Historical 2006 gives arguments to Howard

The Phillies haven’t been able to ask Ryan Howard for much more down the stretch of the season once they called him up from the minors — this time for good — on July 1, 2005.

Howard hit 22 home runs in just 88 games to win the 2005 National League Rookie of the Year. But seeing what would happen next, that first act would pale in comparison to what he had planned for 2006.

Howard, who is on the Hall of Fame ballot for the first time in 2002, put up one of the best offensive displays in not only franchise history, but major league history. The left-handed slugger hit .313/.425/.659 with a franchise-record 58 home runs, 149 RBIs, a 1.084 OPS and a 167 OPS+.

To put that into perspective, the only players in MLB history with at least 58 home runs and 149 RBIs in a season are Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx and Sammy Sosa.

But it wasn’t just the numbers. It was the series of small moments and key hits that ended up earning Howard the NL MVP in 2006 and helping establish him as a key player for a club that would ultimately win the World Series in 2008.

Among so many things, he won the 2006 Home Run Derby, beating David Wright. He decided a game against the Nationals early in the season with a walk-off hit. He went to the grand slam at the end of the year to go ahead against the Mets, his archrivals.

They were moments like that game in which he came off the bench after spending the night in a Cincinnati hospital to punish the Reds by hitting two home runs. After getting food poisoning, the 26-year-old was left out of the Phillies’ lineup on May 14, but he ended up making more of an impact than any other player that day.

“I felt very weak, very tired. I remember telling Charlie (Manuel, the manager) that I was sick and that I wasn’t going to be able to play,” Howard said. “Then the game started and I was sitting there. He finally came up to me and said, ‘Hey, can you play? Can you hit if we need you?’ I said, ‘I guess’. I felt terrible. But I said yes.”

Down 1-0 with two outs in the eighth, Howard pinch-hit and quickly hit a home run to tie the game. He stayed defending first base, hitting another home run in the top of the 12th to put the Phillies up before catching a game-ending line drive.

“I remember Ken Griffey Jr. went to bat and hit a really hard line drive to me. I grabbed her and it was game over,” Howard continued. “I was like, ‘Really?’ As if I didn’t feel me enough, my idol batted thunder at me.”

A month later, Howard provided the entire Phillies offense in a game against the Yankees on June 20. He went 3-for-4 with two home runs and a triple, driving in all seven of Philadelphia’s runs.

But the only thing he remembers from that day?

We lost by two runs,” Howard said of the 9-7 loss to New York.

That was just one of seven games with two or more home runs for Howard in that 2006 season. It is the most such commitments in a year in franchise history, tied with Chase Utley (also in 2006). ) and Dick Allen (1968).

Howard retired with 29 multi-homer games, but only once did he hit three in the same game. To no one’s surprise, he also did it in that historic 2006 campaign.

In the first game of a doubleheader on September 3 against the Braves, Howard dropped it on each of his first three plate appearances against right-hander Tim Hudson. To make the day even more memorable, the first of the gunshots was Howard’s 50th that year.

That historic afternoon came in the middle of a stretch in which Howard hit 26 home runs in the last 63 games of the season, also drawing 28 intentional walks. Ultimately, he led the majors in homers (58), RBIs (149) and bases reached (383), despite intentionally walking 37 times.

Although he was never able to repeat those ridiculous numbers, that 2006 season marked the beginning of a period of four straight seasons for Howard with at least 45 home runs and 135 RBIs, the beginning of a promising career that now has him on the ballot of the Hall of the Fame.

The Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be held on July 24 in Cooperstown. The results of the BBWAA election will be released on January 25 on MLB Network.