Ryan Howard was one of the best hitters in the game during his career.
The Phillies first baseman won the NL Rookie of the Year Award in 2005, followed that up with the NL MVP Award the following year, and topped it off with a World Series championship in 2008.
Howard was the Big Piece in the middle of the Phillies lineup during their dominance in the late 2000s. After years of coming up short, he helped bring postseason baseball back to Philadelphia in 2007 and made that the expectation for the following years after winning the World Series in 2008.
The Phillies knew from the get-go in 2008 that it’d be a special year. Howard talked about the feeling of “unfinished business” surrounding the team in spring training while appearing on Audacy’s original “The Bret Boone Podcast” this week.
“I remember having a conversation during batting practice with Jimmy Rollins,” Howard said (12:25 in player above). “I think 2007, 07-08, we had a conversation like ‘Why can’t it be us? Why can’t we win?’”
After the Atlanta Braves' divisional dominance finally came to an end in the 2000s, the New York Mets appeared to be the team to beat in the NL East. The Phillies had other plans.
“Jimmy had come out in the media and said ‘We’re the team to beat,’” Howard recalled. “Knowing how Jimmy is, he’s very confident, as he should be, and he was very confident in his team, as he should be.
“It’s like we don’t want to leave him out there on that island so we went there, we backed it up. Obviously made the run, made the push, and made it to the playoffs in 2007 where we ran into that buzzsaw that was the Colorado Rockies at the time.”
The Phillies erased a seven-game deficit with just 17 games remaining en route to Philadelphia’s first playoff appearance since 1993. After getting swept in three games by the Rockies, Howard & Co. were just getting started.
“Going into spring training in 2008, I think we all had the feeling of unfinished business," Howard said. "We got a taste. We understood what the playoffs were like. And we knew ‘Hey, we’re very capable of being able to go out here and go win this whole thing, so why not? Why not us?’
“That entire year we banded together and took care of business and wound up getting all the way to the World Series and winning that bad boy.”
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