Howard wins NL MVP award

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PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Ryan Howard joked he may resort to stealing bases to cut down on his intentional walks next season. Despite seeing fewer pitches to hit down the stretch, Howard still managed to have an incredible season at the plate and became the second player voted Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player in consecutive years. Howard almost single-handedly thrust the Philadelphia Phillies into playoff contention after a midseason roster purge, and finished with a .313 average, 58 homers and 149 RBIs. The All-Star first baseman walked 108 times, including 33 intentional passes. He didn't go deep in the final nine games and walked 11 times in that span. "Being the competitor I am, you want to go out there and try to get hits," Howard said after beating out 2005 NL MVP Albert Pujols for the award Monday. "When teams take the bat out of your hands, it's a little tough, but that's when you hope the rest of your team can come in and pick you up." A soft-spoken big man with an even bigger swing, Howard's season defied convention. Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Ted Williams and countless other Hall of Famers didn't have as many homers or RBIs in their second full years. After leading the major leagues in both categories, Howard received 20 first-place votes and 12 seconds for 388 points in balloting by a panel of the Baseball Writers' Association of America. Pujols got 12 firsts, 19 seconds and one third for 347 points. Cal Ripken Jr. (1982 and 1983) is the only other player to follow a Rookie of the Year award with an MVP the following year. Two players won both in the same year: Fred Lynn (1975) and Ichiro Suzuki (2001). "I heard sophomore jinx this, sophomore jinx that," said Howard, who turned 27 on Sunday. "I just prepared myself in spring training to go out and perform, stick with my game plan and have fun." Howard had the most homers in the majors since Barry Bonds hit a record 73 in 2001. He set Phillies records for home runs and RBIs. Twenty-three of Howard's homers put Philadelphia ahead and five tied games. The Phillies went 32-18 when he homered. For a while, Howard's path to the major leagues was blocked by Jim Thome. He came up from the minors for good on July 1, 2005, when Thome went on the disabled list. Howard batted .288 for the Phillies that season with 22 homers and 63 RBIs in 321 at-bats, but wasn't guaranteed a starting spot until Thome was traded to the Chicago White Sox last November. "It's been a fun ride," Howard said. In June, Howard connected off the Yankees' Mike Mussina for the first homer to reach the third deck in the three-year history of Citizens Bank Park, a drive estimated at 461 feet that wasn't even his most prodigious blast. "I didn't think it was humanly possible to do something like that," Howard said. He won the All-Star Home Run Derby and hit .355 with 30 homers and 78 RBIs in the second half as the Phillies fell three wins short of the NL wild-card berth. AP - Nov 20, 5:32 pm EST More Photos "People were talking about the trades that were made, how we were kind of written off," he said. Pujols, who hit .331 with 49 homers and 137 RBIs, defeated Atlanta's Andruw Jones 378-351 in last year's voting after finishing second in 2002 and 2003. Stan Musial and Williams (four times each) are the only players to finish second more often than Pujols, who matched three-time AL MVP Mickey Mantle with three second-place finishes. Pujols was third in the NL in batting average behind Pittsburgh's Freddy Sanchez and Florida's Miguel Cabrera, and second to Howard in homers and RBIs. "To be able to be in that kind of company and just being able to compete with a guy like Albert is, I guess, a feat in itself and it's an honor because of what he's done," Howard said. Howard, who lives in Wildwood, Mo., works out at the same facility in the St. Louis area that Pujols uses during the offseason. The two occasionally are there at the same time. "Any questions that I've had, he'd answer for me or give me some advice here and there," Howard said. Houston's Lance Berkman was third with 230 points, followed by the New York Mets' Carlos Beltran (211), Cabrera (170) and Washington's Alfonso Soriano (106) -- who agreed to a $136 million, eight-year contract with the Chicago Cubs on Monday. Pujols gets a $100,000 bonus for finishing second, Berkman $250,000 for placing third and Beltran $200,000 for fourth. Howard, who isn't eligible for arbitration, made just $355,000 this year. He'll almost certainly get a bigger payday in the near future. For now, he's working on improving his skills and hoping to bring a championship to a city that's starved for a winner. "The fans here are great," he said. "I'm still that guy who doesn't know if anyone knows who he is." He's definitely wrong about that.