Ryan Howard vs. Ryan Howard — in honor of ‘The Office’s’ series finale

NBC's "The Office" ends its nine-season run on Thursday night and — we'll be completely honest here — it's a couple years overdue.

Nonetheless, around the web right now people are counting off the best episodes and lessons we've learned from this popular comedy about 9-to-5 life. In the sports world, there's one very obvious tie-in: Ryan Howard.

Being a baseball blog, most of our readers associate that name with the Philadelphia Phillies slugger. But Ryan Howard was an "Office" character played by B.J. Novak (also a co-writer for the show) who rose from a temp to a corporate vice president and fell back down the corporate ladder. Howard, the baseball-playing one, actually appeared on "The Office" recently, a bucket-list cameo for a show approaching its end.

It's been said the Ryan Howard character was named after baseball player, since the show takes place in Scranton, Penn. When it was being conceived, Howard was playing for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. So, in honor of "The Office's" series finale, here's a look at Ryan Howard, the baseball player vs. Ryan Howard, the office worker:

Baseball is back. Don't miss anything.
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