page_title: Ryan Howard
section_title: 2009
hierarchical_section_title: Ryan Howard / Professional career / Philadelphia Phillies / 2009
caption_attribution_description: English: Prince Fielder (left), Ryan Howard (center) and Barack Obama
context_page_description: Ryan James Howard, nicknamed "The Big Piece", is an American former professional baseball first baseman. Howard spent his entire Major League Baseball career playing for the Philadelphia Phillies, from 2004 to 2016. He is known for being the fastest player in baseball history to reach 1,000 RBIs, 100 home runs, and 200 home runs. Howard also holds numerous Phillies franchise records.
  Howard made his MLB debut in 2004. He won the National League Rookie of the Year Award in 2005 and the NL Most Valuable Player Award in 2006. Howard was a three-time NL All-Star, and won the Silver Slugger Award, Hank Aaron Award, and the NL Championship Series MVP Award in 2009. Known for his power, Howard is a member of the 50 home run club. He was a two-time NL home run champion, and became the fastest player to reach both the 100 and 200 home run milestones in MLB history, passing the marks in 2007 and 2009, respectively. He is also tied with Sammy Sosa for the most National League 140 RBI seasons at 3 and the most National League 130 RBI seasons at 4. However, Howard is Major League Baseball's all-time record-holder for most lifetime Golden Sombrero awards.
context_section_description: On February 8, the Phillies and Howard agreed on a 3-year, $54 million contract that bought out his remaining three years of salary arbitration eligibility. In spring training, Howard led all players in home runs, with 10.
  On May 4, Howard hit his second grand slam of the year, the seventh in his career, against the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium. On May 30, he hit his third grand slam of the season off of Washington Nationals pitcher Shairon Martis. The grand slam landed in the third deck in the first row above the Powerade sign in right field at Citizens Bank Park, and was estimated at 475 feet (145 m). The grand slam put Howard ahead of Mike Schmidt, who had 7 grand slams in his career, putting him first all-time in Phillies franchise history.
  Howard was named to the 2009 National League All-Star team and also competed in the Home Run Derby.
  On June 20, Howard was checked into the hospital early that morning with a 104 degree fever, but pinch-hit later that day, hitting a home run. A month later, against the Florida Marlins on July 16, Howard hit his 200th career home run, making him the fastest player ever to that mark. It took Howard 658 games to reach 200 long-balls, beating out the previous titleholder, Ralph Kiner (706 games).
  In August, Howard hit 11 home runs with 33 runs batted in, after just six the month before. On August 24, in a game against the New York Mets, Howard went 2 for 5 with 2 home runs and 5 runs batted in. Howard also recorded his 100th runs batted in of the season. This marked the fourth consecutive season that Howard had reached the 100 runs batted in mark. His batting average in the month was .299, raising his overall average to .275. He was named the NL Player of the Month for these achievements. Howard was named NL Player of the Week on August 31. Howard hit 5 home runs, 12 runs batted in, 28 total bases, and a 1,000 slugging percentage during that stretch. On September 18, in a game against the Braves, Howard hit his 39th and 40th home run of the season. This marked the fourth time in his career that he had hit 40 or more home runs in a season. On October 3, Howard hit his 45th home run of the season and became only the third player in Major League Baseball history (joining Babe Ruth from 1926–1931,] and Sammy Sosa from 1998–2001) to amass at least 135 RBI and 45 home runs in four consecutive seasons.
  Howard ended the season tied with Milwaukee Brewers first baseman Prince Fielder for the major league lead in RBI with 141.
  In the 2009 National League Division Series (NLDS) against the Colorado Rockies, Howard hit a game-tying double with two outs in the top of the ninth off of closer Huston Street. Howard scored the winning run on a Jayson Werth single. After tying Lou Gehrig's record for the most consecutive postseason games with an RBI, Howard won the NLCS MVP award on October 21. However, Howard struggled against the New York Yankees during the 2009 World Series, surpassing Willie Wilson's record by striking out 13 times in the series.
caption: Barack Obama talks with Howard and Prince Fielder (left), before the start of the MLB All-Star Game.
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