Ryan Howard had an off night tonight, just a double and two runs batted in in four at-bats. Not even one home run. Dang!

That leaves him at 13 for the month and 48 for the season. As I'm sure you've already heard, that ties him with Mike Schmidt for the franchise record of home runs in a season. Schmidt hit 48 taters to lead the league in his MVP season of 1980, and yes, that's the only year the Phils even won a World Series ring.

Though they are now tied, I still give the nod to Schmidt, who had two more dingers in the World Series, for which he won the Series MVP. However, given that Howard now projects to 59 for the season, I don't expect the tie to last much longer.

Schmidt held the team home run crown for 27 seasons—he broke it '79 with 45 and then again in 1980—, and he is still 489 career homers ahead of Howard. Oh yeah, and he's also the best player the franchise ever had, the best third baseman in baseball history, and a first-ballot Hall of Famer. So his resume won't take that big a hit.

Schmidt held the record for quite some time, but he doesn't even compare to his predecessor in terms of longevity. Chuck Klein hit 43 home runs in 1929 to set a new club record. He broke Cy Williams 1923 record of 41. Klein owned that record for 50 years until Schmidt broke it in successive seasons.

Prior to Williams (and a brief stint by Gavvy Cravath, who hit 24 HRs in 1915), the club home run record holder was Hall-of-Famer Big Sam Thompson, who was the first Phil to hit twenty home runs—he had exactly 20 in 1889. He held the record for 26 seasons.

Here is the progression of Phils' single-season home run leaders:

Also, here are the most home runs hit in a single season by a Phillie:

Now, Schmidt's 27-year-old record made me wonder, what with home run records dropping like flies in the last decade, how many club records remain from before the home run boom. Here are the single-season record-holders per club. As you can see, Schmidt's was the eighth oldest:

The completist in me has to address the club career home run leaders, so here goes…

Here's the progression of Phillies career home run leaders:

Here are the leaders in career home runs for the franchise:

Finally, here are the career leaders in home runs per season. Some interesting names—Santiago, Gene Freese, and 32-year-old rookie/one-year wonder Buzz Arlett—crop up. It might be excessive, but I can't resist any list with Don Demeter on it: