As baseball lovers in Colorado, we will always remember the late, great Roy Halladay like this: A big right-hander for the Phillies, standing tall on the mound in 2010, as cool and hard as granite, as he mowed down Cincinnati batters with a nasty cutter to become only the second pitcher in major-league history to throw a no-hitter in the playoffs.
But on the wintry Tuesday that the greatest baseball player in our state’s history was voted into the Hall of Fame, the first image that crossed the mind of a man who loved Halladay like a father was not from any of the 203 victories or two Cy Young awards earned in the big leagues.