Roy Halladay stood Monday afternoon at the front of a conference room in Clearwater, Fla. He was there, on the second floor of the Phillies’ Carpenter Complex, to lead a presentation for a group of minor-league players. He was there, roughly 24 hours before his death, to teach.
The Phillies hired Halladay in March as a mental skills coach for the minor leaguers who played and trained in Florida. He worked five days a week and had his own office, which included a massage chair. Baseball’s mental side became Halladay’s obsession after he resurrected his career in the early 2000s under the guidance of a sports psychologist named Harvey Dorfman.