Spotlight on Former Mets Manager, Frank Howard
Frank Howard: Myth or Legend?
copyright c 1998 by Evan Pritchard
Back in the 1960’s when I was growing up, Frank Howard was a slugger of mythic proportions. Ted Williams once said of Frank; “Without question, he was the biggest, strongest guy who ever played the game of baseball...and a real nice guy.” He is a home run legend.
If a player’s mythological status can be measured by the number of nicknames he carries, Frank is a virtual Paul Bunyon. At six-foot-seven and with 250 pounds of bulging muscle, Frank Howard has accumulated nicknames like few players before or since. He is called “The Gentle Giant” (after a local TV show for kids) “Hondo,” (no one knows why) and The Capitol Punisher, (re: Our Nation’s Capitol where he played) among many others. However, he was addressed respectfully by umpires only as “Mister Howard.” (see Ron Luciano’s book The Fall of the Roman Umpire). I can’t imagine why! I guess it’s hard to argue over a called strike with a man who is blocking out the sun.
He possessed an incredible presence at the plate that has never been duplicated. Perhaps some younger hurlers today hope it won’t be any time soon. His bat, which was twice the size of some of those in use today, could accidentally hit check swing homers, one-handed homers, broken bat homers, and once in a while he would even connect with one of those annoying “intentional walk” pitches that Frank was so tired of seeing--the bat was that immense!
When he connected squarely with a serious fastball any pitcher had the nerve to throw, the ball could disappear right out of sight, or over the rooftops, and down the street, or splinter seats way up the upper deck.
If this sounds like a tall Paul Bunyon story, I agree, it does. But I grew up in D.C., watching all those “giant” homers leave his bat, and they were no mythology, except to the extent that baseball is living mythology, and home run sluggers her heroes.
Many of Frank Howard’s home runs were dramatic, just because of distance. But as with most great home run hitters, they came in batches. For example, in May of 1968 he hit ten homers in six games, shattering the seven mark once set by Maris, Mays and others for the same period of time. The last two were off Mickey Lolitch of theTigers (17 game winner and World Series hero that year) and put Frank so far ahead in the AL home run race that no one ever caught him.
But even in that amazing year, he only hit a total of 44. Today, we’re used to bigger numbers. The team he now works for, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, have four guys in the lineup who hit 30 swats or more in ‘99, Vinny Castilla, Fred McGriff, Jose Canseco, and Greg Vaughn.
Many of the ancient marks are being broken now by guys too young to remember the names of those who set the records. What’s different? How do you explain the home run craze that’s changed the way the game is played? Do these new players deserve to share the limelight with the pinstripe lineage of Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, or Mickey Mantle?
To find out the real story on what it is that makes a great home run hitter, and perhaps to get a perspective on the home run’s place in baseball’s great mythology, I made a pilgrimage southward to see the hero of my youth, one of the greatest home run champs to ever knock down fences, a Mr. Frank Howard. He has probably hit, watched, scored on, and even leaned over the railing and stolen away, more home runs in both the NL and the AL than most players ever will. His 40-year involvement with the major leagues has given him a long view of the long ball that is nothing if not a national treasure.
With the encouragement of his long-time family friend Loretta Coffield, he agreed to contribute his comments to this millennial look backward at the history of the home run ball. I hope you find his words as enlightening as I do. As we used to say in Washington, D.C. “Let’s go Hondo!”
My Dinner With Frank Howard:
The Long View On the Long Ball
“The home run as Babe Ruth popularized it, has always been a big deal for a lot of the fans. They like to see the “Mighty McGwires” and the Cansecos, and the big Juan Gonzalezes hit those blasts into the upper decks!
“I’ve seen Killebrew, Stargell, McCovey, Frankie Robinson—whoever you want to talk about--I’ve seen them hit baseballs unbelievable distances. But today’s athlete, with his year-round training facilities and programs, has a definite advantage. Overall, I’m not saying they’re any bigger or stronger than we were, but there are more of them that are in better shape.. These young power guys today are consistently hitting the ball further than we ever thought about hitting it. I think it’s due to better nutrition, better training facilities and better programs.
“None of us in the 1960’s ever made enough money not to work in the off-season. I’ve been working year-round for 44 years! I’ve developed real estate, I’ve worked for a paper company, I’ve worked for Jim Beam brands, and still do, in the off-season.
“Is the ball livelier than it was when I was playing? Oh, it’s probably wound a little tighter. There’s no question. I think that maybe the pitching is a little thinner nowadays as well, only because we have thirty clubs rather than sixteen.
“How much validity is there to that, I couldn’t tell you. I don’t really know if the ball is juiced up, I don’t really know if the pitching is thinner. I do know this. The athletes are faster and stronger through better conditioning.
“I saw Harmon Killebrew a month ago, out in Phoenix on business. Harmon and I were at the same function together. Now here’s a guy who hit 576 home runs lifetime and probably hit some of the longest tee-shots you’ve ever seen. And I said “Harmon, as many balls as I’ve seen you and many of these other great sluggers hit for distances, McGwire is consistently hitting the ball farther than any man who’s ever played this game.
“I said to Harmon, ‘How many did you ever hit? Did you ever hit 50 in one year?’
“’No, I hit 49 twice!” he said.
“I said, ‘48 was my best year. This guy hit 22 more home runs than I did, 21 more than you did.... in our best years!!! Geesh!’
“I’m not singling him out. There’s other great athletes. There’s Juan Gonzalez, Albert Bell, Sammy Sosa, and on and on.”
“Sammy Sosa can really “scald that seed.” And he’s only five foot ten and weighs 200 pounds, but what a great swing he’s got.
“But Mark McGwire is the epitome of today’s power hitter. I said, ‘Harmon, this man hit 22 more home runs than I ever thought about hitting. And the balls he’s hitting...I mean.... incredible power!’
“Bobby Wine, the advance scout for the Atlanta Braves called me from Coors Field in Denver. He said, ‘Frank, you oughta be out here.’
“I said, ‘Why’s that, Bobby?’
“He said,”There’s 35,000 to 40,000 in this ball park to see McGwire take batting practice.’
“Back of those bleachers in left and center field, up 150 feet 200 feet are your hot dog stands.’ He said, ‘Frank, he’s knocking beers and hot dogs out of those guys’ hands up there!’ It’s 358 down the left field line, 400 to left, 420 in left center, and 440 to center field in that park. Now I know the air’s a little lighter in Denver, a mile high, but that is amazing!
“He must be hitting those baseballs at least 600 feet. He’s six foot five, about 260 pounds, and he’s got his body fat under 10%. What a magnificent specimen, and what great physical physique. They say he works really hard in the off season. I have no doubt that’s the reason why he’s able to hit them so consistently.
“I sometimes debate with my peers over this very subject. The old sluggers were great, but I’m not taking away anything away from today’s ball players. I can see that we have as many great ballplayers playing the game today as we’ve ever had in my lifetime. They’re just spread out over more teams.
“I don’t live in the past. I believe in playing today’s game today. I had my run in the sun, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.
“I tell all the young instructors, young managers, coaches, and instructors, who come to ask me about some aspect of baseball; it doesn’t make me smarter, it just makes me older. I’ve experienced things that they will experience, but haven’t yet.
“I’m completely honest with my bosses. I say, ‘Let me tell you something, I’m not smarter, just older. I’ve made every mistake that a ball player can make on that field. I’ve made every mistake that a coach can make on the field, and I know every time I managed I made every mistake they can make.’
“But its still been a fun game for me. I look back at the people I’ve played with, played against, the friendships that I’ve formed, not only with my own teammates, but the competitors I’ve teed up against, the John Boog Powells, and I say, ‘How lucky can one guy be?’
“I had the good fortune to play under the great Ted Williams. I played five years, 68 through 72, for one of the great all-time magnetic human beings you’ll ever meet--Ted Williams. He helped me manage my strike zone a lot better. He made me a little more disciplined at the plate. He took a completely undisciplined hitter, tightened up my strike zone and made me more selective at the plate. He’s just an amazing man, he really is.
“After he retired, I played in Detroit in 73, and then went to Japan in 74. While playing in the Japanese League, I tore up my knee and had to come home and have surgery. I was done. After that I couldn’t play any more. 1974 turned out to be my last year.
“Everybody says, well, Ted Williams knows hitting. Let me tell you something. Ted Williams knows as much about pitching as any pitching coach in the big leagues, knows as much about good quality outfield play as any outfield instructor. Hitting, he’s unparalleled; light years ahead of the rest of us. The one area he didn’t know a whole heck of a lot about was infield play, but had the great Nellie Fox as his coach to help him. He’s a marvelous man, a marvelous man.
“We’d all like to call ourselves our own man, but that’s a fallacy. We have to answer to somebody, our wives, our mothers, girlfriends, our bosses, somebody. Ted Williams is the only human being I ever met that can truly call himself his own man. He answered to nobody but himself.
“He was a great home run hitter, of course. The longest home run I ever hit may have been the one I hit over the light tower at the 407 mark in the old Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. It was just going up when it went over the tower. Or maybe the ball I hit through the light towers over the left field roof at Tiger Stadium was the longest.
“There’s been several hit over the right field roof. There’s only been three hit over the left field roof in the whole history of that great stadium, one by Cecil Fielder, one by Harmon Killebrew, and one by myself. That was in 1968, one of my best years.
“Now, in terms of my most memorable or most emotionally satisfying homers; that’s something else.
“Probably the home run I hit off Whitey Ford in the fourth game of the ‘63 World Series stands out, because it put us up one to nothing in a four game sweep of the Yankees.
“When you’re competing at the major league level, and in that case in a World Championship game, naturally it’s a thrill to make that contribution, especially off of a Hall of Famer, Whitey Ford, one of the all-time great pitchers.
“I’ll never forget that game. I hit a double off the monuments in the first game (at Yankee Stadium) off one of his high fastballs. I knew he was going to spin a breaking ball to me this time. I hit that curve ball off him far up in the third deck at Dodger Stadium to put the Dodgers ahead one to nothing in the fifth inning of a pitchers’ duel between Ford and Koufax. Mantle tied it later on a home run off of Koufax, and we won the game on account of a freak play when Pepitone didn’t pick up the throw from third which turned out to be a three-base error.
“Then you can go back to the home run I hit in the ‘69 All Star Game off of Steve Carlton, another Hall of Famer, another outstanding great pitcher. I guess that one was memorable because it was played in Washington, D.C. in front of our home town fans. I had my best years in that city, I lived in that area--my home is still in Northern Virginia, just south of Leesburgh--so of course I’ve always considered myself a Washingtonian. To do that in front of my home town people, to give them something they came out to the ballpark to see--one of their local boys hit a home run--stands out.
“Probably the most emotional home run I ever hit was the last home run ever hit in RFK Stadium with the Senators, only because the ball club was leaving to move to Texas. I’d had my best years there in Washington. I love the city, love the people in it. And to hit that home run that last night, knowing I’d probably never be back there was a great thrill.
“By the way, I not only hit the last home run in Washington D.C.’s history, but also the first home run in Texas Rangers’ history as well. A lot of Texans remember that!
“This is my 42nd year in the big leagues. I had 16 years as an active player. Forget the 25 that I’ve been coaching. This is my 37th year as a player or coach in the big leagues, and these are the four homers that stand out. You could talk about the ten home runs I hit in six games, but I can’t remember any of them being an emotional type of experience. I’d have to say probably maybe the one that meant the most to me was the one hit off Ford in the fourth game of the ‘63 series, and the home run off of Carlton in the All Star game, because we were playing it at home."
Note: It was only after this interview was recorded that the news about McGwire and steroids was revealed. But it is certain that Frank Howard never used steroids, and his homers travelled much further than McGwire's ever did.
At a future time, we will post photos of the "white seats" that still grace RFK stadium, some near the roof of the upper deck, far from the field of play. In fact, Frank Howard hit a ball during his days at Ohio State in Columbus that rolled up to the stairs of the anthropology department on the other side of campus. McGwire never did anything like that.
Let us not denegrate the home run hero just because of the steroid scandal. It will always be a sacred part of baseball.
copyright c 1998 by Evan Pritchard
Back in the 1960’s when I was growing up, Frank Howard was a slugger of mythic proportions. Ted Williams once said of Frank; “Without question, he was the biggest, strongest guy who ever played the game of baseball...and a real nice guy.” He is a home run legend.
If a player’s mythological status can be measured by the number of nicknames he carries, Frank is a virtual Paul Bunyon. At six-foot-seven and with 250 pounds of bulging muscle, Frank Howard has accumulated nicknames like few players before or since. He is called “The Gentle Giant” (after a local TV show for kids) “Hondo,” (no one knows why) and The Capitol Punisher, (re: Our Nation’s Capitol where he played) among many others. However, he was addressed respectfully by umpires only as “Mister Howard.” (see Ron Luciano’s book The Fall of the Roman Umpire). I can’t imagine why! I guess it’s hard to argue over a called strike with a man who is blocking out the sun.
He possessed an incredible presence at the plate that has never been duplicated. Perhaps some younger hurlers today hope it won’t be any time soon. His bat, which was twice the size of some of those in use today, could accidentally hit check swing homers, one-handed homers, broken bat homers, and once in a while he would even connect with one of those annoying “intentional walk” pitches that Frank was so tired of seeing--the bat was that immense!
When he connected squarely with a serious fastball any pitcher had the nerve to throw, the ball could disappear right out of sight, or over the rooftops, and down the street, or splinter seats way up the upper deck.
If this sounds like a tall Paul Bunyon story, I agree, it does. But I grew up in D.C., watching all those “giant” homers leave his bat, and they were no mythology, except to the extent that baseball is living mythology, and home run sluggers her heroes.
Many of Frank Howard’s home runs were dramatic, just because of distance. But as with most great home run hitters, they came in batches. For example, in May of 1968 he hit ten homers in six games, shattering the seven mark once set by Maris, Mays and others for the same period of time. The last two were off Mickey Lolitch of theTigers (17 game winner and World Series hero that year) and put Frank so far ahead in the AL home run race that no one ever caught him.
But even in that amazing year, he only hit a total of 44. Today, we’re used to bigger numbers. The team he now works for, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, have four guys in the lineup who hit 30 swats or more in ‘99, Vinny Castilla, Fred McGriff, Jose Canseco, and Greg Vaughn.
Many of the ancient marks are being broken now by guys too young to remember the names of those who set the records. What’s different? How do you explain the home run craze that’s changed the way the game is played? Do these new players deserve to share the limelight with the pinstripe lineage of Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, or Mickey Mantle?
To find out the real story on what it is that makes a great home run hitter, and perhaps to get a perspective on the home run’s place in baseball’s great mythology, I made a pilgrimage southward to see the hero of my youth, one of the greatest home run champs to ever knock down fences, a Mr. Frank Howard. He has probably hit, watched, scored on, and even leaned over the railing and stolen away, more home runs in both the NL and the AL than most players ever will. His 40-year involvement with the major leagues has given him a long view of the long ball that is nothing if not a national treasure.
With the encouragement of his long-time family friend Loretta Coffield, he agreed to contribute his comments to this millennial look backward at the history of the home run ball. I hope you find his words as enlightening as I do. As we used to say in Washington, D.C. “Let’s go Hondo!”
My Dinner With Frank Howard:
The Long View On the Long Ball
“The home run as Babe Ruth popularized it, has always been a big deal for a lot of the fans. They like to see the “Mighty McGwires” and the Cansecos, and the big Juan Gonzalezes hit those blasts into the upper decks!
“I’ve seen Killebrew, Stargell, McCovey, Frankie Robinson—whoever you want to talk about--I’ve seen them hit baseballs unbelievable distances. But today’s athlete, with his year-round training facilities and programs, has a definite advantage. Overall, I’m not saying they’re any bigger or stronger than we were, but there are more of them that are in better shape.. These young power guys today are consistently hitting the ball further than we ever thought about hitting it. I think it’s due to better nutrition, better training facilities and better programs.
“None of us in the 1960’s ever made enough money not to work in the off-season. I’ve been working year-round for 44 years! I’ve developed real estate, I’ve worked for a paper company, I’ve worked for Jim Beam brands, and still do, in the off-season.
“Is the ball livelier than it was when I was playing? Oh, it’s probably wound a little tighter. There’s no question. I think that maybe the pitching is a little thinner nowadays as well, only because we have thirty clubs rather than sixteen.
“How much validity is there to that, I couldn’t tell you. I don’t really know if the ball is juiced up, I don’t really know if the pitching is thinner. I do know this. The athletes are faster and stronger through better conditioning.
“I saw Harmon Killebrew a month ago, out in Phoenix on business. Harmon and I were at the same function together. Now here’s a guy who hit 576 home runs lifetime and probably hit some of the longest tee-shots you’ve ever seen. And I said “Harmon, as many balls as I’ve seen you and many of these other great sluggers hit for distances, McGwire is consistently hitting the ball farther than any man who’s ever played this game.
“I said to Harmon, ‘How many did you ever hit? Did you ever hit 50 in one year?’
“’No, I hit 49 twice!” he said.
“I said, ‘48 was my best year. This guy hit 22 more home runs than I did, 21 more than you did.... in our best years!!! Geesh!’
“I’m not singling him out. There’s other great athletes. There’s Juan Gonzalez, Albert Bell, Sammy Sosa, and on and on.”
“Sammy Sosa can really “scald that seed.” And he’s only five foot ten and weighs 200 pounds, but what a great swing he’s got.
“But Mark McGwire is the epitome of today’s power hitter. I said, ‘Harmon, this man hit 22 more home runs than I ever thought about hitting. And the balls he’s hitting...I mean.... incredible power!’
“Bobby Wine, the advance scout for the Atlanta Braves called me from Coors Field in Denver. He said, ‘Frank, you oughta be out here.’
“I said, ‘Why’s that, Bobby?’
“He said,”There’s 35,000 to 40,000 in this ball park to see McGwire take batting practice.’
“Back of those bleachers in left and center field, up 150 feet 200 feet are your hot dog stands.’ He said, ‘Frank, he’s knocking beers and hot dogs out of those guys’ hands up there!’ It’s 358 down the left field line, 400 to left, 420 in left center, and 440 to center field in that park. Now I know the air’s a little lighter in Denver, a mile high, but that is amazing!
“He must be hitting those baseballs at least 600 feet. He’s six foot five, about 260 pounds, and he’s got his body fat under 10%. What a magnificent specimen, and what great physical physique. They say he works really hard in the off season. I have no doubt that’s the reason why he’s able to hit them so consistently.
“I sometimes debate with my peers over this very subject. The old sluggers were great, but I’m not taking away anything away from today’s ball players. I can see that we have as many great ballplayers playing the game today as we’ve ever had in my lifetime. They’re just spread out over more teams.
“I don’t live in the past. I believe in playing today’s game today. I had my run in the sun, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.
“I tell all the young instructors, young managers, coaches, and instructors, who come to ask me about some aspect of baseball; it doesn’t make me smarter, it just makes me older. I’ve experienced things that they will experience, but haven’t yet.
“I’m completely honest with my bosses. I say, ‘Let me tell you something, I’m not smarter, just older. I’ve made every mistake that a ball player can make on that field. I’ve made every mistake that a coach can make on the field, and I know every time I managed I made every mistake they can make.’
“But its still been a fun game for me. I look back at the people I’ve played with, played against, the friendships that I’ve formed, not only with my own teammates, but the competitors I’ve teed up against, the John Boog Powells, and I say, ‘How lucky can one guy be?’
“I had the good fortune to play under the great Ted Williams. I played five years, 68 through 72, for one of the great all-time magnetic human beings you’ll ever meet--Ted Williams. He helped me manage my strike zone a lot better. He made me a little more disciplined at the plate. He took a completely undisciplined hitter, tightened up my strike zone and made me more selective at the plate. He’s just an amazing man, he really is.
“After he retired, I played in Detroit in 73, and then went to Japan in 74. While playing in the Japanese League, I tore up my knee and had to come home and have surgery. I was done. After that I couldn’t play any more. 1974 turned out to be my last year.
“Everybody says, well, Ted Williams knows hitting. Let me tell you something. Ted Williams knows as much about pitching as any pitching coach in the big leagues, knows as much about good quality outfield play as any outfield instructor. Hitting, he’s unparalleled; light years ahead of the rest of us. The one area he didn’t know a whole heck of a lot about was infield play, but had the great Nellie Fox as his coach to help him. He’s a marvelous man, a marvelous man.
“We’d all like to call ourselves our own man, but that’s a fallacy. We have to answer to somebody, our wives, our mothers, girlfriends, our bosses, somebody. Ted Williams is the only human being I ever met that can truly call himself his own man. He answered to nobody but himself.
“He was a great home run hitter, of course. The longest home run I ever hit may have been the one I hit over the light tower at the 407 mark in the old Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. It was just going up when it went over the tower. Or maybe the ball I hit through the light towers over the left field roof at Tiger Stadium was the longest.
“There’s been several hit over the right field roof. There’s only been three hit over the left field roof in the whole history of that great stadium, one by Cecil Fielder, one by Harmon Killebrew, and one by myself. That was in 1968, one of my best years.
“Now, in terms of my most memorable or most emotionally satisfying homers; that’s something else.
“Probably the home run I hit off Whitey Ford in the fourth game of the ‘63 World Series stands out, because it put us up one to nothing in a four game sweep of the Yankees.
“When you’re competing at the major league level, and in that case in a World Championship game, naturally it’s a thrill to make that contribution, especially off of a Hall of Famer, Whitey Ford, one of the all-time great pitchers.
“I’ll never forget that game. I hit a double off the monuments in the first game (at Yankee Stadium) off one of his high fastballs. I knew he was going to spin a breaking ball to me this time. I hit that curve ball off him far up in the third deck at Dodger Stadium to put the Dodgers ahead one to nothing in the fifth inning of a pitchers’ duel between Ford and Koufax. Mantle tied it later on a home run off of Koufax, and we won the game on account of a freak play when Pepitone didn’t pick up the throw from third which turned out to be a three-base error.
“Then you can go back to the home run I hit in the ‘69 All Star Game off of Steve Carlton, another Hall of Famer, another outstanding great pitcher. I guess that one was memorable because it was played in Washington, D.C. in front of our home town fans. I had my best years in that city, I lived in that area--my home is still in Northern Virginia, just south of Leesburgh--so of course I’ve always considered myself a Washingtonian. To do that in front of my home town people, to give them something they came out to the ballpark to see--one of their local boys hit a home run--stands out.
“Probably the most emotional home run I ever hit was the last home run ever hit in RFK Stadium with the Senators, only because the ball club was leaving to move to Texas. I’d had my best years there in Washington. I love the city, love the people in it. And to hit that home run that last night, knowing I’d probably never be back there was a great thrill.
“By the way, I not only hit the last home run in Washington D.C.’s history, but also the first home run in Texas Rangers’ history as well. A lot of Texans remember that!
“This is my 42nd year in the big leagues. I had 16 years as an active player. Forget the 25 that I’ve been coaching. This is my 37th year as a player or coach in the big leagues, and these are the four homers that stand out. You could talk about the ten home runs I hit in six games, but I can’t remember any of them being an emotional type of experience. I’d have to say probably maybe the one that meant the most to me was the one hit off Ford in the fourth game of the ‘63 series, and the home run off of Carlton in the All Star game, because we were playing it at home."
Note: It was only after this interview was recorded that the news about McGwire and steroids was revealed. But it is certain that Frank Howard never used steroids, and his homers travelled much further than McGwire's ever did.
At a future time, we will post photos of the "white seats" that still grace RFK stadium, some near the roof of the upper deck, far from the field of play. In fact, Frank Howard hit a ball during his days at Ohio State in Columbus that rolled up to the stairs of the anthropology department on the other side of campus. McGwire never did anything like that.
Let us not denegrate the home run hero just because of the steroid scandal. It will always be a sacred part of baseball.
posted by evan pritchard | 3:12 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home