The sign held up by a woman in the front row of the right-field stands at Citizens Bank Park on Saturday was homemade and simple: "Hit Here, Howard."
He didn't. After fouling off a couple of 2-2 pitches, after searing one of the fouls into the stands in right field, Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard bombed one over the sign-waver's head, bouncing it off the Bud Light sign above the lower deck, his 45th and final home run of the regular season.
Nothing surprising about any of that.
"He's swinging the bat real good," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said afterward. "Actually, he's hitting the ball to all fields right now. They throw him inside, he's definitely getting around on the ball."
For Howard, who turns 30 next month, the 2009 season - which turns into the 2009 postseason tomorrow when the Phillies host Colorado in the opener of their National League division series - may be remembered most for what the Phillies' first baseman did before it began.
In February, Howard signed a contract that pays him an average of $18 million through 2011. In addition to becoming the highest-paid Phillies player ever, Howard dropped 20 pounds in the off-season after the World Series title, and he worked with new infield coach Sam Perlozzo in Florida before spring training got going. The two upgraded Howard's fielding.
"He did get the new contract - he could have laid down and rested on his laurels," Perlozzo said.
Maybe the continuing maturity of Howard as a ballplayer can get lost a little since he was named the National League MVP in his second full season. But around the Phillies clubhouse, they notice the little things, like how if the slugger gets into a little tailspin these days, "he's able to make the adjustment and come out of it quicker," said teammate Matt Stairs, familiar with both slugging and tailspins.
In 2008, Howard went multiple games without getting a hit 14 times. In 2007, he had 10 multi-game hitless streaks. This season, Howard went hitless in multiple games just six times, and only twice did a two-game hitless streak turn into a three-game streak. Never longer than that.
This year, Howard was about as likely to hit a home run in multiple games as go hitless. He had homers in back-to-back games six times, including his last two of the regular season against Florida before sitting out Sunday's finale.
Hot regular-season finishes don't necessarily translate to postseason success, including for Howard, who has four home runs and 10 RBIs in 17 career postseason games. But nobody questions that Howard hits the playoffs in a groove: He hit .320 this season against righthanded pitching (in the top 10 in the league), and his .279 average was his highest since his .313 in his 2006 MVP season. In the field, his errors went from 19 to 14, but that's not truly indicative of his season, since he successfully gloved many more balls. And his fielding IQ seemed to go way up. Last week, Howard ran a guy down in a rundown instead of making a throw that had some degree of difficulty.
"He was basically just searching for a comfort zone, that kind of thing," Perlozzo said of his winter work with Howard. "The only thing that surprised me, he was such a quick learner. Hitting him ground balls, there was a lot of movement with his hands and arms."
They cut that down and worked on some other basics, Perlozzo said, such as getting his glove down on the ground and letting the ball come to it, and slotting his arm motion in the same place each time. He has other ideas for continued improvement next spring, Perlozzo said.
Former Phillies general manager Pat Gillick, at the ballpark this past weekend, theorized that seeing and hearing about St. Louis first baseman Albert Pujols' fine fielding may have had an impact on Howard.
"The guy has a lot of pride in himself," Gillick said of Howard. "Probably not too many guys at this stage of their career have been where he is. He's one of the big power guys in the business now - Pujols and him. There's always been a lot of talk about Pujols' defense. Him being in St. Louis and Ryan being from St. Louis, I think that maybe Ryan took a look at that: 'Pujols is a pretty good defensive player. I've got to step my game up too.' "
Gillick and Perlozzo said they don't know but can believe that Howard's improved fielding hasn't hurt his hitting - giving him one less thing to worry about. Stairs can buy it, too: "When we make mistakes in the outfield or the infield, we want to make up by hitting, so we start trying too much. His confidence is just there."
One expert on Howard doesn't believe there's any connection.
That would be Howard himself.
"Oh, no, not at all," Howard said after Sunday's game. "It's two different entities, I mean, really. You just learn to try to separate."
Howard didn't downplay the work he'd put in with Perlozzo.
"I thought it helped a lot - it felt good [this season] going out there and just throwing the glove around a little bit . . . trying to be more consistent," Howard said. "I owe a lot to Sammy."
If you're thinking that Howard will work next on striking out less, then you haven't paid attention. He had 186 this season, down a bit from the 199 the previous two seasons. But Howard knows that's still part of his package.
"Strikeouts are part of the game," he told reporters this spring. "Deal with it."
When Howard is done here, it won't be his fielding that will demand historical perspective. Asked for some of that perspective, Bob Warrington of the Philadelphia A's Historical Society said in an e-mail that the one comparison "that leaps to my mind is Ryan Howard and Jimmie Foxx. Both are the greatest power-hitting first basemen in Philadelphia baseball history with no one coming in a close second."
Warrington continued: "The Philadelphia Athletics won three AL pennants [1929-31] and two World Series championships [1929-30] riding on the broad shoulders of Foxx. With Howard, the Phillies have one NL pennant, one World Series championship, and the prospect of adding to both totals this year."
The comparisons between Howard and the Hall of Famer go further: "Foxx was 25 years old when he hit 58 home runs, knocked in 169 RBIs, and batted .364 (1932). Howard was 26 years old when he hit 58 home runs, knocked in 149 RBIs, and batted .313 (2006). Foxx led the AL in HRs four times (1932-33, 1935, 1939), RBIs three times (1932-33, 1938), and batting average twice (1933, 1938). Howard has led the NL in HRs twice [2006, 2008] and RBIs twice [2006, 2008]."
Warrington's comparisons came just before the regular season ended. Now you can make it three times for Howard RBI titles. It's interesting how that played out. Manuel was asked after Saturday's game whether Howard would play or sit on Sunday. Manuel said he'd check with Howard and leave it up to him.
"He expects to play," Manuel said after Saturday's game. "Of course, he likes to hit homers. He likes to play. It's like my old manager in Japan used to say. 'You can't hit 'em unless you're in the game.' "
But Howard, who played in a team-high 160 games, was ready for a day off and took it. Howard began the day three RBIs ahead of Milwaukee's Prince Fielder for the major-league lead. Fielder got three Sunday and the two finished tied for the title with 141 each. Howard never even pinch-hit on the final day.
So, give Howard bonus points for caring more about being rested than an RBI crown. It still worked out for him.
September call-up Andy Tracy could have been talking about that this weekend but instead was talking about Howard's general approach to hitting, how he knows his swing so well right now.
"He never panics about anything," Tracy said.
Contact staff writer Mike Jensen at 215-854-4489 or mjensen@phillynews.com.
Photos: 2009 Phillies 
