Howard isn’t done with game yet
Ex-Phillies slugger seeking another opportunity
Ryan Howard isn’t giving up on playing professional baseball.
Howard made clear he was pursuing another opportunity.
“By no means am I done,” Howard told USA TODAY Sports during a phone conversation late last week. “My plans haven’t changed to try and play.
“My mind-set with that hasn’t changed at all.”
The Atlanta Braves released Howard, 37, from his minor league deal May 8. He played 11 games for Class AAA Gwinnett (Lawrenceville, Ga.) where he hit .184 with a .238 on-base percentage, one home run and five RBI.
In the meantime, Howard, who has 382 home runs in the major leagues, is moving toward a postplaying career.
Howard is a partner with SeventySix Capital, a venture capital firm in Radnor, Pa., that invests in innovative seed and early-stage consumer-facing tech, retail, sports and wellness companies.
Getting to work with a firm in the Philadelphia area was “icing on the cake” for Howard, who spent 13 seasons with the Phillies, his only major league team.
“It’s also planning for the future,” Howard said. “I think a lot of times people may get to the end and not necessarily know what they want to do, but, for me, I know this was something I wanted to do, so there’s no better time than the present to go ahead and try to get the ball rolling and continue to make the transition whenever I am done playing.”
Howard thinks his sports background and expertise provide a different perspective. The 2006 National League MVP award winner and 2008 World Series champion has the credentials to back it up, too.
“In the past, I think a lot of athletes would just play their sport and make their money, and that was it,” Howard said. “I think now there’s a want for more. It’s almost kind of like you’re using your sport as a different platform.
“If you’re lucky, you’ll play however many years in a sport, but you still have a lot more life out of that sport when you’re finished playing.”
Howard doesn’t anticipate a challenge balancing his off-thefield work with the professional baseball career he is trying to maintain. Howard still owns a house in Philadelphia and plans to travel back and forth from his home in Clearwater, Fla.
“(Managing partners Jon Powell and Wayne Kimmel) are very understanding of the situation and have been nothing but supportive about my aspirations for continuing to play,” Howard said.
“This is for that next step, preparing for when I do walk away from baseball.”
Howard said he appreciated the love and support from Phillies fans after his departure at the end of the 2016 season. The Phillies declined his 2017 club option, making him a free agent and leading to his initial minor league deal with the Braves.
“Playing in Philly, the appreciation of the things that we were able to do on the field are second to none,” Howard said. “I hope doing this venture and doing it in the Philadelphia area that it has that same effect.” Montemurro writes for The (Wilmington, Del.) News Journal, part of the USA TODAY Network.