Frank Howard, who at 6’7″ was once the tallest star player in Major League Baseball, has passed away at the age of 87. Howard, who weighed more than 250 pounds in his heyday, was nicknamed “The Washington Monument” during his years with the Washington Senators.
Howard hit 40 or more home runs for three consecutive seasons from 1968-70 and finished his career with 382 long balls, which was the 17th-highest total in baseball history when his career ended in 1973. Howard, also known as “Hondo” and the “Capital Punisher,” was the proverbial “gentle giant.”
“Growing up a baseball fan in Washington D.C., Frank Howard was my hero. The towering home runs he hit into the stands at RFK Stadium gave him the nickname ‘Capital Punisher,’ but I’ll always remember him as a kind and gentle man. The entire Lerner family would like to offer our thoughts and condolences to Frank’s family during this difficult time. The world of baseball has truly lost a giant.”
— Mark D. Lerner, Washington Nationals Managing Principal Owner (10/30/23)
In 2016, Howard’s name was added to the Ring of Honor at Nationals Park in Washington, where his name is displayed alongside former greats in Washington and Montreal Expos history, including Walter Johnson, Harmon Killebrew, Andre Dawson, Tim Raines, and Frank Robinson (who managed the Expos and Nats).
Howard’s career power totals were insufficient to get him into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum but he was the biggest star in Washington during the second iteration of the Senators (the original team relocated to Minnesota after the 1960 campaign).
Cooperstown Cred: Frank Howard (OF)
- Los Angeles Dodgers (1958-64), Washington Senators (1965-71), Texas Rangers (1972), Detroit Tigers (1972-73)
- Career: .273 BA, .352 OBP, .499 SLG, 1,774 Hits, 382 HR, 1,119 RBI
- Career: 142 OPS+, 37.6 WAR (Wins Above Replacement)
- 1960 A.L. Rookie of the Year (.268 BA, 23 HR, 77 RBI)
- Led the American League in Home Runs in 1968 & 1970
- 4-time All-Star
- Member of 1963 World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers
Frank Howard: Dodgers Years (1958-64)
Frank Oliver Howard was born on August 8, 1936, in Columbus, Ohio. Frank was a high school star in both basketball and baseball and earned a basketball scholarship at his hometown college, Ohio State. Howard earned All-American honors at OSU as a junior and set a Madison Square Garden record in a holiday tournament with 32 rebounds in a single game. (Thanks to Mark Armour’s terrific SABR bio for some of Howard’s biographical information in this piece).
The next year, Howard was a third-round draft pick of the Philadelphia Warriors in the NBA but he chose instead to pursue a career in baseball, signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1958. In his first season in professional baseball (with Green Bay in the Illinois-Indiana-Iowa League), he hit .333 with 37 home runs and 119 RBI, which was good enough to earn him a look with the Dodgers in September. Making his Major League Baseball debut in Philadelphia, Howard hit a home run in his second career at bat, a massive two-run blast off future Hall of Famer Robin Roberts that hit the left field roof at Connie Mack Stadium.
Howard split most of 1959 between the Texas League (Victoria) and the Pacific Coast League (Spokane, WA), upping the ante with a .343 BA, 43 HR, and 126 RBI. After starting the 1960 campaign in Spokane (batting .371 with 24 RBI in 26 games), Howard was called up to the Dodgers for good in the middle of May. Playing for future Hall of Fame manager Walter Alston, Howard hit .268 with 23 HR and 77 RBI in 117 games, which was good enough to earn him Rookie of the Year honors.
The right-handed-hitting Howard got off to a slow start in 1961 (hitting .211 after 39 games) and was mostly platooned in right field with the left-handed-hitting Ron Fairly. He did get better in the second half and wound up with a .296 BA in 92 games.
The Dodgers had two first basemen in 1961 (Norm Larker and future Hall of Famer Gil Hodges); both were lost in the expansion draft (Larker to the Houston Colt ’45s, Hodges to the New York Mets). As a result, Fairly was moved to first base most of the time, opening up right field for Howard on a more full-time basis. Hondo responded by hitting .296 with 31 HR (the most on the team) with 119 RBI.
The 1962 Dodgers were a superb offensive team, also featuring Maury Wills (208 hits, 130 runs, 104 stolen bases), Tommy Davis (.346 BA, 230 hits, 153 RBI), and Willie Davis (103 runs, 32 SB). The team tied with the San Francisco Giants with 101 wins after 162 games. At the time, the tiebreaker format was a three-game series, and the Giants prevailed 2 games to 1.
Howard endured a midseason slump in 1963, causing him to be platooned with Wally Moon in the second half of the season. He finished with a .273 BA, 28 HR, and 64 RBI. With Cy Young and MVP winner Sandy Koufax emerging as a star (25-5, 1.88 ERA), the Dodgers won the N.L. pennant with 99 wins and then swept the New York Yankees in the World Series.
In Game 1 at Yankee Stadium, Howard hit a 460-foot double off Whitey Ford to the deep left-center field “death valley.” In Game 4, Howard scored the first run of the game with a solo blast off Ford into the second deck at Dodger Stadium in the bottom of the 5th inning; the Dodgers went on to win 2-1.
1964 was Howard’s last season in Los Angeles; he hit just .226 with 24 HR and 69 RBI in 134 games. Howard still was sitting against many right-handed pitchers. The Dodgers missed the playoffs, Howard asked for a trade, and the Dodgers obliged by packaging him in a six-player deal with the Washington Senators that sent pitcher Claude Osteen to Los Angeles.
In seven full or partial seasons with the Dodgers, Howard hit .302 vs left-handed pitchers (with a .565 slugging percentage) while batting just .252 (.458 SLB) against righties.
Frank Howard in Washington (1965-71)
The Washington Senators, despite a long tradition dating back to 1901, were an expansion team in 1961, with the previous version of the Senators having moved to Minnesota for the ’61 campaign. The ’64 version of the Senators went just 62-100 and did not have remotely the depth of talent that the Dodgers had. And, thus, Frank Howard became a full-time player for the first time as the team’s starting left fielder, playing for his former teammate Gil Hodges, the Senators’ manager.
Howard still showed significant platoon splits (hitting .341 against lefties, .264 against righties) in 1965. Overall, he hit .289 with 21 HR and 84 RBI in a year in which he battled injuries. He regressed a bit in 1966, hitting .278 but with just 18 HR and 71 RBI in 146 games.
Hodges helped Howard re-tool his swing before the 1967 season, and it showed. Although he hit just .256, he set a career-high with 36 HR while driving in 89 runs. On the negative side, Hondo did lead the American League with 155 strikeouts.
Finally, in his age 31 season, Howard became the star slugger that everyone thought he would be early in his career. Playing for new manager Jim Lemon, Howard broke out with 44 home runs (best in the A.L.) with 106 RBI. He became an All-Star for the first time and finished 8th in the A.L. MVP voting. Early in the season, he had an amazing stretch in which he hit 10 home runs in 20 at bats. He also started playing first base from time to time.
Hall of Famer Ted Williams took over the reins in Washington in 1969 and Hondo responded with what was arguably his best season. He hit .296 with 48 HR and 111 RBI. Williams taught Howard how to be more disciplined at the plate and the result was 102 walks drawn, 42 more than his previous career-best. The walks resulted in a .402 on-base percentage and 111 runs scored. And, despite seeing more pitches, Howard reduced his strikeout total from 141 in 1968 to 96 in ’69.
Howard was an All-Star again and finished 4th in the MVP vote, behind Harmon Killebrew, Boog Powell, and Frank Robinson, all of whom played for teams that won their divisions in the newly split American League.
The Capital Punisher led the A.L. in HR (44), RBI (126), and walks (132) in 1970 while hitting .283, which gave him another All-Star bid and a 5th-place finish in the MVP balloting.
Howard turned 35 in 1971 and his numbers dipped a bit (.279, 26 HR, 83). He made his 4th and final All-Star team in what would be the last season for the Senators in Washington. New owner Bob Short moved the franchise to Arlington, Texas for the 1972 season.
Frank Howard’s Final Years (1972-73) and Coaching/Managing Career
The Capital Punisher didn’t punish as many baseballs for the Texas Rangers in 1972. He hit just 9 taters (with 31 RBI and a .244 BA) in 331 plate appearances before being sold to the Detroit Tigers at the end of August. Howard platooned at first base with Norm Cash in September, helping Detroit to the A.L. East title. The Tigers lost in the ALCS to the Oakland A’s; Howard did not appear because he joined the team too late to qualify for the postseason roster.
The designated hitter came to the American League in 1973 and Howard was on the short side of a DH platoon with left-handed-hitting Gates Brown. In 251 plate appearances, he hit .256 with 12 HR and 29 RBI. He was released at the end of the season.
Howard signed with Japan’s Taiheiyo Club Lions for the 1974 campaign. He hurt his back, however, in his first game, and never played again. At the age of 37, Frank Howard’s professional playing career was over.
The popular Howard spent most of the 25 years in the major leagues as a coach or manager. He served as a coach for the Milwaukee Brewers, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Seattle Mariners, and Tampa Bay Devil Rays. He also had two brief stints as an MLB manager, with the San Diego Padres in 1981 and a partial season with the Mets in 1983 after George Bamberger was fired. The Mets finished the ’83 season with 68 wins and Howard was replaced by Davey Johnson in the dugout.
Frank Howard’s Legacy
Frank Howard finished his 16-year MLB career with 382 home runs and 1,119 RBI. As previously noted, Hondo’s 382 taters were, as of the end of 1973, the 17th most for any player in the history of the sport. All 16 men who were ahead of Howard on the career home run list already had plaques in the Hall of Fame or would eventually get a plaque in Cooperstown.
Howard played for a Hall of Fame manager (Walter Alston), two Hall of Fame players (Ted Williams and Gil Hodges), and one of the most famous MLB skippers not enshrined in the Hall (Billy Martin with the Tigers).
In the “what might have been” category, one can’t help but wonder what Howard’s career might have been like if he had met Williams earlier in his career.
Using modern metrics, Howard scores 37.6 in WAR (Wins Above Replacement) with a robust 142 OPS+ (adjusted OPS in which 100 is “average”). From a value perspective (WAR), all of Howard’s positive value came from his skills with the bat. Hondo was never known as a good fielder and was slow afoot (with 8 career stolen bases). Howard himself was aware of his shortcomings as a player early in his career.
“I have the God-given talents of strength and leverage. I realize that I can never be a great ballplayer because a great ballplayer must be able to do five things well: run, field, throw, hit and hit with power. I am mediocre in four of those — but I can hit with power. I have a chance to be a good ballplayer. I work on my fielding all the time, but in the last two years I feel that I have gotten worse as a fielder. My greatest fear was being on the bases, and I still worry about it. I’m afraid to get picked off. I’m afraid to make a mistake on the bases, and I have made them again and again, but here I feel myself getting better.”
— Frank Howard (Sports Illustrated, May 25, 1964)
WAR and OPS+ did not exist when Howard hit the Hall of Fame ballot but his counting statistics were too low to get any consideration for the Hall of Fame (he got just 1.4% of the vote in his one turn on the BBWAA ballot in 1979).
When Major League Baseball returned to Washington (with the Nationals in 2005), Howard became the most visible link to the city’s baseball past as the Senators’ biggest star from the franchise’s final years in D.C.
“Especially in the Nationals years at RFK Stadium, Howard’s old park, fans got a visible reminder of the old star anytime they looked at the painted seats, still visible in the upper deck. In 2008 the Nationals began play in the brand-new Nationals Park, and the next year unveiled three statues in their center field plaza, depicting Walter Johnson (who pitched for the first 20th- century version of the Washington Senators), Josh Gibson (who starred in the Negro Leagues for the Homestead Grays, who played in Griffith Stadium), and Howard (representing the expansion Senators). When the Nationals reached the postseason in 2012, Howard threw out the ceremonial pitch of the Division Series before Game Four.”
— Mark Armour, in Howard’s SABR Bio
Although definitely not a Hall of Famer, Frank Howard was a towering figure in the game, figuratively and literally. The Washington Monument was a premier slugger and the biggest star for years in the nation’s capital. RIP, Frank.
I met him at a NY Mets fan meet and greet for season ticket holders at Shea Stadium one year. He was sitting with Dwight Gooden and Anthony Young. Even sitting he was huge! And super friendly. By the way, so was Anthony Young. RIP!
Frank has a good case for the HOF. His 142 OPS+ jumps out. consider that Ichiro has a 107 OPS+, and you see what I mean. Frank’s numbers were deflated by the taller strike zone of the second dead ball era, which really hurt tall players more than anyone. But relative to the league, he was excellent….42% better than average in a 16 year career, ten full time, four part time, two cups of coffee.
Frank should have been HOF. 142 OPS+ says it all. And he COULD hit for average, coming in 6th in the league one year, and top ten several other years. It’s just that averages were so low back then, his raw numbers don’t look that good.
In 1973 I saw him hit a HR in Angel Stadium that one-hopped the Big-A that used to be out beyond the left filed fence. Easily a 500+ foot HR.