He had won. There were people to call.

Howard beat the Phillies in his much-anticipated salary-arbitration hearing. The 28-year-old first baseman will make a record $10 million this season.

The Phillies, who dropped to 7-1 in arbitration cases, had offered $7 million.

"It was some good news to start off the day," said Howard, who did not think the hearing got contentious. "It's a good feeling. It's always a good feeling to win. But either way, it's a win-win. It's a substantial raise, either way."

It's also a record-setting victory for Howard that will have an impact on future contract negotiations with the Phillies.

Before second baseman Chase Utley signed a seven-year, $85 million contract extension last year, the Phillies had offered him $4.5 million in his first year of arbitration. Before Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols signed a seven-year, $100 million extension with St. Louis in 2004, the Cardinals had offered him $7 million in his first year of arbitration.

The Phillies offered Howard $7 million as a first-year arbitration player - the same amount the Cardinals had offered Pujols - but he ultimately received $3 million more.

In essence, the three-member arbitration panel - Jack Clarke, Robert Bailey and Stephen Goldberg - set Howard's value at $3 million more than Pujols'. That reinforces the belief among Howard's representatives that he is worth much more than the $100 million contract extension Pujols received in 2004. Sources have said that Howard is seeking more than the eight-year, $136 million contract that leftfielder Alfonso Soriano signed last year with the Chicago Cubs.

Alex Rodriguez money, anybody?

Howard declined to address his contract demands or speculate on future contract talks with the Phillies.

"I'm not Miss Cleo," he said. "I can't predict the future. . . . Do I see myself finishing my career in Philadelphia? Wow. Pinned in a corner, huh? I mean, it would be nice. It would be nice, yeah. It's one of those things you've got to wait to see what happens."

Ruben Amaro Jr., the Phillies' assistant general manager, declined to speculate on how difficult it may be to sign Howard to a multiyear contract. He can't become a free agent until after the 2011 season.

"This is too fresh in our minds right now to even start dealing with that kind of stuff," Amaro said.

But Phillies president David Montgomery, who congratulated Howard on his victory, said the goal remained to sign him to an extension. Howard, who becomes the second-highest-paid player on the team behind leftfielder Pat Burrell ($14 million), can go through the arbitration process three more times before he becomes a free agent.

"We don't want to go year-to-year," Montgomery said.

The Phillies had hoped Howard's service time would be a big factor in the arbiters' decision. He has two years, 145 days of service time. Andruw Jones set the previous arbitration record when he won $8.2 million from the Atlanta Braves in 2001. But he had more than four years of service time and was in his second year of arbitration. Soriano had picked up $10 million from the Washington Nationals in arbitration in 2006, but he actually lost his case after seeking $12 million. He had more than five years of service time and was in his third year of arbitration eligibility.

The arbiters obviously considered Howard's historic performance so far. He was the National League rookie of the year in 2005 and the league's most valuable player in 2006, and he has hit 100 home runs faster than any player in history. His 105 homers and 285 RBIs in the last two seasons led the majors.

"It really comes down to Ryan has arguably been the most productive hitter in the game since he was in the Phillies' lineup in the middle of 2005," Howard's agent, Casey Close, said in a telephone interview.

Close would not speculate on future negotiations with the Phillies, but he said the relationship between the club and Howard was a good one.

"We had a number of discussions, and we just weren't able to see eye-to-eye on where the value for Ryan would be over the course of any number of years," Close said. "I don't think it's unnatural in a situation like this, where you have a player that has done some historic things, that the club and the player see things differently. It's almost natural that that would happen.

"There's no animosity there. Listen, when you're in this business for a long, long time, you realize it is just a business. You realize that at the end of the day, it's OK to disagree. It's fine if, in fact, we don't see eye-to-eye. If we both saw eye-to-eye all the time, then one of the parties would be working for the other. That's the nature of the beast. There's no animosity. There's no built-up acrimony. There are no built-up frustrations."

Montgomery agreed.

Good relations could help down the road. But right now, Howard appears to have the upper hand.

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Todd Zolecki is updates his Phillies blog frequently at http://go.philly.com/zozone.

Read his blog at http://go.philly.com/zozone.