(PHOTO: Howard Smith/USA TODAY Sports)
According to multiple reports, longtime Major League starting pitcher Roy Halladay will announce his retirement on Monday.
For a 10-season stretch from 2002 to 2011, Halladay was about the best pitcher in baseball. Over that time, the righty went 170-75 with a 2.97 ERA, made seven All-Star teams, and won two Cy Young Awards.
Known for his incredible work ethic and impeccable control, Halladay seemed the rare pitcher who might succeed into his late 30s when he threw 233 2/3 innings with a 2.35 ERA for the Phillies in his age-34 season in 2011.
But no matter how it appeared to NL East opponents at that time, Halladay turned out to be a human being like the rest of us. His age and the remarkable mileage on his arm began to catch up with him in 2012, limiting him to 156 1/3 mediocre innings in 2012 and 62 largely awful ones last season.
In his prime, Halladay was about as dominant and intimidating a presence as has graced a Major League mound in the past few decades. And no outing better embodied his excellence than his postseason debut on Oct. 6, 2010, when he faced the minimum 27 batters in an eight-strikeout, one-walk no-hitter against the Reds to open the NLDS.
It stands among the greatest postseason pitching performances in Major League history:
Halladay will retire as a member of the Toronto Blue Jays, the team that drafted him out of high school in the first round of the 1995 Draft. He finishes his career with 203 wins, 2117 strikeouts, a 3.38 ERA, and very sturdy case for the Hall of Fame when he becomes eligible in five years.
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