Now that the dust is starting to settle around the Roy Halladay move to Philadelphia, the breakdowns and analyses of the trades have begun to take precedence among sports headlines across North America. Halladay was revealed as the newest Phillie in a media conference on Wednesday afternoon where, for the first time, he donned his new red and white jersey. An unnoticed piece to anybody outside of Toronto’s fanbase was the large “34” on the back of the jersey. Doc’s number 32 had to be replaced thanks to Philadelphia’s retiring in 1989 the number in honor of one of the greatest pitchers of all-time - Steve “Lefty” Carlton.

Carlton pitched from 1965 to 1988 for six different teams, but spent 15 of those years in a Phillies uniform. When he joined the team, Carlton put together one of the best seasons a pitcher has ever had. He went 27-10 with a 1.97 ERA in a massive 346.1 innings pitched. He gave up just 76 earned runs, and struck out 310 batters. During his time in Philly, he had 20+ wins five times, at least 240 strikeouts six times, and an ERA under 3.00 five times.

The most notable aspect of his tremendous career was his strikeout race against the greatest strikeout pitchers of all time. Nolan Ryan. Then a Houston Astro, Ryan battled with Carlton for the all-time lead in strikeouts from 1982-84, with each taking the lead seemingly as often as each started a game. By the end of 1984, Ryan would have a two strikeout lead, but an injury-plagued 1985 for Carlton would put an abrupt end to the race. Carlton now sits fourth all-time on the strikeouts list with 4,136, behind Roger Clemens (4,672), Randy Johnson (4,875) and, of course, Ryan (5,714).

His 329-244 record and 3.22 ERA, along with those strikeouts, helped land his name in the baseball Hall of Fame. By the time he finished his career, he won two World Series rings, four Cy Young Awards, a Gold Glove, and was an All-Star 10 times. While he never had a great relationship with the media, they recognized his accomplishments and voted him into the Hall in 1994 as an obvious first-ballot choice. No pitcher since Carlton has pitched 300 innings in a season. Halladay is most definitely one of the best pitchers in baseball, but in the minds of Phillies fans, there will only ever be one “number 32”.