February 21, 2019
It’s been a big year for members of the 2008 World Series Phillies team taking their next big steps in life. Jimmy Rollins re-joined the Phillies last month, and now Ryan Howard is joining the Worldwide Leader.
Howard, who played his entire major league career in Philadelphia from 2004 to 2016 and owns four Phillies all-time records, is reportedly joining ESPN as a studio personality, according to the New York Post.
Former Phillie great, Ryan Howard, is joining ESPN, The Post has learned.
— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) February 21, 2019
Howard will be on ESPN studio shows, including Baseball Tonight, Get Up! and SportsCenter
— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) February 21, 2019
To jog your memory, Howard officially announced his retirement from baseball this past September in a Players Tribune article. He'd been bouncing around between minor league teams after the Phillies let him walk as a free agent in 2016.
Howard also joined Conshohocken venture capital firm SeventySix Capital as a partner in 2017, and invested in Conshohocken-based Play by Play Sports Broadcasting Camps last April, which sure makes sense now.
Rumors were swirling about Howard’s potential connection to ESPN as early as last October.
And he brings at least a smidge of experience with him: Howard appeared on MLB Network this calendar year in a bit of a guest analyst role:
Hey @JimmyRollins11, sometimes you gotta put the sports car down and pick up the SUV. Right, @ryanhoward? @Phillies #MLBTonight pic.twitter.com/89kakHPauO
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) January 9, 2019
It's been a good week for former Philadelphia athletes getting into television, too: former Flyer fan favorite Scott Hartnell is joining the NHL Network this week.
Also, incredibly, Ryan Howard has now had a more productive offseason than Bryce Harper. In 2019. What a world.
Follow Adam & PhillyVoice on Twitter: @adamwhermann | @thePhillyVoice
Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice
Add Adam's RSS feed to your feed reader
Have a news tip? Let us know.
