The best pitcher to ever wear a Toronto Blue Jays jersey was Roy “Doc” Halladay.
Halladay had a long list of achievements in his baseball career, including winning the CY Young Award in both the American and National Leagues, winning over 200 games, pitching a perfect game and also a no-hitter in the playoffs (becoming just the second pitcher ever to do that).
And he made it into baseball’s Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility too.
A big reason for Halladay’s success was his discipline and what his teammates called a “fanatical” routine … but there was another reason:
Support from others!
Halladay’s father got Roy throwing baseballs when he was just one year old, and he bought the family a house in Colorado with a 65 foot long basement so his son could practice pitching year-round on a portable pitcher’s mound (it even had Astroturf and a tire at the other end, for when his father couldn’t catch for him).
And there was Mel Queen, who got his thinking turned around and mechanics fixed after Halladay’s disastrous second season which almost chased him out of the sport.
And there was fellow Jays pitcher David Wells (the exact opposite of Halladay since he was an out-of-shape, beer-chugging, loud-mouthed guy) who taught him to not be afraid to throw strikes and to pitch with confidence.
Finally, there was Harvey Dorfman, the “mental skills coach” whose book “The Mental ABC’s of Pitching” was a favourite of Halladay’s (and he went on to mentor him personally years after he first read it).
If you look closely enough at any successful person (athlete, entrepreneur, musician, etc) you’ll see that they had others supporting them in their journey.
And if you’d like more accountability to help you, check out the live roundtable that Henry Mittelman is doing next Tuesday.
Save your seat for it here:
