In defense of Ryan Howard

THE PHILLIES had been so sorry for so long that it really seemed their forever fate. Ryan Howard intervened.

Your baseball team had been in the playoffs once from 1984 to 2006. They were mostly bad, usually boring and without imagination or inspiration. Ryan Howard intervened.

He was the accidental Rookie of the Year in 2005. When Jim Thome got hurt, Howard got called up and went for 22 homers and 63 RBI in just 88 games. You wonder if Phillies management of that era ever would have understood what they had if Thome had not been injured.

Howard was the MVP in 2006 with 58 homers, 149 RBI and a .313 batting average.

There was no way he could keep that up. Nobody could.

But it was Ryan Howard, more than any other player, who re-made the Phillies from a team that could never win to a team that always won. National League East dominant, World Series winners, consecutive World Series.

Howard always struck out a lot, but he was feared and revered. His teammates were better because he was in the lineup. Fans never wanted to miss an at-bat. The next pitch could be the one he lost.

Two summers ago, the Phillies were the best team in baseball. And there was no close second. They won 102 games and could have won 112 if they had not shut it down around Labor Day.

Howard had 33 homers and 116 RBI that year, not overwhelming but more than good enough with all that pitching.

Then, he tore that Achilles' tendon on the final at-bat of that season, a season that ended weeks before anybody would have ever imagined.

Since that night against the Cardinals, nothing has been the same for the Phils. Or for Ryan Howard.

The first baseman has now become an easy target. He is a power hitter who is not hitting with power. He strikes out too much. He is making a ton of cash. The team is mediocre. Its future does not look promising. Mix all those ingredients together in the toxic environment that 21st-century sports has become when expectations are not even coming close to being met and you have open season on a player who was the main reason all this winning ever happened in the first place.

My favorite sports word these days is context because so few have it anymore. I remember what the Phillies looked like before Ryan Howard showed up and starting hitting all those homers. I don't know if this team will ever figure it out (how is it possible that Cole Hamels is 2-11?), but I do think it is possible that Howard will figure it out.

DN Members Only: Marcus Hayes writes that Philadelphia teams need to show more patience with younger players.