At it’s completion, the game was deservedly called an instant classic as the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Philadelphia Phillies 1-0 in the deciding Game 5 of the 2011 National League Divisional Series. The final out of the game was made by Ryan Howard, who fell to the ground as he tried to run out of the batter’s box–not out of frustration at his team being eliminated, but because of a ruptured Achilles tendon.
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“It’s a long road, you definitely have to have a positive mindset,” offered Howard on advice for Adam Wainwright, who suffered his own Achilles tear on Saturday. “For me, I personally tried to just set miniature goals. No pun intended–baby steps. As far as just trying to hit the different time frames–as far as how long am I going to be in my walking boot and all that kind of stuff. Really just focusing on the next goal or next sight that was ahead and not trying to get too, too far ahead.”
The original timetable for Howard’s return was projected as May, but it was a couple of extra months before his return in early July of 2012.
“I mean, it’s a tedious process,” continued Howard. “Even when you think all the strength is there and you want to try and push it–with us being as competitive and athletic as we are, we want to try and push ourselves to that pain threshold. But, I guess my biggest piece of advice is take your time. I know that with him being a competitor, he’s going to want to push that pain threshold. You can push it a little bit but you can’t go all the way to where you want to try to go because you can reinjure it or things like that.”
Besides the healing of the tendon, Howard also points out that surrounding muscles will need to be strengthened too.
“There’s going to be weakness, atrophy in the calf,” said Howard. “I think one of the big things too is making sure that your VMO (Vastus Medalis Oblique) muscle, your knees, are still strong because there’s going to be some atrophy in the calf from being off it and the muscle not firing. Getting the firing patterns back right for your calf.”
The VMO muscle is part of the quadriceps group at the front of the thigh, inside and just above the knee.
“Once you get through the rehab part, then comes the mental aspect of it,” continued Howard. “The minute you feel kind of a little bit of a twinge or something like that, you’re going to have those thoughts of ‘oh man, was that just normal kind of pain or is that something more?’ It’s kind of like once you get through that, you get through the initial soreness, then that confidence comes back.”
Howard was 32 years old at the time of his injury and in the 320 games he’s played in since the injury has added another 51 home runs to raise his career total to 337.
LITTLE RHINO
–Besides playing first base for the Phillies, Howard also teamed with his wife, Krystle, to write a series of children’s books. “Little Rhino: My New Team” and “Little Rhino 2: The Best Bat” are available now.
“My wife and I just thought it would be a really cool idea to do something to kind of help out kids with life lessons on bullying and things like that,” shared Howard. “With the world that we live in today, it’s crazy how much more bullying and stuff like that goes on. Before, it used to just kind of be at school and that was it. Now, it’s at home, on the computer, it’s on the phones–it’s all over the place. Just trying to give kids a little reading experience and little tidbits to kind of help them out and relate to them.”
photo credit: Bill Streicher, Howard Smith-USA TODAY Sports
