Former major league player, coach, and manager Frank Howard has passed away, per an announcement from the Nationals. He was 87 years old.
“Growing up a baseball fan in Washington D.C., Frank Howard was my hero,” reads a statement from Nationals managing principal owner Mark D. Lerner. “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.”
Although Howard never played or coached for the Nationals/Expos franchise, he was a beloved figure in the city of Washington thanks to his seven-year tenure with the Senators. From 1965 to 1971 (the team’s last years in the nation’s capital before becoming the Texas Rangers), Howard played in over 1,000 games for the Senators, hitting 237 of his 382 career home runs. He made four consecutive All-Star teams from 1968-71 and earned MVP votes in four separate seasons, finishing fourth in 1969. In 2016, he was selected to the Washington Nationals Ring of Honor for his significant contributions to the game of baseball in Washington, D.C.
After seven years in Washington, Howard moved with the team to Arlington for the inaugural season of Rangers baseball in 1972. However, following an uncharacteristically slow start to the season, his contract was sold to the Tigers in August. He would play one more season in Detroit, the last of his MLB career, before finishing out his playing days with a brief stint for the Taiheiyo Club Lions in Japan. Still, Howard will be best remembered for his time with the Senators/Rangers franchise.
“The Texas Rangers are saddened by the passing of one of the top sluggers in franchise history, outfielder-first baseman Frank Howard, who died this morning at the age of 87. He was the oldest living expansion Washington Senator at the time of his passing,” reads a statement from the Rangers organization. “Howard was a bigger than life personality who was very popular with his teammates and the fans in Washington and Texas. The Rangers extend their deepest condolences to Mr. Howard’s family and friends. He will be greatly missed.”
Before his time with the Senators, Howard played parts of seven seasons for the Dodgers. Indeed, the 6-foot-7 outfielder turned down an opportunity to play in the NBA to sign with baseball’s brand new LA team out of college. He played a handful of games in 1958 and ’59 before breaking onto the scene in 1960, slashing .268/.320/.464 with 23 home runs in 117 games, en route to NL Rookie of the Year honors. Three years later, he was a member of the 1963 World Series champion team. He started in right field in three out of four games, batting .300 with a 1.000 OPS and helping the Dodgers sweep the Yankees to collect their third World Series title. His go-ahead, Game 4 home run off of Whitey Ford is undoubtedly one of the most memorable blasts in franchise history.
Following his days as a player, Howard wasted little time getting back in the dugout. He spent four seasons as a coach for the Brewers from 1977-80 before earning his first managerial gig with the Padres. The former slugger lasted just one year at the helm for San Diego (the strike-shortened 1981 campaign) but got right back on his feet with the Mets, who offered him a coaching job in 1982 and another brief shot in the manager’s chair in 1983. Howard spent most of the next 16 years in various coaching roles around baseball, working for the Mets and Brewers again, as well as the Mariners, Yankees, and Rays (then the Devil Rays). He stepped down from coaching in 2000, instead taking on a job as a player development instructor for the Yankees.
From Rookie of the Year to world champion, from perennial All-Star to home run king, Howard went by many names and titles throughout his decades-long career in professional baseball. Still, he will always be remembered as “Hondo,” a promising up-and-comer in LA, a local legend in Washington, and a true baseball lifer. We at MLB Trade Rumors extend our condolences to Howard’s family, friends, and loved ones.
He was before my time, but a damn good player. RIP
Big Frank was one of the most feared sluggers ever. He made more than one 3rd baseman quiver when he swung. Was also one of the nicest guys ever. A lot of my heroes seem to be falling away. I must be getting old. RIP Frank.
RIP – awesome hitter, just awesome.
A playing days photo may have been more appropriate on this story…
I thought he passed away a while ago. I’ve often thought about what an influence he could have on today’s players but he was gone. I didn’t know he wasn’t. I remember Jerry Lewis got to participate in a practice session for the Tigers (I think). He ran to first base and jumped into Howard’s arms. He described Howard as “like three people stuck together.” I remember watching him hit HRs that you were gone the moment he hit them. There’s three players I’d like to see again in their prime: Randy Johnson, Ichiro and Howard.
You’re probably thinking of Frank Thomas the elder.
@avenger65: Homers we in NY called Piazza-esque. Howard-esque could have been a thing as well.
When he coached for the Brewers, I encountered him coming out of the Kingdome after a game with the M’s. He was a mountain of a man, and he was smoking the biggest cigar I had ever seen. I asked him for an autograph, and he bellowed out, “Sure buddy” and happily signed. I collected quite a few autographs back then when players would come out and walk right by you. Some ignored you but many signed and were nice about it. The worst experience was when then Tiger Kirk Gibson, having struck out three times by Mark Langston in a Tiger loss, told a gathering of autograph seekers to F off! Seconds later, all-star catcher Lance Parrish came out and signed every request and even posed for pictures with kids. RIP Hondo.
A feared slugger. 87 isn’t too bad an age from my perspective (58), but we always wish for more. RIP!
142 OPS+. Saw him hit one 5oo ft
RIP. One of many Dodgers Rookies of the Year, and the first for the L.A. Dodgers.
RIP Frank!
I was lucky enough to have seen him in his glory days in Washington. Right up there with Willie McCovey as far as feared hitters go.
Watching him tower over the catcher and umpire was always awe inspiring!
RIP big guy.
Is it just me or have a lot of people died this year?
I think a lot of people die every year. It’s the cycle of life—we’re born and we die. My time will come and so will yours, unfortunately.
For comparison, in 2020 there were six MLB Hall of Famers who passed away—
Lou Brock
Tom Seaver
Bob Gibson
Al Kaline
Whitey Ford
Joe Morgan
Among many others. That year seemed like a lot but it might have been the same as other years. I don’t keep track but if you are curious there’s a list year-by-year on baseball-almanac.com.
Here is 2020–
baseball-almanac.com/players/baseball_deaths.php?y…
Nearly his entire career existed during an offensively depressed time. Hitting .274 and crushing 44 HRs during the year-of-the-pitcher in 1968 was quite an achievement. A 142 career OPS+ and he never had a below average offensive season over 14 years, including his last season. He could hit them as far as anyone.
Can’t argue with 87 spins around the sun, unless you’re 87!
Condolences to family and friends. RIP.
Best years were the Teddy Ballgame managed years where entire team for the most part (69-70) hit way over their heads.
Howard was a very tall and muscular human being back in the day. One imposing figure to stand in the box.
Rest in Peace Hondo.
johnsilver, I think you remember incorrectly. Despite Williams being one of the greatest pure hitters of all time, the Senators for the most part were miserable with the bat when he managed them. .They had a decent OPS+ of 103 his first season, but it declined to 92 in his second year, and to 86 in his 3rd.. The Rangers were even worse than the Senators with a 77 OPS+ in his first season in Texas and his last as manager.
@Jean Matrac, that’s my memory too. Williams couldn’t understand why mere mortals couldn’t hit the type of pitches he could, so it was both frustrating for him and the batters. Reminds me of a story a few decades later regarding another very good hitter (although not an immortal like Williams) in Jorge Posada, in his role as catcher. Posada kept waving off a pitch the starter wanted to throw. It might have been David Cone. Finally, Posada and the pitcher met on the mound as the pitcher was frustrated that Posada wouldn’t call the pitch. Posada said he wouldn’t call it because the batter would hit it. The pitcher said (paraphrasing), “no, Jorge. YOU can hit it. YOU can hit it. 90% of MLB players can’t hit that pitch, and he’s one of them.”
Mets manager in 1983 before Davey Johnson took over in 1984.
Managed the Padres in 1981.
RIP Hondo. Extremely underrated in the Era in which he played. I always thought that if the DH been around a decade earlier, he’d have been an outside HOF player.
I had big hopes he would terrorize NPB pitchers but he tore up his knee early.
Sigh…..
The Capital Punisher. Feared slugger, gentle giant of a guy. I remember as a kid being awestruck looking at his 6’7″ frame on the field.
Frank was an All American in baseball and basketball at Ohio State.. He was drafted by the Philadelphia Warriors (of the NBA) but decided to go the baseball route instead. He was an absolute prep legend in Columbus, Ohio. He was so big at 14 that high high school coach at South got him a job as a jackhammer operator with a city road crew.
One game in the mid 60’s Frank Howard was playing left field, and since it was on T.V it may very well been an All Star game. He came running in on a pop fly, and after the play the announcers remarked, and the camera showed the foot prints he left on the field. It looked like the Munster’s episode where Herman left his boot prints on a golfing green. Too funny, but it highlighted what a Giant Frank Howard was. R.I.P.
RIP Hondo.
Ah, Frank Howard. Dude could hit some majestic shots. I feel he was underrated as a manager too by many.
RIP Frank.
I agree.. As a Mets fan I can say that the team started it’s turn around when Bamberger quit and Howard took over.
16-30 under Bamberger.. 52-64 under Howard, but the team was a MUCH better team in the second half of the season than the first half.
The callup of Darryl Strawberry in May and the trade for Keith Hernandez in June had a lot to do with that.
The team played pretty poorly up to the all star break.. then were only a game or 2 under .500 in the second half..
Strawberry was called up in May.
Hernandez was acquired at the trade deadline, which was June 14 back then.
If Bamberger managed that team the full season, they would have lost close to 110 games.
Your argument is invalid
Wrong. The trade deadline was June 15th, Mr Know-It-All.
Howard took over on June 3rd and his record was 52-64. There’s no way to quantify and concretely separate the positive impacts of Hernandez and Strawberry vs the impact of Howard as manager.
I agree that Howard was a better manager than Bamberger, but that’s not saying much in and of itself.
Your argument is marginal at best.
RIP Frank…..
I’ll always remember that Monday night baseball game on national TV when George C Scott (a big Tigers fan) was visiting in the booth and Howard came up to pinch hit. Howard hits a walk off homer and Scott and the home crowd just lose it!
Good times…..
I remember that game. He didn’t exactly crush it, pretty much tucked it down the line, but that was one of the greatest Monday night baseball moments of all time.
Back then, the games were tape delayed.
This is very sad news. I met Frank Howard at Lee Mazzilli’s baseball camp when he was a coach/manager for the Mets He was one of the nicest people I met there. He was only supposed to be there for one day, but came out 3 days in a row to make sure he spent some time with all the groups us kids were separated into.
Great player… even better human being! He will be missed.
I feel like he might have hit a home run where the pitcher jumped to try to catch it.
Said Mantle: “No one hit the ball harder than Frank Howard. He was the strongest I ever saw. I saw him hit a line drive off Whitey Ford at the stadium (Yankee Stadium) that Whitey actually jumped for, it was hit that low. It ended up hitting the speakers behind the monuments in dead center (for a home run).
So sad that he’s passed but what a wonderful player and person.
It’s redundant to qualify “the Stadium” with “Yankee.” No other ballpark has been referred to as the Stadium.
Blue Baron: How about Dodger Stadium? Anyway, it won’t be long before Yankee stadium will be known as Fifth/Third Stadium.
The Dodgers and Yankees have leveraged plenty of revenue opportunities over the years to avoid selling naming rights.
There actually are about 10 ballparks without naming rights deals, including Fenway Park, Wrigley Field, Marlins Park, and Orioles Park.
My grandfather taught me to love baseball and Frank Howard was my grandfather’s favorite player. Frank started (played RF) in the second major league baseball game I ever attended: game #2 of an August, 1961 doubleheader played in the LA Coliseum with the Reds. He was a star on the 1962 and 1963 teams that captured the hearts of Dodger fans in the first two seasons in Chavez Ravine. I still remember the electricity Frank created with his towering home runs in to the left field bullpen and pavilion in Dodger Stadium.
R.I.P Hondo!
RIP Hondo…
RIP
No link to Baseball Reference Leo!!??
Just sloppy…..
Jorge78, the Baseball Reference link worked for me. Perhaps not in the beginning? I rather thought the article was well written. Thank you Leo.
My Dad took me to a Sox/Senator game at Fenway in ’69.. I remember when Frank took the field saying, “Who’s THAT guy?” Damm shame we lost another member of the old guard.
One of my early memories was seeing him play for the Senators against the Indians at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. RIP. M.
I remember meeting Mr Howard during the 1981 season at a Padres event. He was a towering man. Just huge. He shook my hand and I felt tiny even though I am 6′ 2″. He told me, “Kid, get yourself seasons tickets because this team is going to be very good, very soon. You will want good seats for the World Series.” I did that just a few years later.
My condolences to his family and friends. He is going to be greatly missed.
Frank Howard was very generous with Little League instruction in this area, even when moving around became difficult for him. Godspeed Frank.
Perhaps one of the most scariest hitters in baseball during the 60s. He and Killebrew were absolute beasts.
He truly lived up to the name “Capitol Punisher.”
Frank Howard: A gentle giant and a gentleman. When he managed the Mets he once interceded when Bobby Valentine was arguing with an umpire, picked up Valentine and carried him away.
You’re redundant. What a pointless comment.
Once, he hit a ball so hard that it literally went though left fielder’s Winston Llenas glove. Not the third baseman, but the left fielder.
I never saw him play, but he was an original Ranger. RIP gentle giant.
1960 at the LA Coliseum well behind the batting cage, my father introduced my
brother Dave and i to this extremely shy and towering young man. At nine years
old I did not help Mr. Howard and his shyness as Dave and I just stared. Dad said
thanks and he jogged away. The sound of his cletes chewing up the dirt.
My favorite player and only one of two cards i saved when I went away to finish
my four year degree.
RIP Hondo.
I saw an few of his HRs at RFK. The place buzzed whenever he came up to bat. You almost expected at least one towering shot every game. Plus I remember seeing all the painted seats in the outfield upper deck signifying where his many prodigious blasts had landed. It was an impressive sight seeing how far the ball travelled off his bat.
RIP Frank. You created a lot of great memories for me.
I wish they would be able to post pictures of these guys in the article. I remember this guys’ name.
Condolences to family, freinds and fans.
I loved his old Nestle’s Quick commercials, where be tells the catcher “ever since I was your size”. RIP Frank , 87 is a pretty good life span for such a large man
One of the most feared hitters of his day. Did not get to see him play much but he could create excitement just walking into the batter’s box.
Our dad took us to autograph day at RFK in 1971. Hondo sat in a lawn chair, punishing the outfield grass.
He seemed an impossibly large human to this 8-year-old boy, but he could not have been kinder. I still have that sheet of Senators’ autographs. Amid the scrawl of mere mortals like Pete Broberg, Casey Cox and Elliot Maddox, Hondo’s big flourish stands out like John Hancock.
In 2019 I shelled out a bunch of cash for a World Series ticket, thinking it could be a once in a lifetime experience. The game was a dog – Corbin got shelled early and Alex Bregman lined a grand slam past our seats (behind third) and into the left field stands.
The game’s indelible moment came before the first pitch, when the Nats wheeled Hondo to the plate and I got to cheer my boyhood hero one last time.
RIP, Hondo. Thanks for the happy memories.
Well written, Drew
Gentle Giant. RIP Frank !
I know he was on the fringe, but he should have been inducted into the Hall of Fame before he died.
I’ll never forget an SI cover from 1973.
‘Three Old Tigers, Still With Teeth’ was the headline.
It was referring to Al Kaline, Norm Cash, and Frank Howard.
They made quite an impression on an 11 year old.
Now they’re all gone.
RIP Big Shooter.
My 1960 All Star Rookie Team:
C PHI Jimmie Coker
C PHI Clay Dalrymple
1B BAL Jim Gentile
2B BAL Marv Breeding
3B PHI Pancho Herrera (My NL ROY)
SS BAL Ron Hansen (AL ROY)
LF LAD Frank Thomas (NL ROY)
CF LAD Tommy Davis
RF CHC Bob Will
1B DET Norm Cash
SP-R BAL Chuck Estrada
SP=L BAL Steve Barber
SP-L WSH Jack Kralick
SP=R WSH Don Lee
SP-L CHC Dick Ellsworth
RP-R CHC Joe Schaffernoth
RP-L PIT Fred Green
RP-R MLN Ron Piche
RP-L PHI Chris Short
RP-R KCA Marty Kutyna
Awwww. He was such a nice guy. I remember him as a Mets coach. Good sense of humor. RIP.
Shumaker and I saw his last home run, I believe. End of the year at Cleveland in that old barn of a stadium.
Frank was part of the Ohio State championship basketball teams that also had John Havlicek. Bobby Knight was the 6th man.
He played one game in Japan. He hurt his back on a swing and never played again.
His minor league stats are incredible!
RIP Hondo.