By Tim Kelly, Sports Talk Philly editor 
Though former Philadelphia Phillies star Ryan Howard has been active in promoting SeventySix capital – the venture firm that he's a partner in – this offseason, he apparently isn't ready to close the book on his playing career.
TMZ caught up with Howard in an airport this week, where he said this of his baseball future:
"I'm still active, so we'll see what happens. Right now, we're kinda in the belly of the beast," Howard says.
Like his fellow 2008 World Series teammates Shane Victorino and Jimmy Rollins, Howard technically still is active in the sense that he hasn't retired. Whether he ever plays another game at the major league level again is another story.
Unlike Victorino and Rollins, Howard did play baseball at points during the 2017 regular season. Howard had an 11-game stint with the Gwinnett Braves (now known as the Stripers) in late April and early May. He was released by the Atlanta Braves organization on May 8, after slashing .184/.238/.263 with one home run and five RBIs in 38 at-bats. To the shock of many, the Colorado Rockies signed Howard in mid-August, perhaps because they felt there was an outside chance he could serve a Matt Stairs-type role for them in the playoffs. Ultimately, Howard slashed .192/.185/.442 with three home runs and eight RBIs in 90 at-bats for the Triple-A Albuquerque Isotopes, but the Rockies didn't elect to add Howard to their roster in prior to Sept. 1, when he would have needed to be activated to be eligible for the playoffs.
Given that Howard received two minor league chances with National League organizations in 2017, it's hard to say that there's no chance that a similar opportunity presents itself in 2018. But the bet here is that it won't.
Howard, 38, last played in the major leagues with the Phillies in 2016, when he slashed .196/.257/.453 with 114 strikeouts, 25 home runs and 59 RBIs.
While it probably would be a little disappointing for Howard to fall just 18 home runs shy of 400, he has accomplished nearly everything that one could hope to do in a career. He won the 2005 National League Rookie of the Year. He won the 2006 National League MVP. He was one of the core pieces in the Phillies 2007-2011 run of National League dominance. Oh, and he made nearly $200 million in his career, making him the highest paid player in Phillies history.
