Ryan Howard blasted his 200th career home run Thursday night as the the Phillies rode the long ball and Jamie Moyer's brilliant pitching to a 4-0 lead over the Marlins.
This makes Ryan Howard the fastest player in MLB history to reach the 200-HR plateau. Howard has belted 200 in just 658 games, which is much quicker than Hall of Famer Ralph Kiner, who did it in 706 games.
The 29-year old Howard will still face heat from critics (like one or two of my lunkhead friends…you know who you are) who say that someone like Pujolz really did it quicker because he was much younger. As though it's Ryan Howard's fault that he was bombing one or two HR's a day in Triple A while Jim Thome blocked his path to the bigs. You can only do what you can do when the organization is able to get you up to the Majors. I'm not being a homer here, but facts are facts.
So, congratulations to Ryan. That is a record that will never, ever be broken for the rest of time. That is…..unless….someone hits 200 HR's in less games than 658. In which case, yeah, it will be broken.
