Howard fails to win only one thing: Fans' love

More than any other sport, baseball can be explained by numbers. So here's a couple for you to consider:

1.28 million.

1.1 million.

The first is the number of all-star votes amassed, at last tally, by Chase Utley, who has appeared in just 19 games this season because of a knee injury.

The second is the number of all-star votes cast for Ryan Howard, who drove in his 54th and 55th runs of the season in his first at-bat Tuesday night.

Utley is third in voting among National League second basemen, Howard is fourth among first basemen, according to the latest tabulation released by Major League Baseball.

Let's be very clear. The point here isn't that Howard should be the starting first baseman in this year's All-Star Game. The three players ahead of him - Albert Pujols, Joey Votto and Prince Fielder - are all richly deserving of the votes they've gotten. Howard's numbers do not make a persuasive argument that he should be ahead of any of them. That is not the point here.

Besides, after carrying the Phillies for half a season, Howard would probably enjoy three days off more than a trip to Arizona in mid-July.

Utley certainly benefits from the dearth of talent at second base in the NL. Cincinnati's Brandon Phillips leads the voting, followed by Milwaukee's Rickie Weeks. It's hard to work up any real outrage that Utley, on rep, is outpolling, Aaron Miles of the Dodgers (.296, .646 OPS entering Tuesday's game) and Neil Walker of the Pirates (.252, .723).

The issue has nothing to do with how Howard and Utley are doing in relation to the rest of the NL. It's about Utley having nearly 200,000 more votes than Howard. Placido Polanco, who is tops among NL third basemen, has received nearly 700,000 more votes than Howard.

We can assume the Phillies enjoy a bump in fan voting because they play in front of a sellout crowd every single home game. With online voting, that may not be as big an advantage, but fans attending a game are still energized to grab a ballot and fill it out. They are also more likely to vote with their hearts than their minds.

So why would more Phillies fans vote for Utley, who has barely played, than Howard, the team's non-pitching MVP so far?

Now we're getting to the point, which is that Howard has inherited Donovan McNabb's old unwanted title of most underappreciated athlete in the city. Or maybe a better way to put it is that, more than anyone else, fans tend to dwell on what he doesn't do rather than celebrate him for what he does.

That may be a Philadelphia fan thing. It may be a sports fan thing. It may just be human nature in general. But the balance is always completely out of whack for a certain lucky player or two at a given time. Eagles fans had McNabb (and now dwell more on Asante Samuel's tackling deficiencies than his ball skills). Flyers fans are more concerned with Mike Richards' iffy captain credentials than his gutsy game. Sixers fans have Andre Iguodala.

Is Howard perfect? Hardly. No more than McNabb ever was. The Yankees did a superb job of pitching to him in the 2009 World Series and he struck out a ridiculous 13 times. And yes, the 2010 NL Championship Series ended with Howard taking a called third strike. Not a great moment.

But why were the Phillies in those series? How did this become one of the truly elite franchises in baseball over the last few years? There have been a bunch of very good players, to be sure. Ryan Howard is the most important.

Going into Tuesday's rain-delayed game, Howard had appeared in 940 regular-season games in his career. The Phillies' winning percentage was .563 in those games. That's higher than Utley (.555) and Jimmy Rollins (.540). It's higher than Mike Schmidt (.525) and Larry Bowa (.515) and Pete Rose (.542 as a Phillie). It's higher than Ted Williams (.546) and Barry Bonds (.538).

Babe Ruth? His career winning percentage was higher.

The 2011 Phillies are winning largely because of their remarkable pitching. No one disputes that. But with no Utley for more than two months, and with Rollins and Shane Victorino out, the Phillies have held on to first place. Howard's batting average is mediocre, his home run numbers are down. There are plenty of numbers available to illustrate what Howard isn't, or what he doesn't do well.

But he has stood in the middle of that lineup and produced runs all season. He always has. Since he's been in the major leagues, Howard has driven in runs and the Phillies have been a contending team. They even became a championship team.

Forget the numbers. Howard wins. Except in the fan voting, but that says more about the voters than about him.

Read a reaction from Phil Sheridan's column on his blog 'Philabuster'