Nickname The Phillie: Ryan Howard

The Phillies have some fantastic nicknames. There’s The Bat (Pat Burrell), Hollywood (Cole Hamels), Lights Out (Brad Lidge), Chooch (Carlos Ruiz) and of course, the Flyin’ Hawaiian (Shane Victorino). But not everyone has a nickname, and we need to help.

An off-hand conversation about Chad Durbin brought upon the nickname “Dim the Lights,” which I think is a worthy moniker for the man. That’s why I think we here at the Nation need to do more of the same. This week I’m opening a feature called “Nickname the Phillie,” where you guys can determine the nickname of select Phils.

Here’s a weird one. Ryan Howard. He has a lot of little nicknames, but nothing certain. Let’s see: Ryno, RyHo, Big Brown, UPS, The Big Man, Dave Kingman. Oh wait. Seriously, Ryno is Ryne Sandberg. Can’t use it. RyHo? Let’s be more creative than first-last name nicknames. Big Brown isn’t bad, but smacks of being politically incorrect. UPS is pretty good. I could live with that. The Big Man is Harry Kalas’ entry, and it fits with Chase Utley’s “The Man,” but anyone could be The Big Man. Dmitri Young can be The Big Man. Oh, the Inquirer ran a blog contest to nickname Howard, and the winner was “The Broad Street Bomber.” Ugh. We need a nickname special to our 50-HR, 250-K slugger. Let’s give it to him.