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In the 1960's he was truly a giant among men. Standing 6'7'' and weighing 255 pounds, Frank Howard dwarfed almost all of his teammates. He was considered a gentle giant, though, but boy could he sock a baseball!
Frank Howard was born August 8, 1936 in Columbus, Ohio. He attended Ohio State University and broke into the Majors at the age of 22 in 1958 with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He played nine games with the Dodgers in 1959. That was the year the Dodgers beat the Chicago "GoGo" White Sox in the World Series.
Frank Howard's statue in Washington.
In 1965 Frank was sent to the lowly Washington Senators of the American League. Although the Senators were a below average team, Howard would emerge as a bonafide star. In three consecutive seasons (1968-1970), Howard would bash over 40 home runs and drive in over a 100 base runners. In fact in that three year stretch Frank launched the long ball 136 times!
When the Senators moved to Texas to become the Rangers, Frank went along for the ride. Later that year though he went to the Detroit Tigers. Howard would finish his 16-year Major League career with the Tigers in 1973.
In all Howard collected 1,774 hits. He had 382 career home runs and 1,119 RBI's. He also ended up with a respectable .273 career batting average. His stats are very comparable to my childhood hero Rocky Colavito. Although it is doubtful that either one will ever be inducted into the Baseball Hall Of Fame, it must be noted that during a good stretch of their careers they were among the most feared power hitters in the Majors.
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