Sometimes it isn’t easy to find perspective.
That’s why when Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said the Phillies would be better off with Ryan Howard playing somewhere else, it didn’t sit well with a few players. Former Phillie Shane Victorino was one of those guys.
“It’s always tough when someone comes out and says that about you,” Victorino said after his Red Sox beat the Phillies, 8-0, on Monday’s season opener. “I stood by Ryan and I defended him to the end.”
Victorino saw firsthand how Howard sacrificed his body for the Phillies in 2011 and helped carry the team to five straight NL East titles. However, after Howard ruptured his Achilles tendon on the last play of the ’11 NLDS, the recovery has been slow going. Howard has just 48 homers and 194 RBIs in 304 games since the injury after averaging 41 homers and 123 RBIs per season before the injury.
Even though Howard appeared in 153 games last season, he hit just 23 homers and had 95 RBIs. Yes, that’s a huge drop-off given the league-leading 190 strikeouts and .223 batting average, but 23 homers and nearly 100 RBIs is nothing to sneeze at, Victorino says.
“It’s everybody on Ryan and I said, ‘Hey, timeout. Let’s look at his numbers last year: 23 and 95. Is that bad?’ Yeah, OK, so it's not the 40 and the 140 that he did in those runs, but I'll take 23 and 95 on my team.”
Of course, Howard is getting those numbers while drawing one of the highest salaries in the game.
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“When Ryan was doing what he was doing hitting 40 homers and driving in 140, 150 guys, he was making minimum,” Victorino said. “But when he did what he did and obviously got the contract, it was worth it.
“The part for me as an athlete is it’s hard and it’s easy for others to assume or say certain things when it's all said and done with and you're not the baseball player you were say four years ago. That’s the part that sits hard with me to listen to someone or individuals, and again Ruben making that comment.”
Victorino understands the what-have-you-done-for-me-lately nature of sports, but with the Phillies facing a long rebuilding process, maybe a little perspective is needed. Maybe a history lesson, too, said Victorino.
“That’s the kind of part that you sit there and you feel for as a friend, let alone a longtime teammate of yours who did a lot of great [things for the Phillies], who had a lot of good times in this city,” he said. “But, hey, to each his own. Everybody has their opinion.”