Phillies Great Ryan Howard Officially Announces Retirement

PHILADELPHIA, PA — Ryan Howard, one of the most imposing figures in baseball during his prime who led the Phillies to a World Series championship in 2008, has officially announced his retirement.

Howard, 38, has been largely removed from the professional scene for the past two years. He played his entire 13-year major league career with the Phillies, earning the National League Rookie of the Year Award in 2005, the NL's Most Valuable Player Award in 2006, and three All-Star team nods.

Howard made the announcement in an emotional essay written for the Derek Jeter-founded Players' Tribune on Tuesday morning, recalling his first ever at-bat with the Phillies in 2004, the way the crowd responded, and his connection to Philadelphia and its fans.

"It’s like they were telling me, You’re family, now. You’re one of us. And this special thing that we’ve got going here — starting tonight, you’re a part of that," he wrote.

"The Big Piece" ends his career as the greatest first baseman in Phillies history, highlighted by a monstrous four-year run where he slugged 58, 47, 48, and 45 home runs consecutively. For six straight years - 2006 to 2011 - he finished in the top 10 in MVP voting. He was the most fearsome force on a Phillies team that similarly dominated baseball for that same same stretch.

Batting cleanup or third behind Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley, Howard and the Phillies won five straight NL East titles, two straight NL championships, and, of course, the 2008 World Series.

In his historic MVP year in 2006, Howard batted .313, walloped 149 RBI's, and hit 58 home runs. His RBI's are the 46th most ever hit by a player in a single season. His home runs are tied for 11th most all-time in a single season, per Baseball Reference.

Only three hitters in history that have no known connections to performance enhancing drugs - Babe Ruth, Roger Maris, and Giancarlo Stanton - have hit more home runs in a year.

With the 10th anniversary of the Phillies world championship coming up this October, 2018 continues to prove a farewell year for that era of Philadelphia baseball. A new legion of Phillies has finally brought competitive baseball back to the stadium. A plaque commemorating the late Roy Halladay was put up on the brick wall at Citizens Bank Park earlier this summer. And Utley, who currently plays for the Los Angeles Dodgers, also announced he would retire at the end of this year.

Howard struggled toward the end of his career, as a series of injuries hampered what likely would have been a few more years of dominance. Yet even in a 2016 season which saw him get only 331 at bats, he still slugged 25 home runs - putting him on an elite pace of close to 40 for a full season.

"It’s been a wild ride," Howard wrote in his Players' Tribune essay. "And I’m glad that I got to stay on it for as long as I did. Which I guess has really also kind of become my overall perspective on things: How, when it’s come to these last 14 years of mine — nothing has ever been easy for long, and nothing has ever been perfect for long. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. Because that’s just..… baseball, right? Baseball isn’t a blink. It isn’t a sprint. It’s a marathon. It’s long. And you can’t expect sustained perfection from it. All you can hope for in baseball, I think, is a moment of perfection every now and again. You can hope for a few, perfect moments — moments that belong to you, that are yours. And then you can hope for them to matter."

Such moments of perfection don't come around very often. For Howard, there were 382. 382 home runs, 382 glimmers of transcendence from a big piece of Philadelphia legend.

Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images