OMNISPORT

Former Major League Baseball pitcher Roy Halladay has died at the age of 40 after a small plane he was flying crashed in the Gulf of Mexico near Tampa.

Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco confirmed at a news conference on Tuesday that the two-time Cy Young Award winner was killed after the plane went down in Holiday, Florida, not far from Halladay's home in Tarpon Springs.

A statement from the Philadelphia Phillies, who Halladay represented between 2010 and 2013 read: "We are numb over the very tragic news about Roy Halladay's untimely death. 

"There are no words to describe the sadness that the entire Phillies family is feeling over the loss of one of the most respected human beings ever to play the game."

Halladay, an eight-time All-Star during his 16-year career with the Toronto Blue Jays and Phillies, repeatedly posted on social media about flying his ICON A5 aircraft. 

He won the American League Cy Young award in 2003 and took National League honours in 2010.

The man nicknamed "Doc" finished in the top five in Cy Young voting on five other occasions in a career that saw him establish himself as one of the foremost rotation workhorses in the game. He compiled at least 220 innings in a season eight times.

Halladay threw a perfect game against the Miami Marlins on May 29, 2010, and followed it up with a no-hitter against the Cincinnati Reds in Game 1 of the teams' NL division series that October. 

He retired at age 36 following the 2013 season due to nagging back problems but immediately took on a prominent role in his Gulf Coast community, coaching Little League and donating money to bolster the K9 program at the Pasco Sheriff's Office.