Halladay putting himself in very special Philadelphia company

It was always about this, about going into a high-stakes series with Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, and Cole Hamels lined up as the Phillies starting pitchers.

It is no accident that Halladay's is the first name on that list. If the Phillies have their way, he will be the starter in Game 1 of every playoff series, just as he was in the first game of this midseason showdown with Atlanta for first place in the National League East.

There was a postseason feel for Friday's game, if only because of the nearly two-hour rain delay that preceded it. Halladay wasn't at his best, but he persevered through a long evening and, as always, gave the Phillies a chance to win – which they did on Raul Ibanez's 10th-inning home run.

"Any time you can give your team a chance to win as a starting pitcher," Halladay said, "that's the ultimate goal."

Lee had a brilliant June. Hamels keeps getting better, as remarkable as that seems. But, for now at least, Halladay is the ace di tutti aces, The Man among men.

He also has a chance to be something more: one of, if not the, best acquisitions in the history of Philadelphia sports. Halfway through his second season with the Phillies, Halladay is already on the short list.

He will go to his second All-Star Game in red pinstripes this week, and his eighth overall. He has started a total of 54 games for the Phillies, including the 2010 playoffs. He has won 24 of them. He has pitched a perfect game and a rare playoff no-hitter, and won the Cy Young Award.

"You never want to look back, especially at the middle point of the year, and pat yourself on the back," Halladay said after Friday's game. "I think it's more important to look at things you can do better. I feel there's definitely a lot of those things. There's room for improvement."

There is no way to quantify the impact of that approach on the rest of the staff. Florida outfielder Logan Morrison may have put his finger on it with a tweet last week after rookie Vance Worley beat the Marlins, 1-0, on the Fourth of July: "Thanks (for nothing) to all my Philly tweeps for giving me the heads up that Worley has become Halladay's apprentice. . ."

It's hard to ask for much more from any player acquired with the kind of high expectations that loomed over Halladay. In fact, there is only one thing: a championship.

That is the ultimate criterion for any list of greatest player acquisitions in Philadelphia history. We're not talking about homegrown stars like Mike Schmidt, Bobby Clarke or Ryan Howard. We're talking about established players who came in with great expectations and delivered the goods. It's a small club:

Bernie Parent and Moses Malone were proven stars who came to Philadelphia and delivered championships in their very first seasons. That's the very definition of a major and immediate impact.

Parent, acquired (like Halladay) in a trade with Toronto, won the Vezina Trophy, the Stanley Cup, and the Conn Smythe as playoff MVP in each of his first two seasons. That's pretty hard to top. Malone came close, leading the near-miss Sixers to a title and winning MVP of the Finals in his first season.

Pete Rose famously got the Schmidt/Carlton Phillies over the top, but not until his second season. That puts him ahead of old-school candidate Norm Van Brocklin, who quarterbacked the Eagles to the NFL title in his third season.

Steve Carlton was a greater player over a longer period of time, but he was here eight years before winning that 1980 World Series. Still: 27 wins in his first season counts for plenty.

During the giddy 2004 season, as the Eagles made it look easy almost every week, it would have been impossible to deny Terrell Owens' impact. Ultimately, though, he may not have been the most significant big-time Eagles acquisition from San Francisco. Ricky Watters was really good for a few years here.

There is one more guy who belongs near the top of this list, and he's still around. Brad Lidge didn't have quite the same level of expectations and pressure when he came over from Houston, but he did deliver a perfect season that ended with the 2008 World Series title.

Although Halladay couldn't have done much more in 2010, the Phillies fell short of the World Series in his first season here. He is doing what he can to give himself and his teammates another chance. It has not been easy. Halladay endured the deaths of his two most important baseball mentors - sports psychologist Harvey Dorfman and pitching coach Mel Queen - in the span of six weeks.

They were the men who taught him to focus and to pitch through adversity and pain. It is fitting that he has honored their memory with another consistently excellent season.

If that season ends with a championship, it will complete Halladay's long personal quest. It will also place him in some pretty special company among Philadelphia's greatest athletes.