Phillies

The Big Piece Still Has Some Pop

By Kyle Pagan

Published: Jul 10th, 2023 · 10:06 AM EDT

---

Ryan Howard was in Seattle at the Celebrity All-Star Game and put on an absolute show! Look how pretty his home run swing still is. Shades of 2006:

Ryan Howard still has that BEAUTIFUL home run swing pic.twitter.com/mDaaDEohw8

— Crossing Broad (@CrossingBroad) July 9, 2023

How long until Howard becomes The Big Depth Piece for the Phillies? We could use some pop off the bench and he’s proved he can run to first without his Achilles severing:

.@RyanHoward was used to rounding the bases in his day – but not like this! #CelebSoftball

(MLB x @coronausa) pic.twitter.com/skXlvVtxtE

— MLB (@MLB) July 9, 2023

 

Are we sure Dave Dombrowski won’t be working something out?

We have to talk about the MLB moving the Celebrity All-Star Game from after the Home Run Derby to Saturday night. Another brain dead move by Rob Manfred and MLB trying to market something. Who is watching that? I used to love the Celeb All-Star Game. Kenny Mayne vs. Harold Reynolds, Jennie Finch on the mound, and a bunch of drama nerds who never played sports in high school trying to catch routine fly balls in right field. It was AMAZING television!

I know it was lightly attended and on a tape delay, but pipe in some light crowd noise. It’s the perfect event for social media. You could make fun of the new pop star striking out or have childhood memories flood back as you marvel at Bo Jackson still hitting bombs at 48:

Or Snoop giving it his all on a Vladdy home run:

But instead I didn’t even know Ryan Howard was participating. That clip of Howard hitting an inside the park home run would’ve done numbers on social. Instead we didn’t see it until the morning because the MLB decided to play the game at 10 p.m. on the east coast.