June 06, 2016
For a guy who is paid handsomely to do a job he loves, to spend his time doing what kids dream they could do for a living, Ryan Howard has had a bit of a bad week.
He’s kept a positive disposition throughout it, however, not wanting his extended benching to become a distraction to his teammates.
But having to sit on the bench because another player is outperforming you, or because a younger player is on the roster, or because you aren’t in the team’s plans beyond the current season? That’s business. It happens to many an athlete in every team sport.
Having to worry about beer bottles being thrown in your direction, though? That’s personal.
Howard had a beer bottle heaved at his direction by a fan at the conclusion of Saturday’s game at Citizens Bank Park. For the second straight day, he was asked about the incident.
“To do what I've done in this city playing, I don't care how bad somebody thinks I'm playing,” he said. “It's uncalled for. You shouldn't do it. You shouldn't do it, period.”
@Phillies @ryanlawrence21 @ToddZolecki @MattGelb this class act tossed a bottle at Howard as he walked to the dugout pic.twitter.com/Gr4DlFgNPV
— Bryan Tracy (@btrace98) June 4, 2016
No arrests have been made, although both the Phillies security department and the Philadelphia police are on the case and have a few leads. Security footage from Citizens Bank Park recorded the incident and a team source said the Twitter photo circulating on the internet (above) matched up with the video (the photo quality of the tweet, however, presented a much sharper image of the person’s face).
Although the picture has gone viral, no one has yet to identify the suspect.
Howard, the former National League MVP and World Series champion who has been booed routinely in the last few seasons, was asked if the incident changed his view of Phillies fans.
“Does it change? I mean, there are a few bad apples,” he said, echoing his manager's statement from a day earlier. “There's a lot of passionate people. There's a lot of great fans. There's been a lot of support, walking around the streets and seeing a lot of people. They tell me to keep my head up, stay at it. There's a lot of positive support. It's the bad apples that kind of give the town a bad rap.”
To be fair to those fans in Philadelphia, the ones that are not in the “bad apple” category, this isn’t the first fan incident between a member of the 2008 World Champion Phillies and beer. Shane Victorino was doused with beer while patrolling the ivy-clad wall at Wrigley Field in Chicago in August of 2009; the assailant turned himself in shortly afterward.
Howard hopes justice arrives in his case, too.
“That'd be great,” he said. “Hopefully everybody can learn a valuable lesson from this and not do anything like that. Because nobody deserves that. It's not warranted. It doesn't make any sense. … Like I said the other day, we're all human beings first and foremost. What I do is I play baseball. Sometimes I have good days, sometimes I have bad guys or whatnot. That doesn't mean somebody gets the right to throw a beer bottle at you and not face any consequences.”
There still may be a positive Howard can draw from having a beer bottle thrown at him. There was one “bad apple” but many, many other fans who have reached out to Howard in support, thanking him for his career with the Phillies even with his current struggles.
“It's cool,” Howard said. “It’s awesome. I appreciate the support. I think that everybody in whatever field that you do, whether you change oil, whether you work at a grocery store or whatever, if somebody came in and threw a beer bottle at you or something like that, you'd be upset. I definitely do take it personally.”
Follow Ryan on Twitter: @ryanlawrence21
