Ryan James Howard, born November 19, 1979 in St. Louis, Missouri, is a left-handed hitting first baseman (1B) in Major League Baseball (MLB) who plays for the Philadelphia Phillies of the National League (NL) East Division. He attended Southwest Missouri State University (now Missouri State University) in Springfield, Missouri and was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies in 5th round of the 2001 draft.
On September 1, 2004 Ryan Howard made his major league debut against the Atlanta Braves. He struck out against Jaret Wright in a pinch-hit at-bat for Phillies pitcher Vicente Padilla. Seven days later he got his first Major League hit, a double, against the Atlanta Braves. Then three days later he finally hit his first Major League home run off of New York Mets’ pitcher Bartolome Fortunato. That hit also scored his first run batted in and run. Howard ended his 2004 season with 39 at-bats, two home runs, five runs batted in, and a .282 batting average.
In the 2005 season Howard’s performance and statistics improved greatly. He had his first three-hit game on May, 15 and first four-hit game on August, 23. It wasn’t until the begging of July when Ryan Howard finally became the starting first baseman for the Philadelphia Phillies when Jim Thome was sidelined with a season ending elbow injury. Howard finished the season leading all rookies in home runs with 22 and posted a .288 bating average and batting in 63 RBIS in 88 games. His performance earned him the NL Rookie of the Year.
Howard’s 2006 season is definitely one to remember. It all began on April 23 when Howard hit a home run off of Sergio Mitre of the Florida Marlins which ended up traveling 496 feet to Ashburn Alley of Citizens Park, to date it is the longest hit recorded in the ball park. It was all the same day that Howard had his first multi-hit game where he hit another one later into the game. From there Howard’s first half stats where good enough to earn him the starting spot at first base on the NL All-Star roster at PNC Park in Pittsburgh. He also participated in the Century 21 Home Run Derby. He ended up beating New York Mets third baseman David Wright, with 23 home runs, for the title of 2006 Home Run Derby Champion. From August 25 to August 29 Ryan Howard hit consecutive home runs in all four games. It wasn’t until two days later when Howard tied Mike Schmidt with 48 home runs for the Phillies single-season home run record. On September 3, 2006 Howard broke that record when he went 4-4 with three home runs becoming the 24th player in MLB history to hit 50 or more home runs in a season. Ryan was also named Player of the Month for August in September. On September 22, Howard hit his final home run, 58, of the season becoming the 8th player in MLB to do so. He was also named the Player of the Month for September. During the 2006 season Ryan Howard hit 58 home runs, and had 149 RBIs and hit .313. It was also that same season he struck out 31.2%, 181times, the second highest percent in Major League history.
As the 2007 All-Star game nears Howard is posting a .231 average and has 14 home runs and 43 RBIs. It has been a tough first half for the power hitter but he will surely come around. This poor performance was mostly because of a strained left quadricep.
