Roy Halladay - Early Life

Early Life

Born in Denver, Colorado, he grew up in the suburb of Arvada; his father was a pilot for a food-processing company, while his mother was a homemaker. From an early age, Halladay loved baseball, trying every position on the field until, by age 14, his success on the pitcher's mound attracted the attention of major league scouts. By the age of 13, he had begun training with legendary Colorado baseball guru Bus Campbell, who had helped almost every promising pitcher from the Denver area, including Goose Gossage and Brad Lidge.

In 1995, after graduating from Arvada West High School, he was selected by the Toronto Blue Jays in the amateur draft, in the first round, as the 17th overall pick. He was promoted to the major-league club as a September call-up in 1998.

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