Howard fastest to 200 career HRs
Posted by mattsmith on 9:26pm, Thursday July 16th 2009
The Big Fella
Ryan Howard blasted career home run No. 200 in the sixth inning of the Phillies-Marlins series opener Thursday night.
Howard is the fastest to reach 200 dingers in the history of baseball (658 games), supplanting Ralph Kiner, who accomplished the feat in 706 games.
Talk about shattering a record…
It was Howard’s 23rd homer of the season.
while its a great accomplishment, its a misleading stat. Kiner was 27 in the season he got his 200th, Howard is 29. I’m not trying to take away, I just try to look at stats like this for what they are… I’d do the same for any team, at any rate, congrats, even though hes a philly
reading my own comment, it came out wrong. Basically what i’m saying is I look at things in age, thats just me. If he was still young enough to have a real possible impact on the records, i’d be amazed, but frankly, I don’t see him getting too far up the list. thats just me
I won’t dispute that. Keep in mind, Howard essentially was blocked by Jim Thome from reaching the majors earlier this decade. He was 25 when he was a rookie.
It’s still an impressive accomplishment. There’s no question in my mind that he’ll hit 500 before it’s all said and done, provided he stays healthy.
For what’s worth, he should easily get to second place on the Phillies’ all-time homer list by the end of next season.
You would know better, but I thought it was a combo of Jim Thome and him underachieving for a while in the minors..I could look up stats to confirm, but i’ll just ask you
Yes, to an extent, when he was a young kid he didn’t progress very well.
In 2003 (Thome’s first year) Howard hit 23 homers and in 2004 he had 37 homers in the minors. Strikeouts and defense held him back… but if Thome wasn’t around he probably would have been called up in mid-to-late-2003 instead of late-2004.
Howard proved right away that he was ready for the bigs.
The Phils knew what they had in Howard before signing Thome in November 2002. The Thome signing was a marketing decision to inject excitement into the city leading up to the opening of the new ballpark in 2004.
Howard ca really crush da ball but can he slow down so Mets can catch up a little and make this a race in 2009. It seems like Phillies just want to run away with division, what’s the fun in that?
The best part about the last four, five seasons was watching it all go down to final week of the season!
I think the Mets have a pulse… there is slight hope everyone gets healthy and they go on a Colorado Rockies 2007-like comeback! WHOknows??!?