Ken Howell Gets a Fresh Start With the Phillies

Representing the Philadelphia Phillies at a banquet in Delaware last winter, Ken Howell said he noted the presence of Roland Hemond, the Baltimore Orioles’ general manager, as he told the audience:

“I want to thank Roland Hemond for making me a member of the Baltimore Orioles for four days, but I’d like to be reimbursed for the $5 I spent on an Oriole cap.”

Howell laughed in recollection.

“I was kidding, but Roland must have thought I was serious,” he said. “He wrote out a check right there and handed it to me. The audience broke up.”

The check has never been cashed, Howell said. He still has it, a souvenir of his short-lived career with the Orioles, who sent Eddie Murray to the Dodgers for Howell, Brian Holton and Juan Bell during the December baseball meetings in Atlanta.

Howell had no more tried on his new cap when the Orioles traded him to the Phillies for left fielder Phil Bradley.

“When I got the call saying I had been traded to the Phillies, I thought it was a practical joke,” Howell said. “I had no idea what was happening. I mean, I couldn’t believe the Orioles would trade for me and then trade me right away.”

He has come to grips with it now and said he couldn’t be happier. He is a regular in the Phillies’ rotation, a role he doesn’t believe the Dodgers ever would have given him. The Dodgers, in fact, will check out his progress in tonight’s opener of a three-game series here.

Howell will take a 3-1 record and a 4.59 earned-run average into his sixth start for the pitching-poor Phillies.

“I look forward to every fifth day, no matter who the opposition is,” he said. “If I was still with the Dodgers, I’d be at Albuquerque, pitching behind Ramon Martinez. I wouldn’t be next in line (to go up), Ramon would.

“I’d seen that situation before and it’s nice to be somewhere where I don’t have to climb over someone. The Phillies needed a pitcher and I’m getting a chance to pitch.”

At 28, after seven seasons on the Dodger shuttle, always on trial, first as a reliever and then a starter, Howell is getting his chance in an atmosphere relatively free of pressure, though not of expectations.

“The Orioles gave up Eddie Murray and the Phillies gave up Phil Bradley,” Howell said. “Suddenly people are asking, ‘Who’s Ken Howell?’ especially since I spent so much of last year in the minors.

“I know I’m in a position where I’ve got to perform, where I’ve got to put some numbers on the board, but it’s fun. This is a team that can score a lot of runs and has one of the best closers (Steve Bedrosian) in baseball.

“My attitude is that if I can keep us within a run or two for seven innings, we have a chance to win. I’m trying to throw strikes, cut down on walks and not put too much pressure on myself by thinking about much else.

“People here seem to realize the club is rebuilding. We’re trying to improve on last year (when the Phillies lost 96 games) and take it from there.”

Philadelphia fans, of course, take their hoagies and their Phillies seriously. Patience has never been their strong suit.

“I’ve heard that,” Howell said. “But I don’t think they’re any different than the fans in L.A., except they don’t leave in the seventh inning to beat the traffic.”

Howell began his final season with the Dodgers recovering from shoulder surgery, first at Bakersfield, then Albuquerque. He was recalled June 16, hit hard as the starter against Atlanta that night, sprained his right knee in a plate collision with Dale Murphy and was sent back to Albuquerque, where he finished the season with a 10-1 record and the knowledge he would probably be traded.

“I didn’t have anything more to prove to the Dodgers,” Howell said. “I was making $200,000 at the time and I think they felt that if they didn’t have a place for me, they’d get me to someone who did.

“I had good times with the Dodgers and no regrets or bitterness about any of it. It’s just that I have a chance here that I didn’t have there. I mean, you’ve got Murray happy to be in L.A., Bradley happy to be in Baltimore and I’m happy to be here.

“And if you feel good, it has a lot to do with how you perform.”