Two Boston talk show hosts on a sports radio station on Wednesday mocked the late pitcher Roy Halladay, who died Tuesday in a plane crash in the Gulf of Mexico.
Michael Felger and Tony Massorotti, who host a daily talk show on Boston’s WBZ-FM 98.5 The Sports Hub, said on Wednesday that Halladay deserved to die because ‘you know the risks’.
The hosts criticized Halladay for being ‘cavalier’ about life by flying dangerously.
Felger’s commentary also included sound effects of an airplane crashing.
‘It angers me,’ Felger said at the start of a lengthy rant.
Two Boston talk show hosts on a sports radio station on Wednesday mocked the late pitcher Roy Halladay (above), who died Tuesday in a plane crash in the Gulf of Mexico
Michael Felger (left) and Tony Massorotti (right), who host a daily talk show on Boston’s WBZ-FM 98.5 The Sports Hub, said on Wednesday that Halladay deserved to die because ‘you know the risks’
The hosts criticized Halladay for being ‘cavalier’ about life by flying dangerously. Felger’s commentary also included sound effects of an airplane crashing
‘Someone, who, I don’t know, is so cavalier about life and just doesn’t appreciate the tenuousness of life and is willing to screw around with life and death? Especially when you have children, or a family?
‘That guy’s like the bad guy to me. You’ve got a family! And you’re going to screw around in a little toy plane?
‘You’re a multimillionaire with a loving family, and to you, you have to go get that thing where you can divebomb from 100 feet to five above the water with your single-engine plane with your hand out the window.
“’Wheee! Wheee! Yeah, man, look at the G-force on this! I’m Maverick! Pew pew pew! Yeah, man, look at this, this is so cool”.’ And you die! Splat!’
In response to the backlash, Massorotti tweeted: ‘If you haven’t see the Halladay video, watch. And then try to tell me your thoughts haven’t changed’
The video he was referring to was footage in which Roy Halladay’s plane was filmed diving ‘aggressively’ towards the ocean (left) before his crash. It then skimmed low across the water (right). Witnesses said he’d been doing that ‘all week’
Footage then showed the plane’s twisted wreckage floating in the water. On Wednesday, a critic said that the plane had been inappropriately and dangerously marketed as a ‘flying toy’
‘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, “Wheee! Oh look, I just landed on the water, everybody! I’m going to tweet it!” Splat. You’re dead. With two kids. Moron.’
Massarotti chimed in by saying that Halladay’s death was not a tragedy.
‘What bugs me about a story like this is when they use the word “tragedy”,’ he said.
‘A tragedy is what happened at that church in Texas this past weekend, or an orphanage burning down.
‘This? You know what the risks are! …If you’re a thrill-seeker and you die this way, you know the risks. It’s an unfortunate circumstance, not a tragedy.’
In response to the backlash, Massorotti tweeted: ‘If you haven’t see the Halladay video, watch. And then try to tell me your thoughts haven’t changed.’
Massorotti’s explanation on Twitter didn’t satisfy those who were outraged over the insensitive rant
Massorotti was referring to the newly released footage which shows Halladay performing dangerous stunts in his micro plane over the Gulf of Mexico shortly before his fatal crash on Tuesday.
The 40-year-old former baseball player and amateur pilot of three years died when his special-edition Icon A5 amphibious plane plunged into the water.
This was the third A5 crash this year, including one that killed the plane’s lead designer in May.
Footage shot by an unidentified man on Tuesday afternoon shows the plane swinging down towards the sea to the astonished cries of spectators, and curling around, just above the sea.
A second clip shows the same group racing by boat towards the wreckage, which floats, broken, on the water.
Exactly what happened before Halladay crashed remains unclear, but witnesses told TMZ that he had been hot-dogging by ‘dramatically increasing and decreasing in elevation’ before the crash.
Another said: ‘He was flying like that all week. Aggressively.’
Halladay, an ex-MLB pitcher had been given the first in a special series of A5s (pictured) and was promoting it for the company. But his became the third to crash this year
A federal official investigating the crash said that witnesses who saw Halladay fly off the coast of central Florida thought Halladay maneuvered his plane at low altitude.
The plane is marketed at people who have never flown before; on Wednesday, concerns were raised about representing the unique $389,000 seaplane as a ‘Jet Ski with wings’ that can skim the surface of the ocean.
Massorotti’s explanation on Twitter didn’t satisfy those who were outraged over the insensitive rant.
‘Halladay was being reckless, yes, but Felger is acting like a total jackass,’ tweeted one listener.
‘Talk about dancing on someone’s grave.’
‘Tony Massarotti and Michael Felger should be absolutely ashamed of themselves,’ tweeted another listener.
‘What they said about Roy Halladay is disgusting. Showboating!? I saw the video, he was FLYING THE PLANE around the water. “Showboating.” Idiots. Sorry he enjoyed flying planes you scumbags.’
Another tweeted: ‘One last thing about Felger. Roy Halladay was 100% more qualified to fly that plane than Michael Felger is to be a radio host.’
Halladay is best known for pitching for the Philadelphia Phillies (left in 2013) and Toronto Blue Jays. He posted up several videos and pictures (one right) taken in his Icon A5
Halladay won a Cy Young Award as the best pitcher in both the American and National Leagues, was named an eight-time All-Star and amassed 203 regular-season victories.
He became a certified pilot in 2013, the year he retired from Major League Baseball, and had logged 700 hours in flight, according to National Transportation Safety Board investigator Noreen Price.
Halladay began his career with the Toronto Blue Jays in 1998 and was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies in 2009.
In 2010, he threw the second no-hitter in MLB post-season history, playing for the Phillies in Game 1 of the National League Division Series against the Cincinnati Reds.
Halladay had settled in the Tampa Bay area, according to local media.