FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A federal report says Baseball Hall of Famer Roy Halladay had drugs in his system and was doing extreme acrobatics in his small plane when it crashed into Tampa Bay in 2017, killing him.
The National Transportation Safety Board said Wednesday that the former Toronto Blue Jays and Philadelphia Phillies star had amphetamine levels about 10 times therapeutic levels in his system along with other drugs that can impair judgement.
He was doing a series of maneuvers when the plane suddenly nosedived into the water on Nov. 7, 2017.
The report said Halladay had sometimes come within five feet of the water before the crash.
Halladay, a Denver-area native who grew up in Aurora and Arvada, played baseball at Arvada West high school before enjoying an extremely successful MLB career that included two Cy Young Awards – one in both the American League for Toronto and National League for Philadelphia.
He had a career record of 203-105 with a 3.38 ERA and eight seasons of at least 220 innings pitched. He was a league-leader in complete games seven times and joined Don Larsen as the only two pitchers in major-league history to pitch a postseason no-hitter.
In January 2019, he became a rare, first-time eligible Hall of Fame candidate to gain election when he received 363 of a possible 425 votes, or 84.5 percent – well more than the 75 percent threshold.
