Ryan James Howard (born
November 19, 1979, in St. Louis, Missouri
) is a Major League
Baseball first baseman for the
Philadelphia Phillies.
Howard is 6' 4" and 260 lbs. He bats and throws
left-handed.
Howard was the
National League
MVP. Howard is the fastest player to reach both the 100 and 200
home run milestones in Major League
Baseball history, passing the marks in 2007 and 2009,
respectively.
Due to Howard's reputation as an extreme
pull hitter, opposing managers often utilize an
unusual
infield shift with him at the
plate, with the
third baseman playing
shortstop, the shortstop playing second
base, and the
second baseman playing
in shallow
right field.
Biography
Minor league years
Selected in the 5th round of the
2001 draft, Howard quickly
ascended the Phillies'
minor
league system, earning consecutive
MVP
awards in the
Florida State and
Eastern leagues ( and
), respectively. Howard also set the single-season home run record
for the Reading Phillies, with 37 in 102 games. On July 31
promotion to triple-A
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. He
became just the fifth minor league player since 1956 to hit at
least 46 home runs. While doing this, he impressed scouts enough
that general managers of several teams tried to lure the Phillies'
Ed Wade into trading him, as
Jim Thome was blocking his path to the
majors.
2004 – September call-up
On September 1, Howard made his first Major League plate
appearance, striking out against
Jaret
Wright in a pinch-hit at-bat (for
Vicente Padilla) in a 7–2 loss to the
Atlanta Braves. On September 6,
Howard logged his first Major League hit in a single at-bat in a
3–1 loss to the Braves; on September 8, he recorded his first
multi-hit game with a double and a single in a 4–1 win over the
Braves. On September 11, Howard hit his first Major League
home run off
Bartolome Fortunato, driving in his
first
RBI and scoring his first run in
an 11–9 win over the
New York
Mets.
Howard had 42 plate appearances in 19 games with the Phillies in
2004. He posted a .282
batting
average with two home runs and five RBI; he also hit five
doubles, drew two
walks, and was hit
by a pitch. Between playing for the Double-A
Reading Phillies, Triple-A
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red
Barons and the Philadelphia Phillies, Howard hit 48 home runs,
which was tied for the highest total in organized baseball in 2004
along with
Adrián Beltré of
the
Los Angeles Dodgers.
2005 – Rookie of the Year
On May 15, Howard recorded his first three-hit game, going 3-for-4
with a double, two singles, and a run-scored in a 4–3 win over the
Cincinnati Reds. On August 23, he
recorded his first four-hit game, going 4-for-5 with a double, a
home run, two singles, three RBI and three runs-scored in a 10–2
win over the
San Francisco
Giants. On July 1, Howard became the Phillies' everyday first
baseman when
slugger Jim Thome was sidelined for the season with an
elbow injury.
Howard, who led all major league
rookies with
22 home runs, also posted a .288 average and 63 RBI in just 312
at-bats and 88 games. He hit 11 home runs and
27 RBI in September and October. Howard finished his rookie season
with 17 doubles, two triples, 52 runs scored, and 100 strikeouts
and 63 runs batted in as the Phillies battled the
Houston Astros for the
National League wild card until getting
eliminated on the last day of the season. Howard was rewarded for
his effort by being named
NL Rookie of the Year, the
fourth Phillie to win the award.
After the season, the Phillies faced a dilemma involving Thome and
Howard. Both were very talented and proven power hitters; Thome was
the biggest
free agent player the
Phillies signed prior to the 2003 season, but Howard was the
reigning Rookie of the Year and a promising young player. Before
the 2006 season, Thome was traded, along with $22 million cash, to
the
Chicago White Sox for
outfielder Aaron
Rowand, and pitchers
Gio Gonzalez,
and
Daniel Haigwood in order to make
room for Howard.
2006
An example of Ryan Howard's signature
stance he takes before taking a pitch.
On April
23, Howard became the first player to hit a home run into Ashburn
Alley at Citizens Bank
Park
. The blast traveled 496 feet and was hit off
Sergio Mitre of the
Florida Marlins. It was the first of two
Howard would hit in the game, the first multi-home run game of his
career. He also became the first player to hit a home run into the
third deck of the park in right field when he connected off
Mike Mussina on June 20, a 437-foot
long-ball that was again his first of two home runs. To honor the
home run, the Phillies painted a white H on the seat where the ball
was caught. Howard collected seven RBI on the two home runs and a
triple in the 9–7 loss, becoming the first Phillies batter to drive
in seven runs since pitcher
Robert
Person on June 2, .
Howard was
named to his first All-Star game at
PNC
Park
in Pittsburgh
as a reserve first baseman, by the player
ballot. He participated in the
Century 21 Home Run Derby prior to the game, and
won the contest with a total of 23 home runs, defeating the
New York Mets'
third baseman David Wright in the final
round. Howard was the second consecutive Phillie to win the Derby,
with
Bobby Abreu hitting a record 41
home runs in 2005.
From August 25 to August 29, Howard hit home runs in four
consecutive games; on the 29th, Howard hit his 48th
home run of the season to tie
Mike Schmidt for the Phillies single-season
record.
Two days later, on August 31, Howard hit a
home run into the upper deck of Robert
F.
Kennedy Memorial Stadium to surpass Schmidt as the Philadelphia Phillies
single-season home run record holder.
On September 3, Howard went 4-for-4 with three home runs and a
single in an 8–7 win over the
Atlanta Braves, to become the
first Philadelphia Phillies batter and the 24th player in Major
League history to hit
50 home runs
in a season. Reaching 52 home runs in the game, Howard also broke
Ralph Kiner's record for home runs in a
sophomore season, becoming just the second batter to hit 50 home
runs in a second season. On September 5, Howard was named the
NL Player of the Month for August. His 41
runs batted in were the most any player had in one month since
Frank Howard had 41 in July
. With 14 home runs, he also set new franchise records for both
statistics in the month of August. On September 22, Howard became
the 8th player in history to hit 58 home runs in a season, belting
a three-run round-tripper off
Florida
Marlins pitcher
Ricky Nolasco. The
same day, Howard was awarded the third annual
Mike Schmidt Most
Valuable Player honor by the Philadelphia
Baseball Writers
Association of America
On October 2, Howard was named the
NL Player of
the Month for September. Howard, who also won the award in
August, became the first player since
Albert Pujols in May and June 2003, to win the
award back-to-back.
2006 season awards
On October 10, Howard was named
The
Sporting News 2006
Player of the
Year. On October 25, Howard was awarded the 2006
National League Hank Aaron Award.
On November 8, Howard was named by his fellow major league players
as the Player of the Year and the National League Outstanding
Position Player in the 2006
Players
Choice Awards balloting. He succeeded
Atlanta Braves outfielder Andruw
Jones, the 2005 winner of both awards. On the same day,
following a 5-3 win over Nippon Professional Baseball that capped a
five-game international sweep by the MLB in the
Major League
Baseball Japan All-Star Series, Howard was named the Series
MVP; he hit .558 with eight runs, three doubles, four homers and
eight RBI. On November 10, Howard was awarded the
National League Silver Slugger Award at
first base.
On November 20, he won the
National League MVP award,
and became only the second player in baseball history to win the
Rookie of the Year and MVP
awards in successive seasons, joining
Cal Ripken, Jr.
2007
On March 2, , the Phillies renewed Howard's contract in a one-year
deal for $900,000, the highest salary ever offered to a player not
eligible for salary arbitration.
On May 9, Howard hit his 4th career
grand slam against
Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher
Brandon Medders when he came into the game
as a pinch hitter for
Wes Helms. On May
13, Howard was placed on the disabled list with a left quadriceps
strain after missing five straight games. Howard fielded grounders
for about 45 minutes before the Phillies game with the
Toronto Blue Jays on May 20. Howard
returned to the lineup on May 25, after a rehabilitation assignment
with the class A Lakewood team as a designated hitter. He hit a
home run in his first at-bat there. On May 27, he hit two home runs
in a win that helped the Phillies sweep the Braves.
On June 27, Howard hit a 505-foot home run, and became the fastest
player in
Major League
Baseball history to hit 100 home runs. The accomplishment was
achieved in only 325 games, 60 games fewer than the 385 games that
Ralph Kiner needed to hit his first 100 home runs from to .
Though Howard did not compete in the
2007 MLB All-Star Game, he was chosen
to compete in the
2007 Major League
Baseball Home Run Derby for the second straight year in order
to defend his title. However Howard only hit 3 home runs in the
first round and did not advance.
After coming back from the DL, Howard had a "power surge," as he
quickly climbed to second on the home run leaders list in the
National League. On July 25, Howard
hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 14th inning to give
the Phillies a victory over the
Washington Nationals.
Howard had his tenth career
stolen base
on August 21, 2007 vs. the
Los
Angeles Dodgers.
On September 27, he established a new major league record by
striking out for his 196th and 197th time, breaking the old record
of 195 (he tied it on September 23), set by
Adam Dunn in 2004. He ended the season with 199
strikeouts, striking out an NL-highest 37.6% of the time.
His final 2007 season totals were a .268 average, with 47 home runs
and 136 runs batted in, helping the Phillies win the
National League East title on the final
day of the season to earn their first postseason berth since the
1993 World Series. The Phillies
were swept by the
Colorado Rockies
(who had won a one-game playoff against the
San Diego Padres for the NL Wild Card) in
the
2007 National
League Division Series; Howard homered off
Jeremy Affeldt in Game Two, but also struck
out seven times in his other 11 at-bats.
2008
Howard swinging at a pitch
On February 21, , Howard won an arbitration case against the
Phillies, and was awarded $10 million, the most ever for a
victorious player and tied for the most ever awarded. The Phillies
had offered $7 million to Howard in salary.
Howard began the 2008 season in a slump, finishing the month of
April with a batting average of just .172 and going 2-for-25 to
close out the month. He fared better in May, averaging .238 with
ten home runs and 30 RBI for the month, and finishing out May just
north of the
Mendoza Line with an
overall batting average of .205. Howard hit his 15th home run of
the season in a 7–3 loss to the
Florida
Marlins on May 30;
Chase Utley
having hit his 15th longball on May 25, the two became the first
pair of Phillies to hit 15 home runs each before June .
On June 13, Howard hit two home runs and drove in five in a 20–2
win over the
St. Louis
Cardinals. This included the second of a first-inning set of
back-to-back-to-back Philadelphia home runs. It was the seventh
time that the Phillies had hit three consecutive home runs, the
first since May 18, , and the fourth occurrence by any team in the
2008 Major League
Baseball season. On June 16, Howard again hit two home runs and
drove in four in an 8–2 win over the
Boston Red Sox for his 15th career
multi-homer game; the four-day span between multi-homer games was
the shortest of his career. In stark contrast, Howard went 0-for-4
the next night with four strike outs in a 3–0 loss for his tenth
career
golden sombrero. Howard drove
in his 100th run of the 2008 season on August 1 against the Los
Angeles Dodgers, marking his third consecutive season with at least
100 RBI.
He finished the season with 146 RBI and a .251 batting average.
Historically speaking, this was a statistical aberration, and is by
far the lowest batting average ever for any season in major league
history in which a player topped 130 runs batted in. His
contributions again helped lead the Phillies to the division title
and the post-season. Against Milwaukee in the first round he batted
a mere .182 average and only batted in one run. Things picked up as
he delivered with a .300 batting average against the Dodgers in the
next round although he only delivered 2 RBIs and still remained in
his home run drought in the post-season. However as the Phillies
advanced to the World Series he finally started delivering
significantly with 6 RBIs, .286 batting average, and 3 home runs
(which tied
Donn Clendenon's
1969 World Series record for most home
runs in a five-game Series) - two of which came in game 4 (which
also drove in 5 RBIs) as the Phillies took a commanding 3-1 series
lead. The Phillies eventually won the series in 5 games to bring
the Phillies their first World Series championship since 1980, and
Philadelphia their first major sports championship since 1983; he
finished second in the voting for the 2008 NL MVP award, behind
Albert Pujols of the St. Louis
Cardinals.
2009
On February 8, the Phillies and Howard agreed on a 3-year, $54
million contract that bought out his remaining three years of
salary arbitration eligibility. In spring training, Howard led all
players in home runs, with 10.
On May 4,
Howard hit his second grand
slam of the year, the seventh in his career, against the
St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium
. On May 30, he hit his third grand slam of
the season off of
Washington
Nationals pitcher
Shairon Martis.
The grand
slam landed in the third deck in the first row above the Powerade sign in right field at Citizens Bank
Park, and was estimated at 475 feet. The grand
slam put Howard ahead of
Mike Schmidt,
who had 7 grand slams in his career, putting him first all-time in
Phillies franchise
history.
On June 20, Howard was checked into the hospital early that morning
with a 104 degree fever, but pinch-hit later that day, hitting a
home run. A month later, against the
Florida Marlins on July 16, Howard hit his
200th career home run, making him the fastest player ever to that
mark. It took Howard 658 games to reach 200 long-balls, beating out
the previous titleholder,
Ralph Kiner
(706 games).
In August, Howard hit 11 home runs with 33 runs batted in, after
just six the month before. His batting average in the month was
.299, raising his overall average to .275. He was named the
National League Player of the Month for these achievements. On
October 3, Howard hit his 45th home run of the season and became
only the third player in Major League Baseball history (joining
Babe Ruth from 1926-1931 and
Sammy Sosa from 1998-2001) to amass at least 135
RBIs and 45 home runs in four consecutive seasons.
Howard ended the season tied with Milwaukee Brewers first baseman
Prince Fielder for the major league
lead in RBIs with 141, and led all major league first basemen in
errors, with 14.. In Game 4 of the
2009 National League
Division Series against the Colorado Rockies, Howard hit a
game-tying double with two outs in the top of the ninth off of
closer
Huston Street. Howard scored
the winning run on a
Jayson Werth
single. After tying
Lou Gehrig's record
for the most consecutive postseason games with an RBI, Howard won
the
NLCS MVP
award on October 21.
Personal
Howard has a
fraternal twin brother
named Corey, as well as an older brother and a sister. He claims to
be the smallest of the Howard sons. His favorite baseball team
growing up was the
St. Louis
Cardinals. He has a son.Howard graduated from
Lafayette High
School (Wildwood, St. Louis County, Mo.) in 1998, where he
played trombone.
While attending Southwest
Missouri State University
(now Missouri State University) he became a member
of Phi Beta Sigma
Fraternity Inc and his line name was "Blue Hurt".
Howard is a representative for a number of products including
Adidas and for the restaurant
Subway. He is on the packaging of
Topps 2007 Series 1 and 2008 Triple Threats
baseball cards. He is also on the cover of
MLB 08: The Show. He appeared on the
Late Show with David
Letterman along with teammate
Jimmy
Rollins on April 11, 2007.
Major league and franchise records
| Set while playing for
the Philadelphia Phillies |
| Record |
Total |
Season(s) |
Surpassing |
Date |
| Walks in a nine-inning game
(NL) |
5 |
|
tied, numerous others |
July 30, 2006 |
| Home runs by a Phillies batter, single
season |
58 |
|
Mike Schmidt, 48 ( ) |
49th on August 31, 2006 |
| Home runs in a sophomore season |
58 |
|
Ralph Kiner, 51 ( ) |
52nd on September 3, 2006 |
| Intentional
walks to a Phillies batter |
37 |
|
Jim Thome, 26 ( ) |
27th on September 13, 2006 |
| Fewest games for 100 home runs |
325 |
– |
Ralph Kiner, 385 ( – ) |
100th on June 27, 2007 |
| Home runs in first 1,000 career at-bats |
85 |
– |
Cecil Fielder, 76 ( – ) |
77th on September 24, 2007 |
| Fewest games for 150 home runs |
495 |
– |
Eddie Mathews, 569 ( – ) |
150th on July 2, 2008 |
| Strikeouts by a Phillies batter |
199 |
|
tied himself ( ) |
199th on September 27, 2008 |
| Career grand slams by a
Phillies batter |
8 |
– |
Mike Schmidt, 7 ( – ) |
8th on May 30, 2009 |
| Fewest games for 200 home runs |
658 |
– |
Ralph Kiner, 706 ( – ) |
200th on July 16, 2009 |
| At least one RBI in consecutive
postseason games in the same year |
7 |
|
Iván Rodríguez (
)
Bernie Williams ( ) (6 all)
Carlton Fisk ( )
|
October 18, 2009 |
| At least one RBI in consecutive
postseason games |
8 |
|
tied, Lou Gehrig ( and
) |
October 19, 2009 |
| Most Strikeouts in a World Series |
13 |
|
Willie Wilson, 12 ( ) |
November 4, 2009 |
See also
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