It seemed as if the Toronto Blue Jays just couldn't get it right in spring training - that in explaining the profound change in their clubhouse dynamic caused by the trade of Roy Halladay, they at times sounded almost petulant.
It is a measure of Halladay's mark on the team that thoughtful players such as Aaron Hill and Shaun Marcum often had to re-jig their statements. There was talk about "walking on egg-shells" around the uber-focussed ace. About the fear of a sideways glance on the day he started. It was suggested that some of the younger players felt he was unapproachable.
Halladay is not a free giver of bon mots. He can be an excruciatingly bland interview, as robotic as when he's on the mound. But Saturday, he seemed freer. It was over and done with.
Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston presented him with a ring and lapel pin for his 15 years of service - in the video room, an on-field ceremony shelved with the G-20-forced move of this inter-league series from the Rogers Centre to Citizens Bank Park. Later, Halladay joked as he spoke at a news conference on the heels of Friday's 9-0 win over his former team. He smiled - and he answered questions about whether he was, indeed, tough to approach.
"I thought in certain respects a lot of them were hesitant," Halladay said. "That's the tough part of being somewhere for so long. These guys are coming up while you're already there.
"It was tough for me seeing Pat Hentgen. Everybody talks about these guys - the coaches preach about them, tell you about what they do, and that makes it tough some times. It builds it up and makes it hard for you to approach guys."
This was a rare Halladay: expansive, to the point of making you yearn for more. He planned on speaking to his former teammates over the next two days, but it was his opinion of his new teammates that was most telling and suggested that Halladay really is home here - even though he said Friday that he wouldn't feel like a full-fledged Phillie until he plays in a playoff game.
"I knew about the fans, city and players but I think the part that surprised me the most was the preparation of the players," said Halladay. "I'm talking about Chase Utley. Ryan Howard. Jimmy (Rollins.) The time they put in, the attitude they go out and play with, that definitely surprised me. Going into spring training and seeing them get after it was an eye-opener."
Halladay was asked what it would take for the Blue Jays to get to that level. He shrugged.
"To me, Chase Utley is obviously the driving force behind this team," Halladay said of the Phillies second baseman. "He'll never admit it, but his preparation and desire is second to none.
"He's the Derek Jeter of the National League. I don't know how you teach that or if you're born with it, but you get one guy like that … and put a couple of guys around them who are pretty good … and a lot of that carries over."
One of the favourite parlor games of some members of the Toronto media is trying to spin the "poor old Roy" narrative, about how former general manager J.P. Ricciardi did him wrong last season when he very publicly put Halladay on the trade bloc. It is, of course, a simplistic argument that does not give the player enough credit and overlooks the fact that Halladay leveraged this deal. He ended up with what he wanted: a trade to a contender whose spring training site is as near to his Florida home as the Blue Jays Dunedin digs. And a contract extension.
Thankfully, Halladay doesn't play along and has said several times that Ricciardi took a lot of heat off him. But it is understandable that the rumours, which picked up speed at the All-Star Game, must have interfered with his sense of single-mindedness.
"You try to balance it the best you can, but you can't tell everybody 'no' all the time, and that was the hard part for me," Halladay said. "You're trying to do the best you can to focus on your job - pitching - but by the same token you have to at some point answer the questions outside of the on-field stuff. That was exhausting. It seemed like there was always something there, always somebody who wanted to talk.
"It was definitely a lot more than I anticipated when it first started," said Halladay. "But, you see that a lot, now, with different aspects - the (Stephen) Strasburgs and things like that. With all the media out there those things generate steam pretty quickly."