"You don't have to be a genius to say he has a big future ahead of him, I think he's going to keep going and not look back."  When Arizona Fall League Desert Dogs hitting coach, Eric Richardson uttered those words to Baseball America's Jack Magruder you'd think he was crazy from the heat.

Keep going?  Where?  A first baseman in an organization with a superstar at the same position who has a 5-year, forty-six million-dollar, contract.  A superstar who crushed 89 home runs and 236 RBI's in two seasons with the club.  Face it this guy's buried alive.  He has no shot of getting out of AAA ball.

The Devil's in the Details

A funny thing happens on the way to foregone conclusions.  The player Richardson has high hopes for keeps grinding it out.  A real throwback and a guy who spends every minute working and learning, focused on every aspect of his game. 

He shows promise, hits to every field.  Takes extra batting practice but still strikes out too frequently.  A big swing, big misses.  What he swats goes out of the park. An NFL defensive end sized 6-4, 260 pound 5th round pick from Southwest Missouri State he's no sure thing.  139 players drafted ahead of him look better on paper.

Sometimes the Experts are Wrong

Is he any good?  In 4 full seasons in the minors he hits .302, with 506 hits, 99 doubles, 8 triples and 104 home runs.  He leads the FSL "A" League in home runs and batting average. In any other organization he's a starter on the big club. 

Called up when the major league rosters expand at the end of his 3rd full season he hits .282-2-5 in 39 AB's spread over 19 games.  That's where the story might end.  No hope of displacing the superstar on a team desperate for pitching.  A trade his most likely ticket to the big leagues.

The Waiting is the Hardest Part

The next year after hitting .300-3-9 in spring training he's packed off to AAA.  His path to majors blocked by the superstar with the guaranteed contract.  A May call up to fill in for the injured superstar yields a .214 BA and 1 HR.  Bad enough for a return ticket to AAA and questions.  Is he just another minor league phenom?  Can he handle MLB pitching?  Is his trade value beyond repair? 

Sixty-one games come and go without the call that sends him to the next team and eventual destiny.  He hits a gaudy .371-16-54, cracks 78 hits, and 19 doubles.  Then the phone rings.

Houston We Have Liftoff

In a season where back injuries plague the superstar he will get a rare second chance to jumpstart his career.  The door slammed shut opens a tiny crack.

This is the part of the movie where the rookie steps into big shoes with half a season left, swats .288, launches 22 HR's, drives 63 across the plate on 90 hits, 17 doubles, and 2 triples.  Wins Rookie of the Year and leads his team to the World Series. 

I'm here to tell you that don't happen.  The team misses winning the wild card by two games.  The rest of it, Oh yeah, that all happens.  But the best is yet to come.

Sometimes the Best Trades are the Ones You Don't Make

The dreadful GM, who made one stinking, lousy trade after another, giving away every decent prospect the team ever had, gets fired. The new GM in his 1st press conference suggests the rookie needs to learn patience and where to sit on the bench when the superstar comes back from injuries.  The rookie might even be dealt. 

I'm here to tell you that don't happen either.  The fans completely fed up with years of relentless stupidity put their foot down.  Trade or bench the rookie and the new stadium will look like a ghost town. The team backs down and eats twenty-four million dollars to ship the injured superstar to the White Sox.

Happily Ever After

That my friend; is the tale of Ryan "Home Run" Howard the hard-hitting 2005 Rookie of the Year for those Philadelphia Phillies.  This year Howard broke the Phillies club record by swatting 11 HR's in spring training, a record held for 40 years by another Phillies Rookie of the Year, Dick Allen.

This season, Ryan's hit .295-15-38 batting 5th in the order.  He's currently on pace to hit more than 50 home runs in his first full season. Plagued early on by outside breaking balls he made the necessary adjustments.  Richardson also mentioned that in 2004, "He does a great job of making adjustments, and that's what it's all about.  If you can make the adjustments and overcome, you are going to put up the numbers he is going to put up."

His Achilles Heel last season was left-handed pitching.  Howard victimizes them this year.  Hitting .309-4-10 in 29 games.  He's no picnic for right-handers either swatting .288-11-28 in 43 games.  Was Eric Richardson crazy in 2004?  Maybe: but crazy like a fox.  Sometimes the long shot comes in.  When it does it pays big money.  To paraphrase Chazz Palminteri:  "You can ask anybody from my neighborhood...they'll tell you.  This is just another Philly tale."