November 19, 2006
Ripken on Howard
Ryan Howard may win the NL MVP award tomorrow. If he does, he'll become the second person to win Rookie of the Year and MVP in consecutive seasons. The other was Cal Ripken:
Ripken more than anybody knows what Howard is going through.
The expectations on the field.
The sudden fame.
"The coolest thing in the world is that you had name recognition in the sport," Ripken said of those first two seasons. "All of a sudden, when somebody would mention your name they would know who you were. The second greatest thing was having face recognition outside of your uniform. You're walking down the street in New York and a truck driver would yell, 'Hey, Cal, we're going to kick your butt tonight.' I think that's cool. The only thing you have to really worry about is that you have to remember who you are. You're just a baseball player. You have to maintain perspective while some of these other things change around you, which are really cool. I think the biggest challenge for all of us is trying to maintain perspective and trying to maintain our own identity and who we are. Don't get caught up in the other stuff."
Posted by David Pinto at
10:43 AM
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Word out of Chicago is that the Cubs just signed Alf Soriano to a 7 year $125 million deal.
ESPN News now report 8/136
re: mvp and rookie of the year in the same season
based on win shares, Dick Allen aka Richie Allen, with 41 win shares, should easily have won the MVP as well as the Rookie of the Year Award in 1964.
He was far more valuable in every sense to his team, the Phillies, than was Ken Boyer to his team, the Cardinals.
Ken Boyer in 1964 was a good player. Dick Allen, in 1964, was an MVP, Hall of Fame type player.
I mention this because many, many people who watch Ryan Howard's home runs, which are so far and so majestic and hit with so much distance, power and authority, can only compare his power, talent and distance to one other player in the last twenty five years--Dick Allen.
Willie Stargell is the other name that comes up, of course.
But it was a bit weird when Howard hit a massive home run to Center Field to win a game last year that hit--and we're not kidding about this--the Dick Allen placque in deepest Center Field up in the Phillies Wall of Fame, about 525 feet from Home Plate.
Many took this to be a sign of divine passing of the baton.
Allen was robbed of the MVP in 64' by racial prejudice and by the Phillies' late season collapse.
Thank goodness we live in a more enlightened age.
Also, his 58 home runs are a remarkable achievement, all the more so now that we know that the home runs of McGwire and Sosa may have been tainted by steroid use.
--art kyriazis, philly
