Ryan Howard

When even the most casual baseball fan envisions a first baseman, they conjure an image that looks a lot like Ryan Howard. In other words, a surprisingly athletic, imposing 6-foot-4, 250-pound frame that looks more natural at defensive tackle than on the baseball diamond. For a time, Howard’s production was the pinnacle of that prototypical first baseman: tape-measure homers and rocket line drives invoking terror in the center of potent offenses. But Howard could never shake the flip side of that archetype. He struck out in nearly a third of his at-bats and walked significantly less. He lumbered on the basepaths and, once a freak injury sapped his power, he became a high-paid albatross for a team needing to rebuild.

Ryan James Howard was born on November 19, 1979, in St. Louis, Missouri, to Ron and Cheryl Howard. Ryan and his twin brother, Corey, were the second and third sons in the family, born after their older brother, Chris. The family grew up in Wildwood, on the outer edge of St. Louis’ western suburbs. Ron Howard described their home as a mix of Southern values and middle-class aspiration. Ryan’s dad was a manager for IBM, and his mom worked in marketing. Neither parent was a standout athlete. “I could play everything, just not well,” said Ron.1

Ryan and his twin brother were inseparable throughout their childhood, playing the same instruments and participating in the same sports, eventually even attending the same college and rooming together.2 Ron insisted on all of his kids being polite by saying “Yes, ma’am” and “Yes, sir” and learning essential life skills like driving a stick shift. When Ryan was two, his father walked in on him taking swings with a small bat while watching baseball on TV. “It was such a natural swing,” Ron said. “I knew he’d be some kind of baseball player. How far? I didn’t know. But that feeling came over me.”3

Ryan attended Lafayette High School, where he played football his sophomore and junior years, while also performing in the marching band as a trombonist. “Other than the sheer size of him I don’t think we understood what he would become athletically,” said his marching band director, Mark McHale. “As far as baseball goes, it wasn’t really something we knew much about.”4

Lafayette’s baseball coaches didn’t move Howard up to varsity until late in his sophomore season. He promptly slammed two home runs and drove in seven runs in his first game. In his senior year, at the urging of his mom, he quit football and put aside the marching band to focus on baseball. One of the team’s assistant coaches, Steve Miller, said, “We thought he had…flaws in his swing.”5 That may explain why no Division I school offered Howard a scholarship. However, with Miller’s help, Ryan connected with Southwest Missouri State’s head coach and made the team as a walk-on, with hopes to be put on scholarship after his freshman year at the Division I school.”6

Howard got a scholarship and much more, hitting .355 with 19 homers and 66 RBIs over 57 games. He was named the Missouri State and Missouri Valley Conference Rookie of the Year and a Collegiate Baseball Freshman All-American for 1999. He finished his time at the school in the all-time top-10 in seven offensive categories. In the summer of 2000, he participated in the 29th annual USA vs Japan Collegiate All-Star series, batting .231 for Team USA.

Major league scouts saw a patient and powerful presence at the plate that resembled a left-handed Frank Thomas, though there were red flags around his strikeout totals. 7 Howard was selected in the 5th round of the 2001 amateur draft by the Philadelphia Phillies, signed by scout Jerry Lafferty.

For his first go at pro ball just weeks after being drafted, he was assigned to the short-season Class A Batavia (New York) Muckdogs of the New York-Penn League. Howard didn’t light the world on fire, but he showed the balanced approach that foreshadowed his best days as a pro. Over 203 plate appearances, he hit six home runs, drew 30 walks, batted .272, and drove in 35 runs.

Howard started 2002 with the Low-A Lakewood (New Jersey) BlueClaws of the South Atlantic League and as his playing time increased, so did his production. He hammered 19 homers and 87 RBIs, easily leading the team in both categories, and was named to the South Atlantic League All-Star team.

The following season, in High-A Clearwater (Florida), Howard got even better, slamming 23 homers to go with 82 RBIs, a .304 batting average, and an .889 OPS. He was selected to participate in the Futures Game during All-Star weekend and named the Florida State League MVP.

Howard began 2004 with Double-A Reading (Pennsylvania), where he hit 37 homers and drove in 102 runs in just 102 games before being moved up to the Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (Pennsylvania) Red Barons. His time in Reading was good enough for Eastern League MVP honors. “It was amazing,” Howard said of his time with Reading. “We were having a blast putting up stupid Nintendo numbers.”8 He went on to easily adjust to the higher level, hitting an additional nine homers and batting .270 over 29 games. That summer the Phillies offered to send Howard to the Pirates for Kris Benson in an effort to bolster their starting rotation. Pittsburgh turned the offer down believing it had a comparable prospect in Brad Eldred.9

Howard finished the season with a September call-up to the major league club, debuting in Philadelphia on September 1, striking out as a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the 5th inning. His first hit came five days later, a pinch-hit single off Atlanta Braves starter Travis Smith. Howard hit his first major league home run on September 11th, in the 7th inning of Philadelphia’s 11-9 win over the New York Mets. Overall, in his first stint with the Phils he batted .282 with two homers in 39 at-bats.

Maintaining his rookie status ahead of the 2005 season, Howard was ranked 27th on Baseball America’s Top Prospects list. With future Hall of Famer Jim Thome entrenched as the starting first baseman, Howard didn’t break camp on the Opening Day roster. Instead, he stayed with the Red Barons, where he punished opposing pitchers to the tune of 16 homers, a .371 batting average, and 1.157 OPS over 61 games. He did make a 12-game cameo with the big club in May when Thome went down with a lower back strain, mostly coming off the bench as a pinch-hitter and chipping in a home run. With Thome sidelined again, Howard was called back up on July 2, this time for good. Over his next 76 games, he started 72 times, allowing the Phillies not to miss their veteran. Howard’s 22 home runs, 63 RBIs, and a .288 batting average, earned him the National League Rookie of the Year award.

The Phillies finished second in the National League East, missing the playoffs by two games. Howard was a key piece on a team filled with young talent, such as Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins, Bobby Abreu, Cole Hamels, and Shane Victorino, poised to compete for a championship.

That offseason, Philadelphia shipped Thome to the White Sox, officially handing the 2006 starting job to Howard. He homered off the Cardinals’ Chris Carpenter on Opening Day and, even though he didn’t go yard again until April 16, he caught fire from there, entering June with 18 home runs and 47 RBIs, earning a spot on the All-Star Team. While Ryan was 0-for-1 in the All-Star game, he won the Home Run Derby in Pittsburgh, edging David Wright by one homer.

In the second half, Howard picked up where he left off, belting 30 more home runs (58 overall) and adding 78 RBIs (149 total), leading the league in both categories, as well as total bases. On August 31, Howard launched a Pedro Astacio 2-2 pitch deep into the upper deck for his 49th home run of the season, breaking Mike Schmidt’s club record. For the season, he compiled seven multiple-home run games, including three home runs against the Atlanta Braves on September 3. Howard’s manager Charlie Manuel said, “This is the best season I’ve been around without a doubt.” Schmidt echoed the sentiment, “This is probably one of the top five offensive years in the history of baseball.”10 His team didn’t fare as well, finishing a disappointing 12 games behind the Mets and missing the playoffs once again. Howard was named the National League MVP, becoming just the second player (after Cal Ripken, Jr.) to win the MVP a season after winning the Rookie of the Year.11

With the steroid scandal at its peak, Howard started to carry the weight of being a “clean” slugger. “I don’t think it diminishes the credibility of all players,” Howard said referring to steroid users. “For the guys that haven’t done anything… it’s tough because we have to answer those questions and there is that cloud that does hang over us. I’ve always been that guy who never used steroids, never believed in it. It just felt like that’s not me going out there and playing the game.”12

With many of baseball’s best home run hitters, including the new all-time leader Barry Bonds (one of Howard’s heroes growing up13), tarnished by steroid allegations, fan interest in the game was diminishing. The popularity of the NFL and the NBA was soaring. African American fans in particular declined. The number of African American players in MLB had sunken to 9%, down from 19% from just ten years prior. Howard represented hope that young African Americans could have a role model to spark interest in coming back to America’s Pastime again. “You can’t worry about it because it changes all the time,” Howard commented about the decline in African American players. “Maybe a large number of (African-American) kids will return to baseball soon. You never know.”14 For his part, Howard conducted himself just as his dad taught, with a bright smile, cordial to fans and media alike.15

In four consecutive professional seasons, Howard took home two minor league MVP awards, a Rookie of the Year, and a major league MVP. In 2007, he added a playoff appearance to his resume, as the Phillies captured their first of five consecutive division titles. The team entered August 3.5 games behind the Mets, but a 13-4 run down the stretch coupled with New York’s collapse allowed the Phils to win the division by a single game. Howard faced inevitable regression, but only slightly as he still clobbered 47 homers and drove in 136 runs. He did, though, see his league-leading strikeout total rise to 199 (an MLB record at the time16) and his batting average sink to .268. On June 27, his 325th game in the Majors, Howard hit the 100th home run of his career, setting the MLB record for fewest games needed to reach the milestone.

In the NLDS, the Phillies were dispatched handily by the future National League champion Colorado Rockies. In his first taste of October baseball, Howard managed three hits over 12 at-bats, including a meaningless solo homer in a Game Two blowout loss.

With playoff experience under their belts, the Phillies’ core had the chemistry and growth to be taken seriously in 2008. Still, in a competitive division, most baseball writers saw them as a step behind the formidable Mets. Howard led the league again in home runs (47) and RBIs (146), but his other stats declined further to, at that point, career-lows, in batting average (.251) and OPS (.881). Once again, he struck out 199 times, this time not even leading the league as Mark Reynolds broke his prior year record with 205 Ks.

For most of the season, the Phillies found themselves in a dogfight with the Mets, entering mid-September two games behind. An 11-game stretch from September 11 through September 22, where they went 10-1, put the Phillies into first place to stay, and they finished the season winning the NL East by three games.

This time, Howard and the Phils weren’t stopped. After a quiet NLDS against the Milwaukee Brewers, whom the Phillies dispatched in five games, Howard came alive against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS. Howard had six hits and three walks over 23 plate appearances, including three hits in the Phillies’ series clinching 5-1 Game Five win. In the World Series, he fared even better as his team beat the Tampa Bay Rays in five games to capture the title. Howard’s best game came in Game Four, when he homered three times and drove in five runs during his team’s 10-2 route.

“When I think of 2008, I think of all the different personalities we had,” Howard recalled. “From Brett Myers to Jamie Moyer to Pat Burrell to Jayson Werth to Shane Victorino. We had so many personalities, but we had the one commonality that we wanted to win.”17 That offseason, Howard finished second in MVP voting to winner Albert Pujols, the third consecutive season he finished in the top-five.

Looking to repeat as champions, the Phillies were storming through the NL East with a healthy seven-game lead in 2009 when they landed defending Cy Young winner Cliff Lee at the trade deadline. Howard, named to his second All-Star team, had arguably his best season after his MVP campaign, hitting 45 home runs, driving in 141 runs, and lifting his batting average to .279. The Phillies marched back to the playoffs and easily dispatched the Rockies and Dodgers in four and five games, respectively. Howard was the catalyst in both series with six hits in the NLDS and another eight hits, including two home runs and eight RBIs, in the NLCS. For his work, he was named the NLCS MVP.

The Phillies matched up with the New York Yankees in the World Series, a battle of two league powerhouses. Howard’s bat went cold, as his team won the first game but dropped the next three. After the Phillies tightened the series with a Game Five win, Howard homered off Andy Pettitte in Game Six, but it wasn’t enough, as his team lost the game and the series.

Early in the 2010 season, the Phillies announced that they inked Howard to a contract extension worth $125 million over five years. He was previously under contract through 2012 and his new deal took him through 2016. “This is absolutely great,” manager Charlie Manuel said. “We signed Ryan Howard quite a few years ago and that means we’re keeping him. He’s one of our guys, he is a Phillie.”18 Over the prior four years, Howard had averaged nearly 50 home runs per season and been a catalyst for successful playoff runs. There were no obvious signs of slowing down.

Howard finished the first half of the 2010 season with 17 homers and 65 RBIs, good for his third, and final, All-Star selection. An ankle injury that landed him on the disabled list in August led him to his fewest games (143) since his rookie season. Still, he managed 31 homers and 108 RBIs along with a solid .276 batting average and .353 OBP. Even though his strikeout rate was the lowest of his career, his walk percentage dropped below 10 percent for the first time as well, keeping his strikeout to walk ratio troubling (157 strikeouts against just 59 walks).

The Phillies rolled to a 97-65 record, once again capturing the NL East division. They buzzed through the Reds with three straight NLDS wins but were stopped in six games against the eventual World Series champion San Francisco Giants. Howard didn’t homer in either series, but remained a steady presence at the plate, batting .273 and .318, respectively. He struck out looking against Brian Wilson in Game Six to make the final out of the NLCS.

The 2011 season played out much like 2010. Howard got into 152 games, slugged 33 home runs, and drove in 116 runs with a .253 average. His 286 home runs through his first eight seasons were, as of 2022, the fourth most all-time.19 The Phillies had assembled a pitching staff some considered the best ever, headlined by four aces in future Hall of Famer Roy Halladay, Cy Young winner Cliff Lee and multiple-time All-Stars Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels. “I think it can be as good as anybody’s rotation in the history of the game,” longtime Braves pitching coach Leo Mazzone said.20 And they didn’t disappoint. The team marched to 102 victories and a Division Series matchup with the St. Louis Cardinals, who won 12 fewer games.

Things didn’t go as planned when the underdog Cardinals upended the favorites in five close games. Howard made the final out of the series in what became arguably the most pivotal moment of his career. With his team down 1-0 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning of the decisive Game Five, Howard roped a sharp ground ball to second base and crumpled to the ground as he began running to first base. After multiple attempts to get up and run, he went down again halfway to first as the Cardinals celebrated their series victory yards away. “I was trying to run, and I felt this pop and the whole thing went numb, like it was on fire,” Howard said after the game. “It literally felt like I had a flat tire. I tried to get up and I just couldn’t go.”21 He made the final out for the second straight year and this time added injury to insult by rupturing the Achilles tendon in his left leg, requiring immediate surgery.

The injury kept Howard sidelined until July 2012. He returned to the lineup with two hits against the Braves, but it went downhill from there. He was hitless over his next four games. During a stretch in late August, he went homerless over 47 plate appearances. Howard never rounded into form, posting career-worsts (to that point) in batting average (.219), OBP (.295), home runs (14), and RBIs (56). He hit his 300th home run on September 21st, the second-fastest in MLB history to ever reach that mark. Without Howard consistently mashing in the middle of their lineup, the Phillies missed the playoffs for the first time since 2006, dropping to 81-81, third in the division.

Howard played only nine more games in 2013 than 2012, and the results were hardly any better. He seemed poised for a bounce-back season while hitting .284 with 16 RBIs in April. In late May, though, Howard hurt his knee but insisted on trying to play through it. “You play hurt, you play injured to the best of your ability,” Howard said. “Guys go out and play hurt, play injured. That’s the part of your competitive nature.” Manuel supported him, stating, “We have to stay with him because like I’ve always said, he is a guy that knocks in all the big runs for us.”22 The hope didn’t pan out; the Phillies finally placed Howard on the DL with nagging knee inflammation in early July. Two days later, the club announced he would undergo surgery to repair a torn meniscus; he was done for the season, finishing with 11 home runs. In August, the Phillies fired Manuel as he struggled to steer an aging team riddled by injuries.

Off the field, Howard was in the midst a bitter fall out with his brother and parents. At the urging of his father early in his career, Howard hired his twin brother Corey to handle his business interests. “Ron Howard is the family patriarch,” Howard said. “When he gave orders…[i]t was considered wrong to disagree with him.” Corey and Ryan’s parents were employed by his business entity called RJH Enterprises. By late 2011, Ryan was concerned about whether his family members were truly protecting his interests. Ryan claimed the company paid his family over $2 million without his authorization and they refused to provide him access to RJH records. Ryan terminated his brother’s contract in July of 2013, which prompted Corey to sue for wrongful termination. Ryan counter-sued on the grounds of fraud and mismanagement. The matter was settled out of court in November of 2014.23

Howard was healthy again in 2014 and played in his most games (153) since 2009. Unfortunately, the results still didn’t justify the huge contract under which he now played. By mid-season, Howard was hitting barely above .200 with under 20 homers and a .300 OBP. The strikeout concerns that haunted Howard throughout even his productive seasons finally caught up as he accumulated 115 of his total 190 strikeouts before the All-Star break. Reports surfaced that the Phillies were considering releasing Howard to free their payroll from under the $60 million owed him over two more seasons.24 He ended the year with just 23 homers and 95 RBIs as the Phillies finished last.

Things went from bad to worse in 2015 when the Phillies again finished in last place, with the worst record (63-99) in all of MLB. Howard was no longer serviceable when facing left-handed pitching, against whom he slashed .130/.178/.240. Overall, he managed 23 home runs and 77 RBIs, but his .277 OBP was not only, to that point, the lowest of his career but the third lowest in all of baseball.

In December of 2015, Al Jazeera produced a documentary called “The Dark Side” about doping in sports. In the film, a pharmacist named Howard Sly told an undercover reporter that Howard, the Washington Nationals’ Ryan Zimmerman, and several NFL players were taking steroids. All the players vehemently denied the allegations. After an investigation, MLB cleared both Howard and Zimmerman.25 They sued Al Jazeera for defamation and long legal proceedings were still ongoing as of 2021.26

The following season was Howard’s last in the majors. He became a liability at the plate. Once rookie first baseman Tommy Joseph hit well enough, manager Pete Mackanin had no choice but to pull Howard’s starting job. Howard hit a career-worst .196 with a .257 OBP (also a career-low) over 112 games, including a stretch between April and May where he went 0-36 with 26 strikeouts on 1-2 or 0-2 counts.27 The Phillies finished 20 games under .500. That November, Howard became a free agent.

The Atlanta Braves signed Howard to a minor league contract in early April 2017. He was assigned to the Triple-A Gwinnett (Georgia) Braves of the International League where he hit .184 and just one home run before being released in May release. Not ready to give up on baseball, Howard said, “I just think there’s more I can do in this game.”28 Howard signed on with the Colorado Rockies in August and played for their Triple-A affiliate Albuquerque (New Mexico) Isotopes for 16 games. He finished the season batting .192 with three homers. In September 2018, he officially announced his retirement via an essay for The Players Tribune entitled “Thank You, Philly.” To Phillies fans he wrote, “Y’all took a chance on this big, quiet kid from St. Louis — and for that I’ll always be grateful.”29

After 2012, the year his $125-million five-year contract extension kicked in, Howard hit a total of 96 home runs, drove in 330 runs, and batted .226 with a .292 OBP. All of this against 636 strikeouts and just 169 walks. While the analytics community pointed to his worrisome underlying stats the moment he signed his massive contract, Howard’s decline felt to Phillies fans as sudden as his ascent to one of the greatest sluggers of his generation felt meteoric. The contract is regarded as one of the most unfortunate in the history of baseball.30

Still, Howard’s place as one of the greatest Phillies ever was assured31 by his dominant stretch from 2005-2011, where he captured not only individual accolades but led the city to a championship. During that span Howard slashed .275/.368/.560. He had the most RBIs in baseball, the second most home runs, and the fifth-highest slugging percentage. As of 2022, he remained the fastest player to reach 100 and 200 career home runs, and the second-fastest to 300.

Howard met Krystle Campbell, a former elementary school teacher and Philadelphia Eagles cheerleader, when both were in Tampa for Super Bowl XLIII. The pair married in Hawaii on December 1, 2012. Together they have three daughters, Ariana, Alexandria, and Amara. Howard also has a son, Darian, from a prior relationship. Ryan and Krystle have written six baseball-themed children’s books together, called Little Rhino.32 “My wife was a second-grade teacher,” Howard commented. “We just always thought it’d be a good idea. Education was always big for both of us growing up.”33 Post-retirement, Howard became a partner in the venture capital fund SeventySix Capital, based out of Radnor, PA, which invests in innovative technologies and companies.34

Missouri State retired Howard’s No. 6 in 2010, making him the second Bear baseballer to have his number retired, after long-time coach Bill Rowe.35 In 2016, the school inducted Howard into its Hall of Fame.36 Also in 2010, the Lakewood BlueClaws retired Howard’s number while he played with them on a rehabilitation assignment.37

Through the first half of his career, Howard seemed headed to Cooperstown. But by the time Howard came onto the Hall of Fame ballot in 2021, he received only eight votes, falling out of consideration after just one year. In the second half of his career, unfairly or not, his legacy became a cautionary tale about overvaluing home runs and RBIs. For Phillies fans, his arrival sparked a near-decade long run of success in the City of Brotherly Love that included five division titles, two pennants, and a World Series ring. For six seasons, Howard was one of the most feared hitters in baseball and the love he gets from Philadelphia speaks to him being the heart of their dynasty.

Last revised: February 17, 2022

Acknowledgments

This biography was reviewed by Donna L. Halper and fact-checked by Paul Proia.

Notes

1 Michael Sokolove, “Ryan Howard, No Asterisk,” The New York Times, March 4, 2017.

2 David Murphy, “The family legal fight over Ryan Howard’s finances,” The Inquirer, November 19, 2014.

3 Sokolove.

4 Mike Sielski, “Father saw success coming,” The Daily Intelligencer (Doylestown, PA), October 28, 2009: 44.

5 Sielski.

6 Sielski.

7 Baseball America, Ryan Howard Scouting Report, https://www.baseballamerica.com/players/18800/ryan-howard/

8 Scarcella, Rich. “Ryan Howard reminisces about memorable 2004 season with Reading Phillies,” Yahoo! Sports, https://sports.yahoo.com/ryan-howard-reminisces-memorable-2004-034600081.html, August 12, 2021.

9 Dejan Kovacevic, “Inside the Pirates: The MVP that got away,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 18, 2007.

10 Stephen Miller, “Where Ryan Howard’s season ranks all-time is debatable, but there’s no doubt the Phillies first baseman is … ** Flirting with greatness,” The Morning Call (Allentown, PA), September 12, 2006.

11 He was later joined by Dustin Pedroia (2007 & 2008) and Kris Bryant (2015 & 2016).

12 Ryan Howard, “10 Questions for Ryan Howard,” TIME, March 12, 2009.

13 Howard.

14 Joe Giglio, “MLB’s African-American Superstars Discuss Jackie Robinson’s Impact,” Bleacher Report, https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2029246-mlbs-african-american-superstars-discuss-jackie-robinsons-impact, April 15, 2014.

15 Sokolove.

16 As of 2021, Howard’s 199 strikeouts were tied for 16th all-time.

17 Scarcella

18 “Phillies sign Howard through 2016,” ESPN.com, April 26, 2010.

19 Behind Ralph Kiner, Albert Pujols, and Eddie Mathews.

20 Jayson Stark, “Measuring Phillies’ rotation historically,” ESPN.com, December 14, 2010.

21 Ed Barkowitz, “Ryan Howard: “Achilles ‘felt like it was on fire’,” The Philadelphia Inquirer, October 8, 2011.

22 Ryan Lawrence, “Phillies Notebook: Howard taking it day by day,” The Philadelphia Inquirer, May 28, 2013.

23 Murphy.

24 Cork Gaines, “Ryan Howard’s Historic $125 Million Contract Has Turned into A Nightmare for The Phillies,” Business Insider, July 29, 2014.

25 Ken Belson, “Ryan Howard and Ryan Zimmerman Cleared of Doping Accusations,” The New York Times, August 19, 2016.

26 Michael McCann, “Ryan Zimmerman and Ryan Howard Implicated in Al Jazeera Court Filing,” Sportico, January 31, 2021.

27 Corey Sharp, “The Reason for Ryan Howard’s Decline Since 2010,” Phillies Nation, https://www.philliesnation.com/2016/05/signs-of-howards-decline-since-2010/, May 25, 2016.

28 Michael Bamberger, “Ryan Howard nears end with Phillies, but he’s not ready to retire just yet,” Sports Illustrated, September 29, 2016.

29 Ryan Howard, “Thank You, Philly,” The Players’ Tribune, https://www.theplayerstribune.com/articles/ryan-howard-philadelphia-phillies, September 4, 2018.

30 Seth Trachtman, “The worst contract in MLB history,” Yardbarker, https://www.yardbarker.com/mlb/articles/the_worst_contracts_in_mlb_history/s1__28002203#slide_2, November 21, 2019.

31 Martin Frank, “2 legends from 1970s top fans’ voting for top 10 Phillies players of all time,” Delaware Online, https://www.delawareonline.com/story/sports/mlb/phillies/2021/04/15/philadelphia-phillies-fans-rank-their-top-10-mike-schmidt-steve-carlton-1970-s-finish-1st-and-2nd/7226511002/, April 15, 2021.

32 Scarcella.

33 Scarcella.

34 Lindsay Berra, “Ryan Howard: A Big Piece to the future of SeventySix Capital,” Sports Business Journal, September 23, 2019.

35 MSU Athletics Hall of Fame, Ryan Howard, https://missouristatebears.com/honors/msu-athletics-hall-of-fame/ryan-howard/81.

36 MSU Athletics Hall of Fame.

37 Tom Hinkel, “Lakewood BlueClaws retire Ryan Howard’s No. 29, Lehigh Valley Live, https://www.lehighvalleylive.com/sports/2010/08/lakewood_blue_claws_retire_rya.html, January 3, 2019.