Posted by: Erik Seybold
(Photo Courtesy of @ToddZolecki)
Now this story is going to go on for generations and generations to come. Hell, I'm going to tell it to my own (future) children and then they're going to tell their children. They're going to tell the story of how Roy Halladay, Philly's favorite athlete, saved a naked Amazonian man from an anaconda.
The first time this tale was spoken of was last December when Bassmaster Elite Series Champion Skeet Reese posted the story on his blog, AdvancedAngler.com.
Halladay, best friend Chris Carpenter, and former-reliever B.J. Ryan all went on a fishing trip to the Amazon with Reese in early December. What they would encounter would not only be huge fish, but also a naked man who was… I'll let Roy take this one.
"I was not wrestling snakes. I was nowhere near snakes. We were just driving back. We had been fishing all day and we were on the boat driving back and we happened to see a guy sitting on the shore line without clothes. We couldn't talk to him. The guides had to talk to him. They were speaking Portuguese. He had been attacked by a snake and escaped, but it had ripped the engine off the boat and left all his stuff out in the middle of the river. So we picked up his stuff and drove him back to his tribe, I guess you would call it.
"What he was doing is he had nets underwater because he was diving for Aquarium fish. When he was diving for the fish the snake 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 banks and I guess the next closest thing for the snake to grab was the boat engine.
"By far I've told that story more than any other story I've ever had. And I've got the guys I went fishing with to thank for leaking it."
So there you have it, folks. I know, I'm quite disappointed that Roy didn't kill the snake like many of us would have wished to have happened, but hey the man can only do so much. A perfect game, a no-hitter, some hot rods, a pair of Cy Youngs, and now this story that will live in infamy.
Video courtesy of (@ryanlawrence21/Delco Times)
Well played, Roy.
Erik Seybold is a Contributor for Philliedelphia. You can follow him on Twitter @ErikSeyboldPHI.
