Monday, September 18, 2006

Howard's End


Ryan Howard has 57 home runs and 140 RBIs with a very good batting average and on base percentage in the 4th largest TV market in the country....and it's kinda sorta on the sports radar screen. Are you kidding me? This is amazing, it's a MUCH more well rounded season than either McGwire or Sosa ever had. In addition, he carried the Phillies right into the wild card race after they dumped Abreu. All that and he'll be only 27 in November and is an African American star in a sport that is becoming so irrelevant to black athletes that there is a MLB task force to pull African American athletes away from football and basketball. Is it because it snuck up on us out of nowhere? Has the NFL and fantasy football become that massive that it can distract from something like this? Did BALCO and the fallout make people not care about huge baseball seasons anymore? You're telling me that people care more about a David Ortiz rant about how a power hitter deserves a MVP more than a gritty, slugging-free shortstop (a fair point, but he probably should have held it to himself....by the way, if you read the story, he didn't say that he personally should win it. He pushes Morneau or Dye, but that makes for bad copy).


Drink one for Ryan Howard tonight.

1 comment:

Mike Noone said...

That's a great point. It is somewhat amazing that almost nobody's paying attention.