Fan Reaction
With Howard, he seems to bring a different reaction out of Phillies fans. He was always judged differently than the other pieces of that team that took the city by storm.
While Howard is listed with Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins, Cole Hamels, Shane Victorino, and Carlos Ruiz as the core players who delivered the best era in Philadelphia Phillies baseball, he also has received the most criticism from fans. The reasoning for this depends on who you ask.
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Some will point to the injuries, some to the strikeouts, and others to the low average after teams started to deploy the shift against him. Others will leave stats out of it and some point to his remarks about trading places when criticized his recent performance.
Others will leave stats out of it and some point to his remarks about trading places when criticized his recent performance.
“You want to trade places? You want to see what it’s like? For me, I’m good. Like I said before, it’s all about putting things in perspective. There’s a lot of outside stuff, a lot of people who have opinions. They can’t — you don’t — walk in my shoes so you don’t know what it’s like.”
Many fans found this insulting as Howard is a multi-millionaire, so the fact he was complaining justifiably aggravated those who work multiple jobs a day to barely make it and would gladly switch to the luxurious lifestyle he lives.
The final boiling point in the relationship between Howard and the fans would happen in his last season as a Phillie when a fan threw a beer bottle at him. This event caused Howard to comment on the situation stating:
“If someone throws something, we’re just supposed to sit there and wear it and get hit. Nah, man, we’re human beings first and foremost. People get it twisted. They see the baseball stuff, and they don’t see you as a human being. They see you as someone that just plays baseball.”- Ryan Howard
Howard was right; it is in the end only a game, and people tend to forget that sometimes with their interactions toward a struggling player. All of these negative things seemed to cloud all that he accomplished for this team.