Philadelphia Phillies to Retire Roy Halladay’s Number
Announced in the morning hours of Tuesday, Feb. 4, the Philadelphia Phillies made a big announcement. On May 29th of the 2020 season, the Phillies will retire the number of pitching great Roy Halladay. The significance of the day comes from the fact that it will be the 10 year anniversary of his perfect game against the Florida Marlins. It will happen as the Phillies take on the Washington Nationals at Citizens Bank Park.
Halladay also pitched for the Toronto Blue Jays and they have already retired Halladay’s number 32 prior to the 2018 season. Upon signing with the Phillies in 2019, Bryce Harper announced he would not wear the number 34 out of respect for Halladay. Now no other player will ever wear the number 34 for the Phillies ever again. This is truly one of the greatest tributes a player can receive from any team.
The Date That Will Live on in History
It happened as the Phillies took on the then Florida Marlins at Sun Life Park in Miami. Twenty-seven batters stepped up to the plate and Halladay sent all of them back to the dugout empty. Roy Halladay ended up striking out 11 batters as the Phillies went on to defeat the Marlins 1-0. It marked just the second-ever perfect game thrown in Phillies’ history.
At the time, Halladay’s performance marked the 20th perfect game thrown in MLB history. It also marked the second perfect game thrown in 2010 along with Dallas Braden who pitched for the Oakland Athletics. There would end up being three more pitchers to follow Halladay’s performance, all happening in 2012. Those included Philip Humber of the Chicago White Sox, Matt Cain for the San Francisco Giants, and Felix Hernandez for the Seattle Mariners.
Honoring a Lost Great
Halladay’s other passion was flying. Unfortunately, that passion led to his early death. Roy Halladay was killed on November 7th, 2017. Halladay was flying a plane when it crashed into the Gulf of Mexico.
The two-time Cy-Young award winner and eight-time All-Star truly was one of the greatest pitchers of his generation. Halladay’s amazing career put him in rarified air. He is one of the now 57 players in MLB history to be named a first-ballot Hall of Famer.
Halladay’s 65.4 career WAR ranks top-50 all-time and leaves the baseball world with 2,117 career strikeouts. Roy Halladay capped off his playing career with an ERA of 3.38 through 2,749.1 innings pitched.
The man affectionately known as “Doc” will now forever be honored by the Phillies.
