Frank Howard: The Capital Punisher

Frank Oliver Howard was born in Columbus Ohio on August 8, 1936. His parents were John and Erma Howard. John’s dad worked as a machinist for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad in Columbus and his mother was a homemaker.

John was a large man, 6’4″ 200 plus pounds. They lived in a modest home, but Frank said there was always food on the table. If they wanted spending money, they had to go out and earn it.

Frank would shine shoes, caddy at the golf course and when he was 14, he worked a 100 pound jackhammer for the city of Columbus and was paid 1.50 an hour and was glad to have it.

By his sophomore year in HS, he was 6’5″ 195 pounds. His dad had played Semi-pro baseball around Columbus and encouraged Frank’s interest in the game.

Howard had no interest in football, but played basketball, at which he excelled, and baseball, his game of choice. He was widely recruited to play college basketball,  but decided to stay home and attend Ohio State.

His coach there, Frank Stahl, recalled that Howard was anxious to get an education, but had little money. There were no grants in aid they have now for scholarships back then. Stahl told him he thought he could get some jobs around the school.

He did get a little aid from the school, but he worked odd jobs for four years. Stahl got him a job with a local cement company. The foreman told him, Howard does twice as much work as any laborer I have ever had. Stahl now worried Howard would work too hard and over train.

But he need not have worried. Howard became a star for the Buckeyes. He was an All-American his junior year. He also set a Madison Square Garden record for rebounds with 32 in one game and 75 over a three-game weekend.

He was drafted by the Philadelphia Warriors, but he had told Stahl he would return for his senior year. He also played baseball for OSU, batting over .300 a couple of seasons and occasionally showing the power he would become known for.

The Dodgers scout, Cliff Alexander, noted he was a definite must follow. After his senior year of basketball was over, he let scouts know he was ready to sign.

The Dodgers had been following him for a couple of years, and he had never really considered other teams. But Paul Richards of the Orioles offered $120,000. Howard told Alexander about the offer and asked for $108,000.

$100,000 for himself, and $8,000 so he could buy his parents a new house. Alexander agreed and Big Frank was on his way. He left Ohio State one semester short of his degree in Physical Education.

Howard was sent to Green Bay, a Class-B team in the Three-I league. His manager was Pete Reiser. He had no trouble hitting .333 with 37 homers and 119 driven in.

He was the league’s MVP. One evening at a pizza parlor, he met Carol Johamski, a secretary for the Green Bay Gazette. Six months later they were married. Howard bought a house in Green Bay and they settled there.

Howard was called up to the Dodgers in September of 1958. On the 10th of the month, he made his debut at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia against Robin Roberts. He went 2-4 including a mammoth homer in his second big league at bat.

The ball hit the billboard on top of the stadium roof, this caused left fielder, Harry Anderson, to say he was afraid the billboard was going to fall on his head.

On the 16th of the month in Cincinnati, Howard was at bat with teammate Duke Snider on third. Vin Scully commented that Snider was way off of third due to Howard’s penchant for hitting vicious line drives down the line.

Just as Scully finished saying that, Howard hit a bullet down the line that caught Snider right in the head. It knocked him unconscious for a short time and it ended Duke’s season. Howard hit .241 in 29 at bats.

Frank started the 1959 season at Victoria in the Texas League. He was on his way to a triple crown hitting .371 with 27 homers, and 71 RBIs. Buzzie Bavasi watched him hit a 520 foot homer to win a game and took him back to LA.

He was with the team a week, going 2-19, then he was sent to AAA Spokane. He hit 16 more homers there and was called up in September. With the team locked in a pennant race, he only got two at bats, one of them was a PH homer off of Lindy McDaniel on the 23rd. The Dodgers would win the pennant and the World Series. Howard was named the minor league player of the year by the Sporting News.  His overall line, .343/43/136.

In 1960, he was doing all right in spring training, but he had a run in with Alston and was sent to AAA to start the season. By now, Howard had reached 6’8″ and 250 pounds. He would have his weight fluctuate during his career, but in an era when most of the star players were 6’0″ and 180 pounds, he stood out.

And his reputation for prodigious homers and vicious line drives threatening runners lives, preceded him and were well known around the league.

He was not in Spokane long, he hit .371 in 26 games. He returned to the Dodgers and hit .268/23/77 to earn ROY honors. He was the team’s fifth recipient of the award.

In 1961, a chipped bone in his thumb caused him to get off to a slow start. Alston wanted to play him at first base, but the injury kept that from happening. Howard hit .296/15/45 in 92 games.

With the Dodgers losing both of their first basemen, Hodges and Larker, in the expansion draft, Alston moved Ron Fairly to first base so Howard could get more playing time. He would slash .296/31/119 for the year. He still struck out more than he would like, 108 times to only 39 walks. But the Dodgers won 102 games in their new ballpark, but lost the three game playoff to the Giants…..{grrrrrrrrrrrrrr).

In 63 he began wearing glasses. It paid off initially as he hit 3 homers in four games. But once again an injury derailed his season. He still managed to hit 28 homers, by far the most on the team, but he lost his starting job and was platooned with Wally Moon most of the year.

He set a record that year for strikeouts in a season by a Dodger player, 116. A mark that has since been obliterated by a couple of current Dodgers. The Dodgers met the Yankees in the World Series and on the strength of their pitching staff, Koufax, Podres and Drysdale, they swept the Yankees. Howard went 3-10 in the series. He had one homer, a monster shot off of Whitey Ford in game four.

The Dodgers had their second Championship in six seasons in LA. Once more than they had won their entire time in Brooklyn. Long forgotten is the 460 foot double he hit off of Ford in Game one. It landed near the monuments, which back then were in play. It was the longest double in the history of Yankee Stadium. His homer off of Ford traveled 450 feet and landed in the loge section at Dodger Stadium.

Howard was averaging 24 homers a year, and both Alston and Bavasi said they believed in him. But he got off to a slow start in 64 and Alston began platooning him again. He finished .226/24/69. Frank asked the Dodgers to trade him and they obliged.

On Dec 4th, 1964, he was traded along with Ken McMullen, Phil Ortega, Pete Richert for Claude Osteen, John Kennedy and 100,000 cash. Asked if he was disappointed being traded to the Senators, Howard replied, no, I needed to see if I was good enough to play every day.

His new manager was Gil Hodges, his former teammate. Knowing he was not a great fielder, he worked very hard to improve, but Hodges said Howard is being paid to hit.

His 65 season he slashed .289/21/84 leading the Senators in all three categories. 66 was not quite as good as he had only 18 homers and drove in 71.

You have to also factor in how depressed scoring was in the 60’s. It was the era of the pitcher. But Even with that, his legend was gowing. He hit a pitch that Tommy John threw right back at him, John ducked out of the way and Tommy Agee came in like he was going to make the catch but the ball took off and landed in the upper deck in center field.

They painted a seat for that one. And they began to paint seats for all of his mammoth homers. In 1967, at the age of 30, Howard came into his own. His BA was only .256 and he struck out a career high 155 times to lead the league, but he slammed 36 homers and drove in 89 runs. He credited that season to Hodges who asked him to re-tool his swing.

On a team that was going nowhere, he was the biggest threat. The next year he was even better, he slammed 44 homers, and drove in 106. He led the league in homeruns for the first time, and made his first all star team. Jim Lemon, his new manager, played him more at first base that season.

He set records for the most home runs in four, five and six games(10). And this was in the year of the pitcher. Hodges meanwhile was in New York managing the Mets.

Howard’s best season in his entire career would happen in 1969, and it is linked directly to the change in managers. The owner, Bob Short, fired Jim Lemon and somehow convinced Red Sox legend Ted Williams to come manage the Senators.

And Williams had an idea he could make Howard a better hitter. A couple of days into spring training, Williams called Howard into his office. Howard could not believe he was in the manager’s dog house in such a short period of time. But Williams posed a question, can you take a strike? I mean on the tough pitches and work yourself into a better count? Howard said he could.

The result, a .296/48/111 campaign. He cut his K’s to 96 and walked 104 times. His OPS was .976 and he slugged .572. He was again an All-Star, and homered in the contest and was 4th in the MVP vote.

He followed that up with another solid year, .283/44/126. Leading the league in Homers, RBIs and walks.

In 71 he reported to camp at a whopping 296 pounds, and he worked hard to get the weight off, but it affected his stats, and he had a significant drop off. But the big news was that Short had sold the team, and it was moving to Arlington Texas. Fittingly, Howard hit the last homer by a Senator. Baseball would not return to DC for 24 years.

Frank was one of the highest paid players in the game, earning 120,000. He owned several shopping centers in Green Bay where he lived. He originally held out for a raise in 72, but then settled for the same salary.

After a short players strike, he reported to the team. On the 27th of April, he appropriately hit the first homer in Arlington Stadium. It was also his first homer of the year. But he was not the same hitter and on August 31st, he was sold to the Tigers, a team fighting for a playoff berth.

He had one really good day with the Tigers, hitting a homer off of Dave McNally. But since he joined the team on September 1st, he was ineligible for the playoffs.

The DH came into the AL in 73. Howard hit 12 homers in 85 games. He was released in October and his MLB career was over. He signed to play in Japan, but in his first at-bat, he hurt his back and his playing days were over.

He would go on to have a long career in baseball as a coach, and he was an interim manager a couple of times for the Mets and Brewers. Most of his employers felt he was too nice to be successful as a manager.

He relocated from Green Bay to Northern Virginia. He and his first wife raised six children but their marriage ended in 91. Frank remarried. When the Expos moved to DC in 2005, he became the link between the old and the new. Especially so when they played in RFK stadium, where Frank had played.

When they moved into their new ballpark in 2008, they unveiled three statues. Walter Johnson, the Hall of Fame pitcher, Josh Gibson, the Hall of Fame catcher from the Homestead Grays who played their games in old Griffith Stadium, and Frank Howard, the link to the expansion Senators who were now in Texas.

Howard was always his own worst critic, but he has a statue outside of a stadium. Not many can say that, especially if they are not in the Hall. Frank was only on the ballot for one year and got less than 2 percent of the vote.

The man of multiple nicknames, Hondo, The Washington Monument, and The Capital Punisher did pretty well for himself.

Howard passed away on October 30th, 2023, in Aldie Virginia. He was 87 years old. I have a personal memory of Hondo. I went to a game at Dodger Stadium and was sitting in the pavilion in left field during BP. Back in those days the seats out there were nothing more than 2×4’s.

He hit a line drive that shattered one of those boards about 5 feet from me. Sounded like a rifle shot. Awesome power.

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