louis is rumoured, that's a real class team with great fans. I've heard Philly as well. Do you care? Surely you won't boo him if he's in the AL?

sager said...

Philly or Los Angeles — not a hicksville podunk city like St. Louis. Even Milwaukee would be palatable since their GM is a Canadian!

Anonymous said...

A "hicksville podunk" city like St. Louis?
What...have you been there?
Milwaukee?
The polka capital of America?
THAT'S not a podunk shmenge of a town?
Speaking of palatable, ever try their beer?
Compared to LA.,the land of brown air and plastic people, or Philly, a town so mean they boo Santa Claus, St Louis ain't so bad.

sager said...

I spent a week in St. Louis ... one night. Hey, let's waste our creativity in trite jokes.

The Philly fans booed Santa Claus trope needs to be retired. It happened in 1968. Let it go.

manotick said...

Heard a discussion last night on ESPN radio about Halladay's future. Expectation is that he will be gone in a week to the Phillies. The Phillies are offering the best package including young prospects than anyone else. Dodgers want him badly but can't come up with enough.

Dennis Prouse said...

OK, we'll let the Santa Claus thing go. How about when Michael Irvin was laying prone on the turf at Veterans Stadium, looking like he might be paralyzed, and Philly fans were cheering? These are also the fans who chant, "Say No!" anytime one of those marriage proposal videos comes on the screen at the game. They are a sweet bunch.

Dave said...

We need half the passion Philly fans (or any US fans for that matter) have for sports and we'd be fine. Course, we also need 3 or 4 REAL ballparks, teams and a smattering of minor league teams in support.

I find myself as a former Expo fan, unbelievably, a bit of a Phillie fan (at least in the sense that that's the team in the NL East I want to see on top). And you hated 'em back in the day. But the Cubs are gone to the Central along with the Bucs, you hated the Mets more, Atlanta still claims 14 East titles in a row when you know Montreal "won it" in '94, and Florida? Well, even though you guiltily cheered them against the hated Yankees, how do you cheer for the Carpetbaggers Loria and Sampson (and not enjoy the repeat of Montreal going on now?)?

So being a non-Jays-fan, this guy's a great pitcher, and hey, it might be fun to see him in a pennant race. For you Jays fans, he's out of the AL, so he can't hurt you, and I know we all can't wait to see him hit! ;-D