When I asked Braden why Roy wanted to coach and why he gave so generously to the Calvary Christian program, his smile mirrored his father’s in the selfie after the championship game. “It was because it was my team,” he said. “Yeah, it’s also because of the other kids … I’ve known and grown up with so many of them and he was always around them. It’s like a big family that has been together for years, all through school. And he was like a big kid when he was with this team. It’s hard to go from playing baseball your whole life to being done. This was the thing that got him excited. There were parts of last season when he was more excited than I was. He was just that into it.



“Giving to the program, that’s just the way he is,” Braden continued. “He’s always been the most giving person I know. He was always trying to give back. He would take what he had been given and try to find a way to give it to someone else.”



Roy Halladay gave the Warriors the funds for a beautiful stadium, but he also gave something intangible and invaluable in that one season in the Calvary Christian dugout. I told Braden that I had spoken to Jonathan Fisher about Roy convincing him to believe in himself and settling him down in the first inning of the championship game, though Fisher couldn’t remember a word of the talk. I asked Braden how his father would have calmed down Fisher when things were threatening to go sideways.

“It was like when you’re a kid and you’re lost in a store,” Braden began. “You’re scared until your mom comes and then you’re all right. That’s how it was with my dad. If you’re on the mound or even in the bullpen and you pull off a little bit, don’t know what you’re doing wrong, he would come over and fix one little thing and then the next pitch is like five miles an hour harder on the corner. It wasn’t just that he knew what he was doing; just his presence made it so much better. We’re just kids, so with some coaches we’re going to think we know best. But with my dad, if he told you something you didn’t even question it. And he never gave up on anybody. He was the ultimate moral support.”