Ryan Howard Philadelphia Phillies (11-4-2004)

What’s your baseball philosophy?  What got you so far?

Just a lot of hard work.  Just trying to stay hungry and never being satisfied. Just trying to stay up there.

How about hitting?  Do you have a hitting philosophy?

Trying to see it and hit it.  Just get a good pitch and make good contact with it.

What are your strengths right now?

I think hitting, just trying to stay within myself basically.  Getting good pitches and trying to work the counts and stuff like that.

Pitchers throw inside and outside to set your hitters up.  Do you set up pitchers?

I think so, sometimes.  When you’re swinging at a pitch or taking certain pitches, trying to set them up to maybe throw that pitch again, either that very next pitch or later in the game.

Now I see sometimes guys, like, first round picks, they have all the talent in the world.  But, after a couple of years in the organization, they don’t seem to go as far as guys with lesser talent.  Do you think that’s true and why?

I don’t know. As far at that, I haven’t really seen it. It’s all about being hungry and who wants to go out and play and who wants it. If you want it, it doesn’t matter if you’re a first rounder or 51st rounder you’re going to go out and you’re going to take it and get what you want.

Do you think the high draft get more chances?

I don’t know, I haven’t really seen all of it. It’s more so about being hungry and going on. As far as that goes I have not seen anything.

Teams are always trading for guys and bringing people in to take your spot or compete with you. How do you approach that competition?

I think that’s part of the business, that’s part of the game.  They go out and they draft people every year and that again is whoever’s hungry is going to try to rise to the top and get up there.  So that’s what happens.  There are people in front of people and everybody’s trying to get to the big leagues. That’s where they want to be. They’re going to go out and they’re going to try to play to get there.

Has there ever been a time in your career you want to give up baseball?

No.

What’s something about pro sports that you learned the hard way that nobody told you about?

Well, I’d have to say probably just the length of the season, mentally and physically being prepared for the length of the season.  It’s a lot longer than what you’re used to playing in high school or college. I think that was probably one of the toughest things.

Do you think the chemistry of the clubhouse affects the team?

Oh, definitely.  I think so, definitely. Fun, loose clubhouses are usually going to be a team that’s getting along and having a lot of fun and playing the game and playing together well.

How important is weight lifting to you?

It’s big, definitely. Over the course of a season you’ve got to try to keep your strength up. To me that’s big going out and working out four times a week.

Do you read the sports pages about you, like Baseball America?

Not really. You can’t really pay attention to all that kind of stuff because people are going to write whatever it is they want to write so you can’t really worry about it.

How do you handle the fans?  People yelling, the loudmouths, and does that affect the way you handle the kids and autographs and stuff like that?

As far as people yelling and screaming, that’s all part of the game. It’s just something you just tune out and you just stay in there and you play the game.  People are going to talk blah blah blah. As far as the kids go it’s a kids game so if you can sign an autograph for a kid and make the kid’s day, then maybe that kid wants to play baseball down the line and you’ve touched somebody and hopefully made them do something good.

How about the umpires?  How do you handle umpires?

You try to take them out of the equation. Everybody’s human, you know?  It’s kind of tough I guess, being an umpire because you’re going to have one person against you and one person for you, or one person against you one minute and then the other guy’s against you the next minute. As a player you just try to handle umpires as part of the game, try to keep them out of the equation as much as possible.

What do you think about brush backs, knockdowns and retaliations?

I don’t know. I haven’t really thought about it that much. I guess that’s part of the game. Some guys use that as part of their game. One guy gets hit intentionally then they’re going to hit him back. That’s just part of the game for some people.

Have any thoughts on being traded?

Have I?  Not really.  I haven’t really thought about it yet.  Maybe when I go home.  I don’t know.  Right now, I’m just trying to finish the season and not really concentrate on all that stuff that I can’t control so as far as that goes, I’m just trying to finish the season here and then go home and relax.

What would you tell a kid in high school on down about professional baseball?

Make sure it’s what you want to do. If you feel ready it’s a grind but they probably wouldn’t pick that kid up if they didn’t think he could handle it. It’s a grind but it’s something that you want to make sure you want to do and something that you want to go after.