Rest In Big Piece: The Atlanta Braves Have Officially Released Ryan Howard
The #Braves have released 1B Ryan Howard from his minor-league contract.
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) May 8, 2017
This information may come as shocking, but don’t let it ruin your Tuesdee. I did have the below image fired up in my weekend blog as a PS, but due to some technical difficulties, I had to remove it. All the better because Sir Ryan Howard deserves his own blog anyway.
@PhillyTByrd @SportsCenter …apparently it wasn't very good noise. more like a crashing and burning noise. or the noise of strong gusts of wind
— Ryan Deitrich (@RD0614) May 8, 2017
Please note that I would never make fun of Ryan. He gave us too many good years here in Philly that to besmirch his name would be pure blasphemy. However, I do need to point out how perfectly timed this tweet is from #FakeNews Sportscenter. It still bottles my mind that all of those people were let go from the World Wide leader, although it does appear evident in this tweet that ESPN does in fact, lie.
Now I just checked my blog history and somehow I have never paid homage to the Big Piece, so here I go:
There is not a man in baseball who put up the power numbers that Ryan Howard did from 2006-2011. He may not have been the complete player that say Albert Pujols was, but Howard was without a doubt the best run producer baseball had to offer during that stretch. I’m talking 262 Home Runs and 796 RBI. This man was so good coming out of the minors that he forced the Phillies hand in trading Hall of Famer Jim Thome after winning the 2005 Rookie of the Year Award. Then the very next season he went on to win the 2006 MVP Award. Can you imagine someone putting up .313, 58 and 149 in their second full year in the major leagues? Will never happen again, cuz. There are people who call Bryce Harper’s 2015 one of the best offensive seasons of all time and you know what I call those people. Idiots. Shit, I seemed to have lost my train of thought here when listing his plethora of accomplishments….Oh yea, can’t forget about that World Series Ring.
And like a blink of an eye, it all came to an end. Raekwon wished it can all be so simple, but life doesn’t work that way. In this case, it came in the form of a ground out to end the 2011 NLDS. I remember watching Ryan writhe in pain and my heart just sinking into my chest. I knew deep down that it was the beginning of the end. Now here we are 6 years later and I am trying to find the words to explain how much he meant to me and to all us Phillies fans. However, when deeds speak, words mean nothing.
So pardon me while I break the 4th wall here for a few sentences…Ryan, we will always love you. The Hall of Fame will look the other way, but Philly never will. During your reign, you were must watch baseball. Fan’s at the stadium would be locked in when you were at the plate, while the people at home watching on TV were telling their wives and kids to shut the fuck up because Ryan Howard was at the plate.
Hero’s are remembered, but legends never die. Ryan Howard you were a legend. If anyone thinks otherwise because you never lived up to that contract, well they are wrong. In the City of Brotherly Love, yours is unconditional. So on behalf of tbyrd of Barstoolsports dot com, Philadelphia thanks you for everything. May you rest in Big Piece, Ryan.