Nick Piccone
It’s sad watching Ryan Howard play nowadays, but I doubt anybody will forget his contributions to the Phillies during their heyday and World Series runs in 2008 and 2009. That’s what makes this kind of weird – some people think we owe Howard something because of the years he’s had for us, and some think he’s clearly finished as, at least, an everyday player or he can just be a designated hitter in the American League.
Andy MacPhail and Matt Klentak probably won’t release Howard now if they haven’t already. I’m hearing the reasoning is they think his legacy in this city is too great for them to do that. Nevermind the fact that they weren’t here during Howard’s surge to being one of baseball’s most feared hitters, but everything they’re hearing is second-hand accounts.
I don’t think anyone will be upset if Howard moves on and the Phillies move on from Howard. I probably wouldn’t have thought he’d be the last one standing from the Phillies’ 2007-2011 core, but here we are. Yesterday, Pete Mackanin benched him. Howard took it in stride.
We had an adult conversation,” Mackanin said. “He didn’t yell or scream or get upset. He knows where he’s at. We just had a great conversation. A tough conversation but a good one. He’s accepted what I’m doing.”
Later in the day, Howard spoke to reporters in front of his locker. He said he planned to use the time off to work on his swing and be ready for possible pinch-hitting assignments. He said he spoke with Joseph and encouraged him to “kick some butt.” Howard also said he was not conceding his job, that he intended to earn back playing time.
And, he added, he is not walking away, packing it in, retiring, quitting — call it what you want.
“I’m not going to quit,” he said. “That’s not in the vocabulary. That’s the easiest thing to do, quit and give up when things are hard. You really see what you’re made of when things are not going the way you want them to go. Things are real easy when you’re going good and everybody’s all behind you, and you see how things turn when things aren’t going so well. You’ve got to continue to battle. And that’s what I’m going to do.”
I love the desire of Howard, but things haven’t going the way he’s wanted them to go since 2011. Of course the Achilles injury derailed his career for a while, but he’s said he’s been healthy for a couple years now. It just doesn’t look like it. He’s not the same player.
To Howard’s credit, he’s been supportive of Tommy Joseph replacing him.
Ryan came up to me in the [batting] cage and filled me in on what the plan was,” Joseph said Wednesday night. “It meant a lot to me. He didn’t have to do that.
“He came up to me and told me I was going to play the next three or four days. He filled me in on what (Washington pitcher Max) Scherzer likes to do out there and then told me to go kick some butt.
“He’s been great. He’s done so much for this team and the city. That’s something he didn’t have to do. For a guy like him to come up to me and tell me that, it means a lot.”
And now we play the waiting game. Get the Ryan Howard tributes ready.