A Gentle Giant

You've no doubt heard the names of the legendary Dodgers of the 1960's. Koufax. Drysdale. Wills. However, you don't often hear about Frank Howard, 1960 Rookie of the Year and key contributor to the Dodgers success in the first seasons at Dodger Stadium.

In July 1962 he was named the NL Player of the Month after tallying a tremendous 41 RBI's. It was during that month he caught everyone's attention...

Everyone in town is wildly excited over the way Frank Howard has been hitting except the player himself. He's taking it all in stride. He says baseball's a funny game.

"One week you're hot and one week you can't do anything right," Howard says. "I've been swinging a hot bat. I just hope it keeps up. I think playing regularly helps but I can't really explain it. I wish I could. I'm waiting longer and I'm seeing better, I think that has been the biggest factor. But otherwise, I'm not doing anything different."

"A man can worry too much. It isn't good to climb too many vines at a time. Rome wasn't built in a day. It takes several years for a hitter to develop. Baseball is the only game I know of where a guy can fail seven times out of 10 and still be a big man."

A tremendously powerful man, 6ft. 7 in. tall, Howard appears to be going for the fence on every swing.

"That isn't the case at all," he says. "I don't go all out on every swing. That's when you get in trouble. It is the nice, smooth, easy, quick strokes that get the best results."

"The few I've hit real good were when I swung real smooth. It's not how hard you swing, but how quick you are that counts in hitting."

Noted for his tape-measure home runs, Frank says they always come as a surprise to him. "I never know, I just lower my head and run."

Advised that Vin Scully had gone into ecstacies over him on the last Dodger road trip, Howard had a modest answer. "I think he might have been a little prejudiced."

Scully continues to call attention to Howard's "tremendously strong arm," and claims the big fellow is doing everything right, even throwing from the outfield with accuracy. Ever the modest man, Howard responds, "I only wish I had a strong arm. Mine is just average or a little above. It doesn't compare with Mays' or Colavito's. As for accuracy, I just hope to throw in the general direction of where I aim."

In 1962 Frank Howard batted .296, belted 31 home runs, and drove in 119. However, after a drop in production the next two seasons, Howard was traded to Washington. From Wikipedia...

In 1963 his production dropped off to a .273 average, 28 homers and 64 RBI; but the Dodgers won the pennant, and his upper-deck solo home run off Whitey Ford broke a scoreless tie in the fifth inning of Game 4 of the World Series, helping Los Angeles to a 2–1 win and a sweep of the New York Yankees. He again hit over 20 home runs in 1964, and on June 4 his three-run home run in the seventh inning provided all the scoring in Sandy Koufax's third no-hitter, a 3–0 defeat of the Philadelphia Phillies; Howard had also homered for the final run in Koufax's first no-hitter on June 30 two years earlier, a 5–0 win over the New York Mets. But the team's 1962 move into spacious Dodger Stadium did not favor power hitters, and their speedier outfielders Tommy and Willie Davis were seen as more in line with the club's future; Howard's .226 batting average in 1964—combined with regularly high strikeout totals—led to his trade to Washington in a seven-player December deal which brought Claude Osteen to Los Angeles. In 2005 Howard recalled welcoming the trade despite going from a pennant contender to a weak expansion team, noting, "I was essentially a fourth outfielder in L.A., hitting 25 home runs a year in the biggest baseball park in America and doing it on 400 at-bats." He added, "What could I do if I get 550 at-bats?"

What could he do indeed? Howard went on to tally 36, 44, 48, and 44 dingers in his first few years in the nation's capital. A 4 time All-Star, Howard finished in the top 10 in MVP voting 4 times over his career.