Philadelphia Phillies Greats Part of Top 100 Pro Athletes List

Two Philadelphia Phillies stars are part of a web site’s new list of the Top 100 players of the 21st century.

Jul 13, 2024; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Bryce Harper (3) reacts after hitting a home run against the Oakland Athletics in the seventh inning at Citizens Bank Park. / Kyle Ross-USA TODAY Sports

The Philadelphia Phillies have had some tremendous players the last 25 years. But, recently, two of them made a list of the Top 100 professional athletes of the 21st century put together by ESPN.

One is current Phillies first baseman Bryce Harper, who was ranked No. 79. The other is the late Roy Halladay, who was selected No. 88.

ESPN received more than 70,000 votes from contributors that were only allowed to take into account an athlete’s success the past 25 years. Nos. 26-100 have been released and the Top 25 will be released on Thursday.

Harper’s career is completely contained within the past 25 years, as he rose to prominence as a 16-year-old phenom in his native Las Vegas and made his MLB debut as a 19-year-old with the Washington Nationals in 2012. He joined the Phillies in 2019.

He’s already won a pair of National League MVP awards, the latest in 2021, along with the NL Rookie of the Year award and three Silver Sluggers. He just made his seventh All-Star Game appearance and was the 2022 NLCS MVP.

He’s batting .301 this season with 21 home runs and 61 RBI. For his career he is batting .282 with 327 home runs and 950 RBI. He could join the 500-home run list later in his career.

The Phillies enter the second half of the season with the best record in baseball.

Halladay is in the Baseball Hall of Fame and played all but two seasons of his career in the 25-year sample (1998-2013). He played the majority of his career with Toronto and joined the Phillies in 2010, where he played his final four seasons.

With the Phillies he went 55-29 with a 3.25 ERA. In 2010 he threw a perfect game in the regular season and a no-hitter in the postseason, the first time it happened in a calendar year.

With a career record of 203-105 with a 3.38 ERA, he won two Cy Young award — one in each league — and went to the All-Star Game eight times. He died in a plane crash in 2017.

The other MLB players in the Top 100 to this point are pitcher Pedro Martinez (No. 92), infielder Mookie Betts (No. 73), two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani (No. 62), pitcher Mariano Rivera (No. 59), infielder Derek Jeter (No. 53), infielder Adrian Beltré (No. 52), pitcher Max Scherzer (No. 46), designated hitter David Ortiz (No. 45), infielder Alex Rodriguez (No. 43), pitcher Justin Verlander (No. 40), outfielder Barry Bonds (No. 38), outfielder Ichiro Suzuki (No. 37), infielder Miguel Cabrera (No. 33), pitcher Clayton Kershaw (No. 31), outfielder Mike Trout (No. 30).