One of the finest baseball pitchers in the history of the sport retired yesterday.
And he went out as a Blue Jay.
Roy Halladay had a distinguished career as a pitcher, with a record of 203 wins and just 105 losses.
He spent 12 years wearing a Blue Jays uniform; the last four years of his career he pitched for the Philadelphia Phillies.
On May 29, 2010, Halladay pitched the 20th perfect game in Major League Baseball (MLB) history. Then, he threw a no-hitter on Oct. 6—only the second no-hitter in MLB post-season history.
He won the Cy Young Award twice and was selected eight times to play in special All-Star games.
In addition to his impressive baseball skill, Halladay is also known as an upstanding person who gave generously to people in need.
Although at the end of his career Halladay played for the Phillies, he wanted to finish his career as a Toronto Blue Jay.
The Jays hired him for one last day—yesterday—so he could retire as a Blue Jay.
“Roy is one of the most professional and dominant pitchers of his generation and the Toronto Blue Jays are very proud and honoured that he will retire as a member of our organization,” said Paul Beeston, Toronto Blue Jays President and CEO.
“His talent and determination led our club for many years on the field and his work ethic provided an example for all to follow. He also contributed generously in the community, through the Jays Care Foundation and his own initiatives like ‘Doc’s Box’ for patients at Hospital for Sick Children to attend games.”
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
By Kathleen Tilly
Writing/Discussion Prompt
Roy has a lot to be proud of.
He is described as being “one of the most professional and dominant pitchers of his generation.” He is also described as having a very strong work ethic that many people try to follow. Furthermore, he is described as being “an upstanding person who gave generously to people in need.”
Which of these descriptions do you think Roy would be most proud of? Why?
Reading Prompt: Reading Unfamiliar Words
The article mentions a couple of baseball terms, with no explanation about what they are. When you explain what a word means, that’s called a “definition.”
Write a definition for the following words in the article:
Perfect game:
No-hitter:
All-Star Game:
Junior and Intermediate
Predict the meaning of and rapidly solve unfamiliar words using different types of cues (OME, Reading: 3.2).
Grammar Feature: Conjunctions
Conjunctions – such as and, but, or – join words and ideas together.
An old grammar rule is that you cannot begin a sentence with a conjunction. This rule, however, is often broken. For example, the second sentence in this article is: “And he went out as a Blue Jay.”
What do you think about the journalist breaking this rule? Why do you think she chose to break the rule? How would the meaning be different if the sentence was changed to: “He went out as a Blue Jay”?
