Staff Blog
1.5 Back, 18 to go, and Ryan Howard is Partying
Last Night Blitz magazine
had its launch party to highlight its new issue at Benny the Bum’s by the
stadium. Since I was at the game already I hopped over to catch up with Jim
McCormick and Malik Spann - Blitz’s EIC
and publisher, respectively. I talked
with them for a while about the business plan, their staff (AJ Daulerio and
Michael Bradley are attached), their goals, and the new issue – Randy Moss is
on the cover and Asante Samuel has a feature – and left more impressed than not.
But while later today I’ll write
something up about the magazine, where to find it, and what to expect from it
in the coming months, right now I’m writing about something from their party
that has me pretty confused.
On Blitz Magazine’s official invite they had a section of
invited guests – a few guys they had run stories on, the Eagles’ cheerleaders
(who I’m pretty sure turned out to be the girls from Cheerleaders instead, which was hilarious) and some local athletes. Included on that list was Ryan Howard.
Considering that the Phillies are in the heat of a pennant
race I found it odd that Howard would show up to a party after a game. His time is his own, sure, but generally
speaking there is an inverse correlation between time spent at bars and peak
athletic performance. The Phillies have
a game tonight, and it is one that seems kinda important to win. Now, granted, the invite said “invited guests”
and McCormick himself admitted that he didn’t expect everyone to show I assumed
that Ryan would be calling it an early night after the game. Still, to be safe, I checked in with the Big
Guy pregame. Here is where it gets
tricky – when I asked Ryan Howard about the party he told me that he didn’t
even know what Blitz was and assured me, in no uncertain terms, that he wasn’t planning on attending. Needless
to say I was surprised when I saw this:
 |
| Malik Spann, Ryan Howard, Jim McCormick last night at Benny the Bum’s |
Now before I jump to conclusions I think it’s important to
include a few caveats. It’s possible he simply stopped by Benny the Bum’s on his own – he has been known to show up there in the past, and it’s possible that he wasn’t drinking -
although I will say I find it odd that someone would attend a party that they
didn’t know was happening at a bar which they didn’t intend to drink at – but the more likely scenario is that Ryan Howard was out at the bars last night after the game.
Look, the absolute worst case here is that a 28-year-old guy lied to someone he’s barely met so that he could go out drinking after work – there are worse things in the world. Still, as someone who is invested in this team making the offseason, both professionally and as a fan, it doesn’t make me thrilled that the Phillies’ star first baseman is out partying in the middle of a pennant race that, one way or another, he’s going to play a big part of.
Anyway, I’m off to don my reporter hat and see if I can get to the bottom of this, but right now this does not look good.
nice reporter hat
Two thoughts:
1. Photoshop? I think they invited Babe Ruth too.
2. It’s a night game tonight and the Big Guy is due his pint, long as he ain’t out getting blitzed
blitzed, get it?