|
 
Ryan Howard
Ryan Howard, the first baseman for the
Philadelphia Phillies of Major League Baseball (MLB), won the
National League's 2006 Most Valuable Player Award and that year's
Hank Aaron Award as the league’s top slugger. A left-hander who
combines prodigious power with an ability to send the ball to any
part of the field, Howard has established himself as one of the
sport's most capable home-run hitters, producing 58 in 2006—his
first full season in the majors. “Besides being superstrong, Ryan is
fearless at bat,” the Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Mike Schmidt
told Dave Kindred for the Sporting News (October 6, 2006). “I
have a high regard for today’s athlete, and he’s an example of that
regard. He has a wonderful temperament. He’s a smart young man who’s
able to adapt, as we see when he’s using the entire ballpark. He’s a
great example of how hitting has evolved into an art where even
power hitters can spray the ball.” With the number of
African-American players declining in Major League Baseball, and
with the sport plagued by allegations of steroid abuse and resulting
congressional inquiries, Howard's presence has bolstered MLB's image
in terms of both diversity and respectability. Lee Jenkins, writing
for the New York Times (June 30, 2005), described Howard as
the ideal star for baseball, which “has long been looking for the
kind of power hitter who can take pitches and hit to the opposite
field, who has been to college and been seasoned in the minor
leagues, who can prove to young African-American athletes that
basketball and football are not the only marquee options.” In
Philadelphia, one of the last National League teams to sign a black
baseball player, Howard—one of three African-American position
players on the current team—has “completely transformed” fans’
attitudes, Rob Holiday, assistant director of scouting for the
Phillies, told Derrick Goold for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
(September 29, 2006). “What we have here is, we are witnessing a
superstar in the making. He has galvanized this city like it hasn’t
been before.”
Ryan James Howard was born on November 19, 1979 to
Cheryl and Ron Howard and grew up in the suburbs of St. Louis,
Missouri. He has an older brother, Chris; an older sister, Roni
Karen; and a fraternal twin brother, Corey. Ryan, who is six foot
four inches tall, is the shortest of the brothers. Howard’s parents
were both born in Birmingham, Alabama, and were active in civil
rights demonstrations in the 1960s. Their experiences led them to
adopt the attitude that any achievement was possible, which they
instilled in their children. “Don’t focus on the blockers, on the
challenges, if you have a chance to be what you want to be, be the
best, be the pinnacle,” Ron Howard told his children, according to
Goold, writing for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (January 15,
2006). “The door opens a little bit, you push it all the way open.”
Chris Howard told Goold for the same article that their father
“prepared us for the world, telling us, ‘I will not allow you to be
mediocre.' The pressure we had in our home to succeed in our
father’s eyes, nothing can match that. Not the corporate world, not
Major League Baseball. Nothing.” Ryan’s mother, now retired, worked
in marketing, and his father is an engineer and a manager at IBM.
Howard’s upbringing combined “old-time Southern values” and
“middle-class aspiration,” as Michael Sokolove put it in the New
York Times (March 4, 2007). “All our kids were taught to say
‘Yes, sir,’ ‘Yes, ma’am’ and so on,” Ron Howard told Sokolove. “We
valued hard work and taught them: believe in oneself, believe in
each other and believe in the Almighty.” Howard told Rich Hofmann
for the Philadelphia Daily News (August 27, 2006) that he
learned from his mother “common sense, being courteous,” and that
from his father he got his “aggressiveness, that fire to want to be
the best.”
Howard’s parents insisted that their children
develop well-rounded interests. Ron Howard urged his children, who
were athletic, to find interests outside sports as well, “to give
them an appreciation for the fact that you have people in the world
that do different things,” as he said to Hofmann. Accordingly,
Howard, who competed in both high-school and American Legion
baseball as well as basketball, football, and soccer, also played
trombone in Lafayette High School’s marching band. “Football and the
marching band are pretty mutually exclusive for most people, but he
wanted to do both,” Phil Milligan, the Lafayette band director
during Howard's years there, told Hofmann. He added that Howard
“could communicate well with his peers and with adults. He could
carry on a conversation with an adult—not sounding like a high
school kid. But I’d see him in situations with the other kids and
see how he could have fun too.”
Baseball became Ryan’s primary sport as he
progressed through high school. (His mother had decided that
football was too dangerous.) With the help of a batting cage his
father installed in the basement of their home, he developed into a
good but not outstanding player at Lafayette, earning all-conference
honors but just honorable mention in the all-metro selections. He
nonetheless believed that someday he could play professional
baseball. He began to think seriously about that goal during a game
in high school, at which a number of professional scouts were
present to see another player on Ryan's team. During the game Ryan
hit a home run, which “put me on the scout map,” as he recalled to
Hofmann. In Ryan’s senior year he set school records in home runs
for a season (eight) and a career (17). A number of four-year
universities showed interest in him, but some were farther from his
home than he wanted to go, and he rejected others because they
placed limits on playing time for freshmen. Howard considered
playing at a junior college or trying to get drafted by a
professional baseball team. Then, late in the summer following his
high-school graduation, he received an offer to play for Keith
Guttin, who coached at Southwest Missouri State (now Missouri State)
University, in Springfield. Guttin, a friend of Howard’s high-school
coach, could not offer Howard a scholarship but guaranteed that he
could earn playing time his freshman year—and that if he was
successful, he would get a scholarship in each of the following
three years. “College was important for me,” Ryan told Rich Hofmann.
“My parents are both very big on education, so there was that. But
college allowed me to mature, not only as a baseball player but also
as a person. I was glad I went to college. Without the maturity I
gained, I don’t think I'd be the player that I am today.”
Howard easily earned the first-base position at
Southwest Missouri State (SMS) and earned Missouri Valley Conference
Freshman of the Year honors on the strength of his .355 batting
average, 19 home runs, and 66 runs batted in (RBIs). After a
similarly successful sophomore campaign, Howard won a position on
the U.S. Junior National Team, which had been represented in the
past by many players currently in the major leagues. Playing on the
international stage also introduced Howard to many professional
scouts, some of whom came to regard the slugger highly. Howard had a
disappointing junior season, however, batting a comparatively low
.271, and though his SMS career statistics brought him impressive
rankings of fifth all-time in home runs (50) and sixth in RBIs (183)
at the school, his draft prospects suffered. The beneficiaries of
that perceived decline in value were the Philadelphia Phillies, who
drafted Howard in the fifth round. “I think where we [drafted] him,
we thought he was a very good gamble,” Mike Arbuckle, the Phillies'
assistant general manager, told a reporter for the Philadelphia
Inquirer (July 8, 2002). “There was nothing physically wrong. It
just looked like he was [trying too hard]. This kid is kind of a
perfectionist.” Howard left college after his junior season, three
semesters shy of graduating with a degree in communications; he
promised his parents that he would eventually complete his
education.
Howard made his professional debut in the summer
of 2001 for the Batavia, New York, Muckdogs of the New
York–Pennsylvania League. The following year he played for the Class
A Lakewood, New Jersey, BlueClaws, leading all Phillies
minor-leaguers in home runs, with 19, and making the South Atlantic
League All-Star team. He still holds the BlueClaws' single-season
RBI record, with 87. Howard had one glaring deficiency,
however—strikeouts (he had 145 in 135 games in 2002)—and also needed
improvement at first base. Although the strikeouts soured Howard’s
reputation among some talent evaluators, the BlueClaws' manager,
Jeff Manto, believed that Howard’s approach to hitting and his work
ethic would help him overcome that shortcoming. “The strikeouts
don’t even bother me . . . ,” Manto told the reporter for the
Philadelphia Inquirer. “He has a good idea of the strike zone.
He’ll take curveballs and he’s not afraid of lefthanders. His
defense has gotten better.” Manto also said, “This guy really
believes in himself. . . . He’s a flat-out joy to work with. He
doesn’t even know how to really hit yet and he’s already hitting
well. It will be exciting to watch him as he gets more repetitions
and learns more and more about how to hit.” Howard wanted to prove
wrong the scouts who thought that he would not succeed as a
major-league player. “A lot of people, I think gave up on me after
my junior year [at SMS],” Howard told Derrick Goold for the January
15, 2006 St. Louis Post-Dispatch article. “My first year in
pro ball was all about me getting myself back on that track, just
because a lot of people I felt backed off. It bothered me. I knew
what I was capable of doing, and those first two years were about
showing that.” In 2003 Howard was promoted to the single-A
Clearwater, Florida, team, on which he hit .304 with 23 home runs
and 82 RBIs and earned the Florida State League's
most-valuable-player honors. He was also invited to participate in
the 2003 Futures All-Star Game, which pits the best American-born
minor-league prospects against those from other nations. As part of
the MLB All-Star weekend, that event allows up-and-coming players to
meet current big-league stars.
Prior to the 2003 season, the Phillies signed the
first baseman Jim Thome to a six-year contract, the most lucrative
in franchise history. With Thome entrenched at first base, Howard’s
chances of rising soon to the majors seemed slim. Unlike many
players in his position, though, Howard was not in a rush to get to
the big leagues; he was content to work on his deficiencies and wait
for an opportunity to arise. “You’ve got to . . . make sure you’re
ready when you get [to the majors],” Howard told Scott Puryear for
the Springfield (Missouri) News-Leader (July 1, 2003), “so
when you do get there, you don’t have to come back down.”
Howard was invited to Major League Spring Training
in 2004. Although his fellow left-hander Thome was blocking his path
to earning a place on the team, Howard used the experience to learn
as much from Thome as he could during his few weeks with the
major-league team. Thome, for his part, was committed to helping
Howard become a better player. Once the regular season began, Howard
was assigned to the double-A Reading, Pennsylvania, Phillies, for
whom he hit .297 with 37 home runs—breaking the team's single-season
home-run record—and 102 RBIs, thereby establishing himself solidly
as a top major-league prospect. He was promoted to the triple-A team
in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, for 29 games before reaching
the majors in September, when MLB teams expand their rosters. The
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre manager, Gene Lamont, was impressed by
Howard’s power, telling Lee Jenkins for the New York Times
(June 30, 2005), “I’ve managed in the minor leagues a long time, and
Ryan is the best power hitter I’ve ever had.” Howard concluded the
2004 season in the Arizona Fall League, playing for the Phoenix
Desert Dogs. The young slugger's combined statistics for the four
leagues in which he played that season were a .298 batting average,
50 home runs, and 160 RBIs. Howard won the Paul Owens Award as the
Phillies’ top minor-league position player, and USA Today Sports
Weekly named him the minor-league player of the year for 2004.
Because Thome continued to play well at the major-league level, many
believed that the Phillies would do well to trade Howard, both to
help the current Phillies team, because they could trade him for a
good player at another position, and to give Howard, who had little
left to prove in the minor leagues, an opportunity to fulfill his
dream of playing in the major leagues. But while the Phillies did
not have an opening for Howard at the major-league level, they did
not want to see him develop into a superstar for another MLB team;
and though Howard wanted to play in the major leagues, he had also
grown attached to the Phillies organization. During his stint with
the Arizona Fall League, as a way of gaining other opportunities to
enter the majors, Howard tried a different position—left field.
Though he possessed surprising speed for a 260-pound player, his
performance in the outfield was not impressive, and it became
obvious that his path to the majors would be as a first baseman.
Howard performed well at the following year's
spring training, but the Phillies decided that it would be better
for him to play every day for the triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre
team than to serve sporadically as Thome’s backup. Howard was
frustrated by that decision, and his agent asked the team to
consider trading him, since, at 25, he was getting old to be a
rookie. The Phillies did not want to do so. Then, early in the 2005
season, Thome was slowed by injuries, and in May he was placed on
the disabled list. As a result Howard was promoted to the majors,
where he struggled, with a .214 batting average and just one home
run in 28 at-bats. When Thome was ready to play, Howard was again
assigned to triple-A ball, becoming one of the top players in the
Eastern League. In July 2005 Thome was again stricken by injuries,
and Howard was given another opportunity with the Phillies; this
time he outperformed expectations, batting .288 with 22 home runs
and 63 RBIs in 88 games. Howard proved able to perform well under
pressure, often hitting the winning home run in close games, and was
particularly vital to the team in the season’s final month, when he
was instrumental in leading the Phillies to within one game of a
play-off berth. Howard hit 10 home runs in September, leading the
majors in that category for the month. His performance brought
Howard praise on a national scale—as well as the National League
Rookie of the Year Award. He also gained immense popularity among
fans in Philadelphia, a city notorious for its brutal treatment of
black baseball players. Jackie Robinson, the first black MLB player,
famously wrote that he came to associate Philadelphia with the Deep
South because of the way he was received there as a visiting player.
Before Howard, the Phillies had had only one African-American
superstar, Dick Allen—who was reduced to wearing a batting helmet
when he took the field at home games because fans threw batteries,
fruit, and refuse at him. Howard, by contrast, was beloved by fans,
and his success and acceptance went a long way toward changing the
image of the franchise.
Howard’s surge in production and popularity with
the fans gave the Phillies little choice but to trade either him or
Thome. In the off-season the team's general manager, Pat Gillick,
traded Thome to the Chicago White Sox of the American League in
exchange for Aaron Rowand and two minor-league pitchers. Howard was
officially installed as the permanent first baseman of the Phillies.
He rose to that responsibility in a sensational 2006 season, in
which he won the National League Most Valuable Player Award and
earned his first All-Star selection. That year Howard batted .313
and hit 58 home runs, a single-season total exceeded by only five
men in baseball history—Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Roger
Maris, and Babe Ruth. Howard also knocked in a major-league-leading
149 RBIs, including 42 in August, the highest number by a player in
a single month in 34 years. He was only the second player in MLB
history (the first was Cal Ripkin Jr.) to win the Rookie of the Year
Award and Most Valuable Player Award in back-to-back seasons,
obliterating the notion of a sophomore slump. Howard also won the
Home Run Derby at the 2006 All-Star competition. As the season
progressed, Howard’s home-run production was limited by opposing
managers, who were so wary of his power that he was intentionally
walked 37 times, the second-highest number of intentional walks
received by a batter in the major leagues that season. In the
Phillies’ last 21 games, Howard walked 28 times and hit only two
home runs. For the second consecutive year, he kept the Phillies in
contention for postseason play, but they lost their bid for the
play-offs in the last week of the regular season. Howard continued
to perform his best in the most pressured circumstances, with 28 of
his home runs either tying a game or putting the Phillies ahead.
Howard’s achievements rank among the best ever for a second-year
player; no sophomore has ever hit as many home runs, and only Joe
DiMaggio had more RBIs: 167 in 1937. As of mid-June 2007, Howard had
hit 13 home runs, after missing three games earlier in the season
because of a leg injury.
Michael Sokolove described Howard as being “big
all over. He has biceps that it would take two large hands to fully
encircle, thick-muscled forearms and—more noticeable in the locker
room than on the field, where he wears a baggy uniform top—a
surprisingly ample midsection. Howard is Ruthian, only bigger. Even
his round, expressive face—quick to break into a smile, more open
and inviting than the typical impassive countenance of the big-time
pro athlete—seems extra large.”
Howard lives in Philadelphia.
 |
