The death of eight-time all-star Roy Halladay in a plane crash at the age of just 40 on Tuesday led to an outpouring of grief. Many of his former team-mates and opponents described the pitcher not just as a great player but also a great friend.
That didn’t stop radio host Michael Felger mocking Halladay on Boston’s 98.5 The Sports Hub on Wednesday. A TMZ video showed Halladay’s plane apparently performing risky manoeuvres before the crash, something that Felger latched on to.
“He’s not a militarily-trained pilot, he’s not a professionally-trained pilot, he’s a Joe Q Citizen who buys a plane that folds up and you can put in your garage and that’s amphibious,” said Felger. “‘Wheee! Oh look, I just landed on the water, everybody! I’m going to tweet it!’ Splat. You’re dead. With two kids. Moron.”
Felger also joked about the death of a test pilot who died while flying the same model of plane as Halladay’s earlier this year. “I don’t want to blame the plane for the fact that the [test pilot who was killed] wanted to divebomb through mountains! You idiot! ‘Yeah, let’s divebomb through mountains! Cause it’s cool, and I’m going to put my hand out the window! And I’m going to tweet it!’ Splat! That ain’t the plane’s fault. This thing that Halladay was doing, diving from 100 feet to five … idiot. Oh God.”
The 10-minute slot on the former Blue Jays and Phillies pitcher also included ‘splat’ sound effects. Felger ended the slot with a joke about the death of Nascar legend Dale Earnhardt Sr, who was killed at the Daytona 500 in 2001. “Who was it, Dale Earnhardt, the race car driver who died? I root for the wall,” said Felger.
Huge surprise. Michael Felger opens his show today expressing regret for his insensitive comments about Roy Halladay's death.
— Ƒunhouse (@BackAftaThis) November 9, 2017
[NBC Sports Boston] pic.twitter.com/ZxeJZvFrXj
On Thursday, Felger apologized on air after he received huge amounts of backlash for his comments. “I feel bad about what happened on a lot of levels,” he said. “I feel bad about what I said and how I conducted myself ... [Halladay’s family] are the ones dealing with enough now not to have me come over the top ... sorry does not do justice as it relates to them.”
Felger did, however, appear to stand by the reasoning behind his original comments. “There is stuff I did mean but the presentation and the tone and the hyperbole was just low class.”
Halladay is survived by his wife and two children.