Finally someone asks me. Ok, between the 2011 and the 2012 season Halladay and his buddy Chris Carpenter went fishing down in South America, Carpenter fell in the river and was getting attacked by a snake, Halladay jumper in and saved him.
Since then neither has pitched well, Carpenter was reported as having thoracic outlet syndrome, i.e nerve compression in the neck-shoulder area causing numbness and Halladay was reported as having shoulder issues but more importantly his heat exhaustion, the sweating and the weight loss.
Was he checked for parasites or mosquito-born illnesses? Did he pick up something in that tropical river. You would think that the team Doc would have checked but who knows? Otherwise did 2 highly paid multi-millionaire players nix their careers by going fishing in the offseason?
I don’t think I ever heard that story about the river, if I did I forgot. Articles I can find say Roy helped save a fisherman who’d been bitten on the behind by an anaconda. Carpenter and BJ Ryan where also there but no mention of them helping.
Whatever happened I’d wager probably has nothing to do with their poor pitching. Both of them have a history of injuries and are getting up there in age. The human arm wasn’t designed for throwing a baseball. Halladay had heat exhaustion trouble during the 2011 season, prior to the the trip.
If Halladay does have some kind of parasite that’s gone undiagnosed, that would sure be weird. Yuck, the mere thought of say intestinal worms, is very disturbing.