By Bob Elliott

Canadian Baseball Network

One of Heather (Halladay) Basile’s best memories of her late brother, Roy Halladay, was her most recent.

And her last memory.

Heather’s brother Roy died when his ICON A5 amphibious plane Nov. 7, 2017 into the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida. Halladay, an Arvada, Col. native, was elected to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. Tuesday gaining 85.4% of the vote from 10-year members of the Baseball Writers of America Association.

Also elected were New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera (100%), Seattle Mariners’ DH Edgar Martinez (85.4%), and former Baltimore Oriole and Yankee starter Mike Mussina (76.7%). Larry Walker (Maple Ridge, BC) jumped from 34% to 54.6% with one year remaining on the ballot.

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Memory: Heather and husband Joe, along with children Gianna, 19 and Kate 12 went to see son Dominic, play in the USSSA All American 13U tournament in August of 2017. The tourney was staged at the ESPN complex in Lake Buena Vista near Orlando. Heather’s other daughter Ashley, 15 had gone to California on vacation.

After the team was eliminated brother, sister and children visited Universal Studios.

“As we are leaving the park my brother Roy is walking ahead with my son Dominic,” said Heather from Parker, Col. this week. “All of a sudden Roy starts speed walking. Dominic does the same to try to keep even. Then Roy takes off running. That’s always how he was ... even a walk to the car was competitive.”

The race/non-race contest went so far that Roy told nephew Dominic “Stop. We’re done. Stop, I mean it.”

“And then,” Heather said, “My brother took off running again.”

It was the first opportunity Roy had to see Dominic play. A natural catcher, who turns 14 next week at 5-foot-9 and 140 pounds, he is trying his hand on the mound.

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The Worst Day Ever: Heather’s brother dominated the news cycle on Nov. 7, 2017 be it Toronto, Philadelphia, Denver or throughout baseball.

Heather’s husband, Joe recorded most of the shows from MLB Network. Heather says she really hasn’t watched everything or even close to it.

“Like the TMZ clip of Roy’s plane flying in an erratic manner,” Heather said. “There was a helicopter view from above where you could see my brother floating.”

Awful.

Heather attended her brother’s celebration of life the Phillies hosted at Spectrum Field in Clearwater. After retiring Roy Halladay was hired to work with the Phillies young minor leaguers. There were enough instructors teaching mechanics. Halladay wanted to help with young pitcher’s “heads.”

There were tears.

There was laughter.

Like when ex-Blue Jay RHP Chris Carpenter told the story of Halladay and he -- two fellow Blue Jays No. 1 picks -- going into the Amazon jungle to fish ... and jumping out of the boat into the muddy water.

Heather, the little sister, did not have to do TV interviews on that “tough night” in Clearwater. Heather did speak to many of her older brother’s former teammates.

“Carlos Ruiz said some amazing things about my brother,” Heather said. “He told me how Roy would not talk to anyone on days he pitched. But Carlos said ‘He would always talk to me on game days.’ Carlos said What an amazing guy my brother was, how he wanted to do well and how he was going to miss him.”

Ruiz told Heather on every Opening Day every after Heather’s brother retired, Roy would call Ruiz wishing him the best.

Former Blue Jays No. 1 picks Chris Carpenter, left and Roy Halladay jump into the Amazon River.

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Want to go fishing: St. Louis Cardinals ace Chris Carpenter beat Halladay 1-0 in Game 5 of the NL Division Series on Oct. 7, 2011 at Citizens Bank Park. Carpenter explained how Halladay had texted while he was still on the bus from his locker. “He congratulate me and wished me good luck the rest of the way.”

One day they were fishing, in 100-degrees weather.

“Roy wanted to jump into the Amazon River,” Carpenter told those assembled. “Remember we’re in the jungle. The water is as clear as a cup of coffee. And we’ve been catching piranhas all day. I looked at him and said, ‘You’re nuts.’ He said, ‘I know. Come on Carp, it’s wicked hot and I’m sweating like crazy. We can say that we swam in the Amazon River. Who do we know who could ever say that?’ OK, good point, let’s do it.”

Halladay belly-flopped into that coffee-colored water and did the backstroke. Carpenter yelled at Halladay to get back into the boat before he is eaten by something

“I jumped in,” Carpenter said. “Before I could even hit the water, I was doggy-paddling in the air to get back out. We were still pretty sure we wouldn’t meet anybody else in our lives who said they did that.”

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Farewell grandpa: Sisters Heather and Merinda lost their grandfather, Owen King, on Nov. 18. Roy’s mother Linda lost her father.

He was 101.

“I really think our grandpa stuck around a little bit longer to help us through this,” Heather said. “He is now with my brother and it’s been real hard to handle. They are two really important people in my life.”

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Halladay Mentors: From an early age Roy Halladay was lucky to have strong influences in his life like his parents, his sisters, pitching instructor Bus Campbell, who later was a Blue Jays scout and Harvey Dorfman a mental skills coach.

Dorfman wrote The Mental ABC’s of Pitching: A Handbook for Performance Enhancement; The Mental Keys to Hitting: A Handbook of Strategies for Performance Enhancement and The Mental Game of Baseball: A Guide to Peak Performance. All are still popular reads amongst young ball players.

More than once Roy said to sister Heather “I really wish you would have met Harvey Dorfman.”

Heather was asked if she had bought the book for Dominic? And replied that they had the audio book.

As a sandlot coach I probably had told a dozen parents to buy The Mental ABC’s of Pitching or The Mental Game of Baseball for their sons. Imagine my surprise one Dunedin morning walking past Roy’s locker and seeing a tattered and torn Mental ABC’s of Pitching sitting in his locker.

“You read that book?”

Roy told me to sit down and leafed through the dog-eared pages of the book. Every couple of pages paragraphs were marked with yellow high-lites. He told me he read the book, or parts of it before every start. I forget the number he told me, but he was closing in on double figures of copies purchased. Roy gave one copy to A.J. Burnett, highlights included.

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The New Bus: Thanks to Roy, coach Mark Johnson has been working on Dominic’s pitching mechanics. Johnson used to assist Bus.

“Mark is not all about money, where every other day someone asks for $60,” Heather said. “Mark is there where we need him. My brother got really lucky, he attracted a lot of that with his work athletic

Campbell would not accept a penny from the Halladay family for working with their son from 13 until his draft day charting pitches in every game Roy started and passing on gentle suggestions until the day Campbell spoke. The Cy Young award winner spoke at Campbell’s funeral in Littleton, Col.

Roy’s mom Linda, the best baker in Arvada, used to bake apple pies and cookies as payment to Campbell.

“Mark will not take any money,” said Heather. “My mom bakes the best pies, we may have to get him a pie. We have thought a lot about Bus.”

Heather did not make the opening day ceremonies at the Rogers Centre in 2018 when they retired her brother’s No. 32.

“We keep talking about coming,” said Heather. “It is on our list of things to do this year. My brother did love the city and the way the fans were so welcoming.”

Heather’s son Dominic wears his uncle’s No. 32 that he wore with the Blue Jays. When Heather’s brother was dealt to Philadelphia by Blue Jays general manager J. P. Ricciardi, he switched to No. 34. Lefty Steve Carlton wore No. 32 for the Phillies and his number was retired when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame.

You can believe that it you want .... but No. 34 was Heather’s number in fastball with the Arvada Cardinals from the mini-Cardinals all the way up to the 16U Cardinals. Roy went to watch his sister pitch and “supported me as any brother would, he never allowed me to slack.”

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Not that the sisters and the brother were competitive 1.0: Merinda played basketball for the Idaho State Bengals. So her brother was in tough when he challenged her to making free throws one summer on the mid way.

Merinda would win.

Roy would say: “Again.”

Merinda would win again.

Roy would say: “Again.”

Again and again they played. Again and again Merinda won.

“Finally, my brother said ‘Let’s go across the midway and see who throws the hardest,’” recalls Heather.

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Gimpy leg: The day before he would pitch for West Arvada High coach Jim Capra constantly told Halladay to ease up on playing hoops, fearing an injury. One day all the Wildcats sat on the bus awaiting Halladay, their scheduled starter in the state semi-final.

Out he came.

Limping.

Wearing a cast on his leg.

The coach freaked out until Halladay bent over and removed the fake cast he borrowed from a trainer.

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Pitching or hitting or both: Heather says her daughter Gianna talks to Braden, a high school senior, Roy’s son often. And Braden shows, “A sense of humour similar to my brother,” according to Heather.

Braden pitched for the Canadian Junior National Team last spring and handled the ballot as if he had 15 years in thee majors. Braden recalled asking his father if he was coming to the game. Roy said that the team was out on the road. Braden replied: “You have a satellite dish, you can still watch my game.”

At the T-ball diamond, Braden asked mom, Brandy, “‘Where’s my locker? Where’s the bullpen?’” Braden was used to going to the major-league clubhouses.

Roy and Brandy Halladay’s younger son, Ryan, plays ball, but also is a talented tuba player. Heather says some of Ryan’s mannerisms, “Remind me of my brother.”

Heather jokes at what a terrible hitter her brother was batting .124 lifetime (34-for-275). Heather remembers Roy hitting home runs in Little League and being a good hitter, no doubt the benefit of the whole family taking batting practice at a neighbourhood park in Arvada, with mom Linda and pop Roy taking turns throwing batting practice as sisters Merinda and Heather tracked down flies in the outfield. They’d hit buckets of balls for a couple of hours.

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Not that the sisters and the brother were competitive II: Heather’s husband Joe Basile, a software engineer and architect, had his picture on the cover of Colorado Hunting and Fishing magazine after catching a big one ice fishing at the Williams Fork Reservoir.

Heather took a picture, texted her brother’s phone with the message: “Who is the all-star now?”

Joe and Heather were in Vegas when her phoned beeped.

“It was my brother sending these pictures of ginormous fish from the Amazon,” Heather recalled. “The fish was 2-to-3 times the size.”

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Not that the sisters and the brother were competitive III: When Heather’s family visited Florida the family went fishing.

Heather’s husband Joe and brother Roy were in one boat.

Roy’s son Ryan and Heather’s son Dominic were in the other.

Immediately the peaceful afternoon of relaxing fishing became a contest.

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Younger sisters always have the best stories. As kids, Heather, 4 1/2 years younger, and Roy would ride Yamaha mopeds through streams or travel in a leaky boat searching for frogs and garden snakes. Heather got stuck doing the bailing.

Roy flew the whole family in a private plane to Tampa to watch Roy, Jr. make his major-league debut Sept. 20, 1998 at Tropicana Field. He worked five innings allowing three runs -- two earned -- on eight hits and two walks. He fanned five and threw 93 pitches, four less pitches than in Game 162 when Detroit Tigers’ Bobby Higginson broke up his no hitter with two out in the ninth.

“I think I cried, when they announced ‘And pitching for Toronto ...’“ Heather said. “To know what he was striving for all those years and see him there. I’m very emotional, I probably cried the whole game.”

The Jays won that day 7-5 when Benito Santiago hit two-run homer in the 12th.

In the Halladay house there was Big Roy the father and Little Roy the son. The pitcher was in the outfield and fans were calling his name: “Roy! Roy! Hey No. 34 ... sign my book.” Even Roy’s mother called his name.

Nothing.

Linda yelled “Little Roy,” and her son turned and came over to the fence saying “Oh, there you are.”

As school teachers sometimes called him Harry or Leroy because his name was Harry Leroy Halladay. But he was always Roy.

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The news: I was very happy when I heard Hall of Fame CEO Jeff Idelson said that Halladay had achieved 75% of the vote and was inducted. The first Blue Jay draft choice ever elected. Scouting director Bob Engle, cross checker Tim Wilken, scouts Chris Bourjos and Bus Campbell were in on the Jays selecting Halladay in the first round in 1995 (17th over-all) in Gord Ash’s first year as GM.

Then I felt so sad ... because Harry Leroy Halladay III will not be in Cooperstown in July.

But I know Harry Leroy will be looking down from a cloud, seated in a row with his grandpa, Owen King, his former instructor Bus Campbell and Blue Jays Colorado-based scout Wilbur (Moose) Johnson.

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The Last Word: “I am lucky to be able to call him my brother,” Heather said. “I just wish he was here.”