Roy Halladay Tells the Story of the Naked Man and the Anaconda
Back in December, we (and every other site on the interwebtuals) relayed to you the story, told by bassmaster Skeet Reese on his blog, of Roy Halladay helping to save a naked man who was attacked by an Anaconda. Halladay, at the time, was on a fishing trip in the Amazon with World Series champion (sorry) Chris Carpenter.
Well, Doc met with the assembled media today, and, thankfully, Delco Times beat reporter Ryan Lawrence was kind enough to broach the subject. Here’s what Doc had to say: [quotes via video by David Hale of Wilmington News Journal]
That fishing trip in the Amazon, can you tell us exactly what happened there? A lot of stories came out of that.
I was not wrestling snakes. I was nowhere near snakes. We were just driving back, and we had been fishing all day. We were on the boat driving back and we happened to see a guy sitting on the shoreline without clothes. We couldn’t talk to him, the guys had to talk to him. They were speaking Portugese, and he had been attacked by a snake and escaped, but it had ripped the engine off his boat and left all his stuff out in the middle of the river. So we picked up his stuff, picked him up and drove him back to his tribe, I guess you would call it.
The story sounds better if you’re wrestling snakes, though, right?
Yeah, yeah.
How did he make it from the boat, where he’d been attacked, to the shoreline with no clothes?
What he was doing, he had nets under water. He was diving for […] fish, and when he was diving he was attacked. It bit him on the backside and started wrapping him, and when he was getting away from it, it pulled the shorts off him. So he swam to the bank and I guess the next closest thing for the snake to grab was the boat engine, so he grabbed his engine.
Where’s that story rank on the list of ones you have to tell?
I’ve told that story more than any other story I’ve ever had. And I got the guys that I went fishing with to thank for leaking it. That was very nice of them.
Have you been asked more questions about that than the perfect game or the no-hitter?
Yeah, I would say I’ve answered more questions about that.
Never a dull day for Doc. He also long-tossed at CBP during the Winter Classic ice build (and in many other places) and showed up for spring training in 1932 Ford Roadster, which he is working to restore.
One item not included in the video, but thankfully made public by Lawrence:
Halladay said the guy he saved was partaking in smoking something. He said the bark is potent.
— Ryan Lawrence (@ryanlawrence21) February 21, 2012
Excellent.