Towering D.C. baseball legend Frank Howard dies at 87

Frank Howard, the hulking slugger who won over a generation of Washington baseball fans with his towering home runs and genteel personality, has died at 87, the Nationals announced this afternoon.

Affectionately known to fans as “Hondo,” “The Capitol Punisher” and “The Washington Monument,” Howard played 16 seasons in four major league cites and spent another two decades coaching and managing for six other organizations. But his legacy was defined by the seven seasons he spent with the Washington Senators from 1965-71, blasting homers into the upper deck at RFK Stadium and becoming every local baseball fan’s favorite player for life, including one young D.C. native who would eventually own the city’s next big league club.

“Growing up a baseball fan in Washington, D.C., Frank Howard was my hero,” Nationals managing principal owner Mark Lerner said in a statement released by the team. “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.”

Standing 6-foot-7 and weighing 255 pounds, Howard would’ve been a physically imposing hitter in today’s game. In the 1960s and ’70s, he was a jaw-dropping presence in a sport not known for producing many players of that stature.

Signed by the Dodgers out of Ohio State in March 1958, Howard made his major league debut that September. The outfielder became a full-time big leaguer in 1960 and won National League Rookie of the Year honors, then finished ninth in the MVP race two seasons later.

The Dodgers traded Howard (along with Ken McMullen, Phil Ortega, Pete Richert and Dick Nen) to the Senators in December 1964 for John Kennedy, Claude Osteen and $100,000. He immediately became the face of that incarnation of the franchise, which debuted in 1961 as an expansion team, replacing the original Senators after they moved to Minnesota.

Over his seven seasons here, Howard hit .279 with a .369 on-base percentage and 237 home runs, a record for D.C. major leaguers that stood until the Nats’ Ryan Zimmerman surpassed him nearly five decades later. He was a four-time All-Star, twice leading the American League in homers and total bases. His 48 homers in 1969 for the only expansion Senators team to finish with a winning record remain the single-season record for any D.C. big leaguer. Nobody who has ever played here has topped it.

Several of his longest home runs were commemorated at RFK Stadium with upper-deck seats painted white, still there for players to marvel at in the 21st century when baseball returned to the District. The Nationals continued the tradition upon moving into their new ballpark in 2008, painting seats in the third deck down the right field line red to mark the location where moonshot home runs landed.

Though Howard never technically played for the Nationals franchise, which debuted in 1969 as the Montreal Expos, he was immediately embraced by D.C.’s third major league club as its own. A statue of him stands in the center field plaza at Nationals Park, and his name adorns the façade of the upper deck in the team’s Ring of Honor.

Perhaps none of Howard’s several appearances at Nationals games, though, was as meaningful as his first, on April 14, 2005. Alongside the rest of the Senators’ starting lineup from their final game in 1971, he took the field at RFK Stadium holding Brad Wilkerson’s glove, then handed it over to that night’s starting left fielder moments before the Nats’ first home game.

“Frank was a legendary figure in this town and a player that D.C. baseball fans truly admired,” Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo said in a statement. “I had the utmost respect for him, both as a ballplayer and as a human being, and it was always a pleasure seeing him at Nationals Park. He was generous with his time and was never afraid to pass along his knowledge and wisdom. He will be missed.”

Born Aug. 8, 1936 in Columbus, Ohio, Howard was the third of six children, his father John having played semi-pro baseball before becoming a machinist for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway. A gifted athlete who took full advantage of his physical size, he was an All-American in both baseball and basketball at Ohio State and was even drafted by the Philadelphia (now Golden State) Warriors hoops franchise in 1957.

Howard’s first love was baseball, though, and he instead chose to sign with the Dodgers. After two brief big league stints in 1958 and 1959, he became a full-timer in 1960, the same year the original Senators ended their long tenure in D.C.

It was Howard’s teammates in Los Angeles who gave him the “Hondo” nickname, likening him to John Wayne’s title character in the 1953 Western. The name would stick throughout his life, with the “Capitol Punisher” and “Washington Monument” nicknames handed out to him while he played for the Senators.

Howard, who hit the Senators' final homer at RFK Stadium on Sept. 30, 1971, moved with the organization to Texas for the 1972 season. But after he struggled at the plate, the newly renamed Rangers sold his contract to the Tigers. He would finish his major league playing career in 1973 in Detroit, batting .256 with 12 homers as a designated hitter, but he actually went to play in Japan in 1974, only to injure his back on his first swing. He never played again.

Howard still had a lengthy career in baseball as a coach and briefly as a manager. He managed the Padres in 1981 but was fired after going 41-69 during that strike-shortened season. He got another chance to manage in 1983, the Mets promoting him after George Bamberger resigned, and went 52-64.

All told, Howard served as a big league coach or manager for 20 seasons, working for the Brewers, Padres, Mets, Mariners, Yankees and Devil Rays.

Respected everywhere he went, Howard nonetheless was never embraced anywhere like he was in Washington.