Roy Halladay Is Awesome

There are several reasons why I like Roy Halladay other than the fact that he is an amazing pitcher. For starters, he is as hard a worker as any pitcher out there. Also, he is a humble guy and a class act the likes of which you do not find every day in major American professional sports. Case and point, Roy Halladay has decided to thank all of his teammates who helped make the perfect game on May 29, 2010 possible. From the Twitter account of Delaware County Times beat writer Ryan Lawrence.

That is simply awesome. I just hope he remembers to send one to Juan Castro.....

Update: Per Ryan Lawrence, Juan Castro will get a watch, as will essentially everyone was a part of the Phillies team that day, whether they physically played in the game or not (i.e. bullpen pitchers and bench players are getting watches as well). Also, per Matt Gelb, Milt Thompson is receiving one as well. For a little more about Roy's presenting of the watches, here is an article from Gelb's blog, The Phillies Zone

The righthander purchased around 60 Baume & Mercier watches to commemorate his perfect game May 29. He gave out the watches as gifts to everyone in the clubhouse — all of the players who were on the active roster then, the entire coaching staff, all clubhouse personnel (including bat boy Rob DiClementi), training and video staff as well as public relations officials.

The watches were enclosed in brown boxes with an inscription on the front: “We did it together. Thanks, Roy Halladay.”

“Unbelievable,” Raul Ibanez said as he opened his. “Wow.”

It’s not unusual for a pitcher to reward his teammates for a milestone like a perfect game. Halladay went beyond that.

Each watch was engraved on the back with the date of the game and the linescore. Every watch was personalized, the person’s name engraved on the back of their watch.

“That’s awesome,” Ryan Howard said, as he inspected the thick instruction manual that came with every watch.

[...]

A little more than an hour before first pitch, the players sat at their lockers, finagling with the watches. Halladay, from the corner of the room, watched and smiled.

Brad Lidge shook his head in disbelief. He wasn’t even in Miami the night Halladay threw the perfect game. Instead, he was pitching in a rehab game 100 miles north in Port St. Luice, Fla.

Like I said above, simply awesome.

Mike Jerrick Wants You To Ride The What Train???

Oh man....if there is anything funnier than a live on air slip up, it is making the same mistake again and then realizing it.

Everyone, say hello to Fox 29's Mike Jerrick. Mike Jerrick was on the streets of Philly this morning interviewing some ex-members of the Padilla Flotilla. For those that do not know, Vincente Padilla is a former Phillie and this apparently was one of his fan groups. Anyway, young Mike was curious as to if there was any Phillie that they could get behind now now that Padilla is with the enemy. The first thought that came to Mike's mind was Carlos Ruiz and the "Chooch Train". I say that that is the first thought that came to his mind because that is not exactly what Mike Jerrick called it....



"There's a new group called The Cooch Train. Could you ride The Cooch Train?"

OOH!!! OOH!!!! I DO!!! I DO!!!! PICK ME, PICK ME!!!!

Too funny!!! In defense of Mike Jerrick, though, he is not a regular sports reporter, but at the same time, surely you've seen a Phillies game or 2 and know that Ruiz's nickname is "Chooch", especially if you were going into town to do an interview and you knew that you were going to bring him up. You gotta love his attitude, though when he realized his slip-up. Yeah, just call the guys, it was one innocent slip-up, what are they gonna do? You gotta love it. Good times.....goooooooood times!

Fox 29's Mike Jerrick would like you to ride the Cooch Train (The Fightins)