I have a great deal of respect for Bob Elliott. In fact, when he visited me eleven months ago, I let him become the first guest in 207 episodes to go beyond two hours. Elliott spent decades covering the Expos and Blue Jays and the players trusted him and confided in him. I wanted to hear as many stories as possible.
Following the tragic death of Roy Halladay, Elliott wrote a great article about Roy for the Canadian Baseball Network. It included this nugget that caught my eye.
This off season he wanted to work with Blue Jays minor leaguers. He applied -- yes Roy Halladay was made to apply for a job with the Blue Jays -- with the high performance committee.
And then the decision whether to hire him was kicked upstairs.
The Jays did not hire him. Instead, he was re-hired by the Phillies to work with their young pitchers.
I read this and was left wondering why Roy Halladay didn't end up working with the Blue Jays' minor leaguers. There may be an excellent reason Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins took a pass on utilizing Roy's services, but I'd rather not speculate. I'd like to know.
I tweeted about my desire to know and was accused of piling on current management.
I have no interest in finding fault with the current management group. I just want to know why Roy Halladay was denied an opportunity to work with the Blue Jays minor leaguers. https://t.co/qgubuo9yld— Toronto Mike (@torontomike) November 10, 2017
Admittedly, a few moves made by Shapiro and Atkins have me scratching my head, but I certainly have no interest in "piling on". Someone linked me to Andrew Stoeten's entry about the piling on but I still think it's absolutely fair to ask why the Blue Jays didn't want Roy Halladay working with their minor leaguers. Our loss was Philadelphia's gain, as you'll read in this Philadelphia Inquirer article.
Again, I don't know anything is rotten here, and I'm well aware knowing the truth won't bring Roy back, but my hope is that one of this city's fine sports journalists investigates the story and brings to light the truth.
who wants a bullshit statement? I'd like one if this city's fine sports journalist to do some digging and find out why we didn't want Roy's services.— Toronto Mike (@torontomike) November 11, 2017
I think we fans deserve to know.
