Citing a desire to avoid surgery for an ailing back and wanting to spend more time with his family, Roy Halladay, a two-time Cy Young Award winner, retired Monday after 16 seasons in the major leagues with the Toronto Blue Jays and the Philadelphia Phillies.
Halladay, 36, a right-hander, signed a one-day contract to retire as a member of the Blue Jays, with whom he spent the first 12 years of his career. He choked up and held back tears while making the announcement at a news conference at the winter meetings in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.
“As a baseball player, you realize that’s something you can’t do the rest of your life,” Halladay said. “I really don’t have any regrets.”
Halladay played for the Phillies from 2010 to 2013, finishing with two injury-plagued seasons. He won a National League Cy Young Award in 2010, throwing a perfect game that season and a no-hitter in his first postseason appearance.
Halladay was 203-105 with a 3.38 earned run average in 416 career games, including 390 starts. He had 67 complete games and 20 shutouts.
“It’s been a very exciting process for me,” he said. “I feel very good about it. There’s always going to be things I miss. As much as I worked out, I’m not going to miss it. I’m not going to miss the cuffed weights and running poles.”
Halladay was a six-time All-Star, won the 2003 A.L. Cy Young Award and was 148-76 with a 3.43 E.R.A. in 12 seasons with the Blue Jays. He was traded to the Phillies after the 2009 season, and was 40-16 with a 2.40 E.R.A. in his first two years in Philadelphia. But back and shoulder issues limited Halladay in 2012 and 2013. He was 15-13 with a 5.15 E.R.A. in 38 starts.
Halladay had shoulder surgery during the season and returned in September, but clearly was not right. He was 4-5 with a 6.82 E.R.A. in 13 starts this year.
“It’s so much fun to play the game and go out and compete,” he said. “I looked forward to that fifth day more than anything. To go out there and know it’s not going to feel good and I wasn’t going to do it the way I wanted was frustrating. I tried to give everything I can but something was holding me back. I felt I couldn’t give them what I wanted to.”
Halladay badly wanted to play for the Phillies to have a chance at winning the World Series. The Phillies had won three straight division championships, the 2008 World Series and 2009 N.L. championship by the time Halladay arrived. They had the best record in the majors in Halladay’s first two seasons, but lost to the San Francisco Giants in the 2010 N.L.C.S. and the St. Louis Cardinals in the 2011 N.L. division series.
In his final postseason performance, Halladay lost to Chris Carpenter and the Cardinals, 1-0, in the decisive Game 5 of that 2011 matchup. Earlier in the series, the Cardinals were spurred when a so-called rally squirrel scampered on the field.
“I think the one thing I took away from that is you can have the best team on paper, you can have the guys who want it the most,” Halladay said. “But when the squirrel runs across home plate while your team is trying to pitch, there is nothing you can do about that. So you really start to realize there are a lot of things out of your control. It takes more than nine guys. It takes nine guys, and it takes the 25 on the roster. It takes the coaches, the staff, and it takes a lot of luck.”
Schilling Replacing Hershiser on ESPN
Curt Schilling, the former All-Star pitcher, is replacing Orel Hershiser on ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball” broadcast crew next season, giving him a wider audience for his opinions.
“No matter how you phrase it, if you don’t compliment a player, that player’s team, that player’s fans think you hate him,” Schilling said Sunday. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen people react with: ‘You hate so-and-so. You hate so-and-so.’ And it’s just amazing how — it’s a good thing. The passion is great. It’s amazing how much people read into the things that we say on a nightly basis.”
In the 25th season of “Sunday Night Baseball,” Schilling will join his former Philadelphia teammate John Kruk, the play-by-play man Dan Shulman and the reporter Buster Olney. Hershiser is expected to join the Los Angeles Dodgers’ new regional sports network, The Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.
Schilling has been a studio analyst for ESPN’s “Baseball Tonight” since 2010 and has also been in the booth for a few games.
Rhode Island’s Economic Development Corp. has sued Schilling, former officials of his bankrupt video game company 38 Studios and some of its own former employees. The E.D.C. board in 2010 approved a $75 million loan guarantee for the company to lure it to Providence, R.I., from Massachusetts.
“People are going to believe and know and see what they want to believe and know and see,” Schilling said. “Unfortunately, the whole story isn’t out yet and when that does happen, hopefully people will understand.”
A six-time All-Star, Schilling said he planned to bring a pitcher’s perspective to the telecasts.
“When I think about the 75 to 100 decisions that went into every single pitch I threw, you can’t break that down,” he said. “But there’s ways to explain, there’s ways to help people watch that I think I can help Dan and Krucky bring to the table.”
And in the first season of expanded replay for umpires’ decisions, Schilling expects to have a lot to discuss.
“I’m sure I’m going to gripe and complain at some point,” he said. “Probably often.”
