This really blew my purkinjerkin’ cells to pieces…no, not the delightful article…the fact that Neyer never saw Hondo play!
Despite a reputation as a low-average slugger in a terrible era for hitters, Howard managed to put together at .273/.352/.499 line across 16 seasons. His 142 OPS+ is tied for 61st all time, ahead of former teammate Duke Snider, and other Hall of Fame sluggers including Reggie Jackson, Chuck Klein, Al Simmons, Dave Winfield, Eddie Murray, Billy Williams, Carl Yastrezemski, and (of course) Jim Rice.
In fact, it might be helpful to think of Frank Howard as the player everyone thinks Jim Rice was. Like Rice, Howard was a defensively challenged corner outfielder. Both lasted 16 seasons, each playing from age 21 to 36, and both hit, believe it or not, 382 homers. Howard’s career OPS was .851, and Rice’s was .854. Rice had a higher batting average, more hits, and more doubles, but also had 1700 more plate appearances. While superficially similar, however, Howard’s performance actually towers over Rice when we account for the era and stadiums in which he played. While Rice spent his whole career taking aim at the Green Monster, Howard was mired hitters’ hells in Dodger Stadium and RFK Stadium for almost all his career. Howard had two full seasons in LA’s Memorial Coliseum in 1960 and 1961, and one full year at Tiger Stadium in his last season, but otherwise played in a scoring wasteland.
Their careers also differ in another essential way. While some writers have twisted themselves into knots to demonstrate that Jim Rice was The Most Feared Hitter In the American League, it’s Howard who was really frightening.
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1. The elusive Robert Denby Posted: February 03, 2010 at 02:41 PM (#3453216)this was mentioned by me and many others ad nauseum during the Great Rice Debates of ought-9
And who the hell was Heity Cruz?
from John Ellison Kahn and Robert Ilson, ed (1985). "naught, nought". The Right Word at the Right Time.
Man, Hector had what had to have been one of the greatest seasons ever for an Arkansas Traveler (Cards' AA franchise) back in '73, flirting with the Texas League Triple Crown (30 HR, 105 RBI, .328 BA). I remember seeing him hit 2 HRs in Shreveport sometime that year.
Quite a few guys came through Little Rock & put together great streaks when I was a kid during that general era -- Garry Templeton & Bake McBride really stand out in my memory -- but Cruz was the only one I can recall who stayed long enough to put together an exceptional full season.
Key 4th inning double at Houston in late September
Key late inning RBI vs San Diego three days later
Key 9th inning double in Game 2 vs Pittsburgh
Howard got all of the ball and didn't get much loft on it. Robinson said it would have torn his arm off if he'd reached it.
Is this correct? My impression is that it has been the opposite, namely, it has just asserted as true without any evidence beyond "You had to have been there."
I recall Howard's homer streak. While I watched the Mets, the announcers gave updates on what Howard was doing. He might have broken a record Kiner had for HR/month, or some such trivia.
it was a rather amazing week
May 12 thru the 18th of 1968
6 games, 25 PAs 10 dingers, 17 RBIs
542/560/1.833
if you're high-school principal was the size of a pro wrestler. You probably did have to be there to understand the way that Howard physically dwarfed pretty much every other player out there. Big guys are much more common now but Howard at 6'7" 255 (right!) when most players were probably 5'11" 170 was just massive.
Man, look at the names on that 71 Senators team -- Harrah, Biitner, Unser, Mincher, Elliott Maddox, Lenny Randle (never knew he made it up in time to be a Senator), Burroughs (him neither), McCraw, Epstein, Curt Flood, Bosman, McClain (still just 27!), Broberg, Linblad, Knowles ... sounds like my baseball card collection at the time (god forbid I should get an Ernie Banks or Billy Williams ... I swear Topps intentionally banned Cub cards from the Chicago market)
In fairness, Rice was probably a much better defender than Howard in his younger days. We pick on him but the young Rice did have decent speed and was probably an average LF. Howard was always a lumbering ox. (OK, I wasn't around to see him until the end but I think the 8 career SB speaks for itself.) As a kid I used to joke (technically speaking, not that it was funny) that the only way Howard could hit an inside-the-park HR is if he laid down a bunt -- everyone would faint. (someone will now go to retrosheet and find a Howard inside-the-park HR.)
I remember once when they were playing the Orioles and Hondo got on first, and he made Boog Powell look small (not an easy feat)--even the announcers expressed amazement at the juxtaposition
This is where the comparison with Rice breaks down. Howard was always considered a gentle giant. And there was F-E-A-R in the opposing team, but that may have been more with the less than imposing lineup around Howard.
No IPHR for Hondo...
Huge guy, very friendly, very shill-y: I was trying to get him to open up about managing the 1983 Mets and he was trying to tell me what a great product this here J&B;is. I was also trying to shoot photos of him, candidly, but he kept turning around and smiling at the camera no matter where I tried to hide.
Nope. Howard looked like a high school vice-principal.
The current DC incarnation has done other things to mark his legacy as well.
Hondo got by far the biggest ovation of the day at the last baseball game ever at RFK. Great moment. They put him next to Ryan Zimmerman at 3rd for photo-op purposes.
They unveiled a statue of him along with Walter Johnson and Josh Gibson at the main gate. The statues are hideous, but it's cool that they chose him to go along with those two.
They also had a Frank Howard/Adam Dunn bobblehead tandem last year for stadium give aways.
Ugly Statue
From your lips to Danny Kaye's ears? (or vice versa)
Ugh. That looks like one of the forms the alien takes in John Carpenter's The Thing.
Yikes. Double-yikes, even.
The Johnson one also makes him look like a middle infielder making a pivot throw. From the video I've seen of him, his body had a lot more forward momentum as he released the ball, versus the way the statue depicts him with more of his weight on his back foot.
Mantle's was in '62 or '63. Batting lefty, he hit what we used to call a frozen rope. This was when the fences were hard and before padding. It hit the wall and came right back at the right fielder, who whirled and fired it to first. Mantle with those natural instincts saw what was going to happen and turned on the after burners midway to first to beat out the throw by a half-step or less.
Why is he immortalized reaching for a ball he might dink into right, if not foul off?
He was scouting for "Mr. Steinbrenner, the nicest man in baseball" as Frank put it.
He's slimed down considerably since his playing days.
When he got on the train I exclaimed, "hey! it's Frank Howard!"
Frank's response wes, "what's left of him".
A true gentleman and a soft-spoken fellow of considerable wit and insight.
Lots of insight as to Short's mistake in trading for Denny McLain and thus ruining the Senators ability to compete. He felt the Nats gave up way too much for McLain.
Denny never was very good for Washington; never came close to equaling his heroics while a Tiger.
That metro ride is a baseball-related memory I'll keep for the rest of my life
I saw Frank Howard hit a similar laser in the old Polo Grounds in May, 1962, the same game in which Maury Wills homered from both sides. Howard was pulling most everything then so the RF was stationed in right center about 400' from the plate (still about 60' from the fence in that weirdly shaped field.) Howard's liner might've been within reach of 2nd baseman before screeching onward, to be snagged in the RF's webbing after he'd gone back maybe 3 steps. Our seats were front row upper deck over the Dodgers' (on-field) bullpen in left center, maybe 35-40' above the field, and Howard's shot never came close to reaching our elevation. (His game-winning HR in game 2 was a more normal 400 footer well into the upper deck in left, hit on the next pitch after Choo-Choo Coleman dropped a 2-strike foul tip, very typical Mets play.)
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