Frank Howard (baseball)

Frank Oliver Howard (August 8, 1936 – October 30, 2023), nicknamed "Hondo", "the Washington Monument" and "the Capital Punisher", was an American professional baseball player, coach, and manager in Major League Baseball (MLB) who played most of his career for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Washington Senators/Texas Rangers franchises. One of the most physically intimidating players in the sport, Howard was 6 feet 7 inches (2.01 m) tall and weighed between 275 and 295 pounds (125 and 134 kg), according to former Senators/Rangers trainer Bill Zeigler.

Howard was named the National League's Rookie of the Year in 1960 for the Dodgers. He twice led the American League in home runs, and total bases and once each in slugging percentage, runs batted in, and walks. Howard was a four-time MLB All-Star. He hit 382 career home runs and was inducted into the Washington Nationals Ring of Honor after his retirement.

Frank Oliver Howard was born on August 8, 1936, in Columbus, Ohio, to John and Erma Howard, the third of six children. His father was a machinist for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway and had played semi-professional baseball, later on encouraging his son's interest in the game.

Howard attended South High School in Columbus, Ohio, and Ohio State University, where he played college baseball and college basketball for the Ohio State Buckeyes. He was an All-American in both basketball and baseball. He averaged 20.1 points and 15.3 rebounds per game in 1957, and was drafted the following year by the Philadelphia Warriors of the National Basketball Association.

Howard instead signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers organization in 1958 for a $108,000 signing bonus ($1,089,850 in current dollar terms). Howard spent the 1958 season with the Green Bay Bluejays of the Class B Illinois–Indiana–Iowa League. He led the league with 37 home runs and 119 runs batted in (RBIs). The Dodgers briefly promoted him to the major leagues after his minor league season, and he hit his first MLB home run on his 29th at bat. He then began the 1959 season with the Victoria Rosebuds of the Double-A Texas League, and he hit .356 with 27 home runs and 79 RBIs in 261 at-bats before the Dodgers again promoted Howard to the major leagues. He batted .105 in 19 at bats for the Dodgers before they demoted him to the Spokane Indians of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League on July 1. In 76 games for Spokane, Howard had a .319 average, 16 home runs, and 47 RBIs across 295 at bats. He won The Sporting News Minor League Player of the Year Award.

Howard began the 1960 season in Spokane, and was promoted to the Dodgers after batting .371 in 26 games. He succeeded former Brooklyn Dodger All-Star Carl Furillo as Los Angeles' right fielder in 1960. He was named the NL's Rookie of the Year after batting .268 with 23 home runs and 77 RBIs. His teammates gave him the nickname "Hondo" after the character in a John Wayne film. He missed the beginning of the 1961 season due to a chipped bone in the thumb on his right hand. He became a platoon outfielder, starting 72 games and batting .296 with 15 home runs.

In 1962, Howard batted .296 with 31 home runs and finished among the NL's top five players in RBIs (119) and slugging (.560). He won the NL Player of the Month award in July with a .381 average, 12 home runs, and 41 RBIs. The season ended with the Dodgers and San Francisco Giants tied for first place. In the three-game pennant playoff that followed Howard had only a single in 11 at-bats and struck out three times against Billy Pierce in the first game, including the final out; but he had a run and an RBI in the second contest, an 8–7 win. The Giants took the pennant in three games, but Howard ended up ninth in the MLB Most Valuable Player award voting.

In 1963, Howard's production dropped off to a .273 average, 28 homers, and 64 RBIs; but the Dodgers won the pennant, and his upper-deck solo home run off Whitey Ford broke a scoreless tie in the fifth inning of Game 4 of the World Series, helping Los Angeles to a 2–1 win and a sweep of the New York Yankees. He batted .226 with 24 home runs in 1964.