Ryan Howard Is All Kinds of Annoying Already

There’s nothing that annoys me more than the “me-first” type attitude from professional athletes. Ryan Howard spoke to the media today in Clearwater and exhibited that exact attitude when asked about platooning at first base being a fair thing to do. Yeah, he was asked a leading question, but Howard didn’t pull any punches in his answer.

Me, personally?” Howard said, addressing reporters at Spring Training in Clearwater, Florida on Tuesday. “I — Probably not. But it is what it is. The situation is the situation. You just go out there and go play.”
 
“The track record speaks for itself,” Howard said. “Again, I’ve always been a guy who is a team player. I’m always gonna be a competitor. I’m always gonna want to be able to go out there against, whoever — doesn’t matter — righty or lefty because I know I can get the job done. I know all the talk over the past few years and this and that or whatever — I’m not gonna focus on it. For me, like I said, it’s taking advantage of the opportunities when I get the chance to go out there and play.”

“I know I can get the job done.” Someone let Howard know that he hasn’t gotten the job done in five years. Sure, his Achilles injury was a huge part of it, but the fanbase generally gave him a long enough leash for him to “get right” again. Howard was the biggest threat as a Phillie in as long as I can remember, and for him to continue to imagine in his own little world that he’s fine and doesn’t need to fix anything is not only mind-boggling, it’s incredibly frustrating as a fan. Why can’t he just say, “I need to improve on things, and I’m working hard at doing so.” We never hear that.

Now, granted, Howard was put in a bad spot by former Phillies general manager, Ruben Amaro, Jr. Rube basically said there was no place for Howard on his team, but they never released him and never traded him. He even said the Phillies would be better off without Howard. That’s mind-numbingly stupid. But, what do you expect from Rube?

Howard hasn’t exactly been rolling through MLB pitching like he used to, but does he have to bring up the past of what he’s done for the city and the Phillies all the time? That’s the type of attention-seeking bullshit professional athletes need to get away from. It’s 2016, pal, and I don’t care what you did in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 or 2011. That’s how every sports fan usually operates. Will I forget what you did? No. So don’t keep reminding me of it. Todd Zolecki said on Philly Sports Talk tonight that Howard brought up the past yet again during his media session, which is really par for the course with him.

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As for the Al Jazeera report that linked Howard to PEDs, Howard just wants the process to take care of itself.

With the actions being taken as far as the litigation and all that kind of stuff, I’m gonna just leave it at that,” Howard said. “Because the process is underway and let the process take care of itself.”
 
Howard was asked why he was targeted in the report.
 
“I really can’t tell you,” he said. “I really don’t know. Again, the process is underway and I’m gonna just let it handle itself.”

And that’s all good. Another thing I hate is reports that have no basis, and I hope for our sake and Howard’s, this is all just bullshit.

Watch Howard have the best season of his life now. And sign with the Mets. And win a World Series in two years. Cool. Here’s more from Howard today, courtesy of CSN Philly.