Ryan Howard and Charlie Manuel, key cogs in Phillies history, stand together during Spring Training 2016. (Frank Klose/SportsTalkPhilly)
By Tim Kelly, Sports Talk Philly editor 
Despite some of his flaws as a manager, Charlie Manuel is the winningest manager in Philadelphia Phillies history. Manuel is loved in Philadelphia because he presided over the most successful run in the club's history, but also because he always came off as a relatable guy.
Manuel was such a normal guy away from his day job that he would often go grocery shopping at Wegmans, where he was, of course, met by Phillies fans who wanted to discuss baseball with him. In a recent sitdown with Jim Salisbury of Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia, Manuel told an interesting of an interaction that he once had with a fan:
Salisbury: [Do] you still love Wegmans?
Manuel: I used to love to go to Wegmans. People used to talk to me all the time. I'll tell you a story about [Ryan] Howard. This lady, she's on the other side of the store, and Wegmans is a big store – I'm on one end and she's over here at this end. And she hollers out loud to me, she goes 'Charlie, Ryan's pulling off the ball!'. And I hollered back to her, I said 'lady, he's pulling off MVP!'.
This presumably took place during the 2007 season, a year after Howard slashed .313/.425/.659 with 58 home runs and 149 RBIs, en route to winning the National League MVP. In 2007, Howard's numbers took a slight dip, if you can call it that, as he slashed .268/.392/.584 with "only" 47 home runs and 136 RBIs. The Phillies, however, made the playoffs for the first time since 1993, with Howard hitting 11 home runs and posting a 1.043 OPS in September. So Manuel was right to scoff, in a friendly manner, at this suggestion.
For those who covered or followed the team at the time, this type of suggestion should sound familiar. It wasn't that Howard's game didn't have holes, but he was in the midst of the most dominant power run in the history of the team and there was a segment of fans that never seemed content with his performance.
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It is funny to see how the narratives surrounding Howard have shifted over time. Between 2006 and 2011, Howard had one of the great power runs in the history of the game, as he hit 262 home runs in a six-season span. During that time, the vocal minority seemed anti-Howard, citing his high strikeout rates and less-than-average fielding as they suggested that he wasn't really that good. From 2012 to 2016, when Howard never seemed to be healthy but nonetheless regressed into being a very bad player, the vocal minority seemed to lash out at anyone who called a spade a spade and pointed out Howard's poor play. In most cases, those praising Howard between 2006 and 2011 acknowledged his flaws, just as those who criticized his play between 2012 and 2016 acknowledged how he was one of the most historically important players in the club's history.
Howard's legacy, as fun as it is to debate, is another topic for another time.
Salisbury's 45-minute podcast with Manuel is a must-listen. In it, Manuel talks about coaching Manny Ramirez, Jim Thome, Albert Belle, Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins and Howard. Unlike the fan at Wegmans, Manuel had high praise for Howard, who he said was easy to coach:
"Ryan Howard, I would say for about five years, he was the best hitter in the National League. He might have been the best hitter in baseball. [Albert] Pujols was, of course, in St. Louis, and [you know] how good of a hitter he was – Pujols has been a great hitter. But in that stretch that we had with Howard, when he was healthy, he was as good of a hitter as there was in the game."
The Phillies are nearly four years removed from firing Manuel, who won 780 games during his time as the team's manager. Judging off of this interview, the 73-year-old remains passionate about life, and, of course, Phillies baseball.
