Halladay voiced opinion, but doesn’t like headlines twisting comments


Original interview with Halladay in Lakewood on Tuesday night

Roy Halladay was very candid when he spoke about the problems the Phillies have had this year, there was no hesitation in the way that he talked about the issues that needed to be resolved with this team from Lakewood the other night when he started a game for the Lakewood BlueClaws.

Of course Halladay was speaking about the managerial change with Charlie Manuel being ousted and the new manager Ryne Sandberg now in place. Halladay spoke of intangibles, things that the fans and even the press don’t know about all of the time with what happens to a major league ballclub throughout the year. Things that no one else knows about except players on the team.

When asked what may change with the ballclub, Halladay didn’t even have to search his soul for too long before saying that first and foremost, things like being on time and being at meetings and on the field on time was now going to be enforced. Manuel probably had let his certain few players get away with being tardy and didn’t properly enforce things like that, and it really shows on the field. We’ve seen more of ‘keystone cops’ on the baseball field with the Phillies this year than in the prior sum of 3-4 years. Fumbling, bumbling, and could’ve, should’ve, but didn’t from the players this year have kind of caught up with this team.

There is nothing wrong with voicing your opinion, we’ve seen it from closer Jonathan Papelbon as well. It just so happens that when Papelbon voiced his concerns, he promptly went out and got 3 blown saves in a row. That doesn’t mean that what he talked about with the team needed a greater focus and commitment wasn’t true, but his performance wasn’t backing that statement up all that much either.

Well, the very next day, which was yesterday, Roy Halladay back pedaled from the headlines that his interview spawned. Headline writers had taken the liberty of saying that Halladay actually endorsed the firing of Manuel and that’s not what Roy Halladay said. Maybe it’s an overzealous writing team that took up and decided to make that ‘endorsement’ by Halladay a reality by writing it that way. Of course I don’t think that Halladay approved of Manuel being fired, but he certainly voiced an opinion that maybe things will start changing for the better with the Phillies now with Sandberg.

Halladay then gave his own version of what he said again, and this is what he said:

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