(ReliableNews.org) – Frank Howard was a giant. At 6 feet 7 inches tall and weighing more than 250 pounds, he stood out on the baseball field. But he used all of his strength to knock balls out of the park over and over again. Sadly, the MLB legend has now passed away.
On October 30, Howard died in Virginia after he suffered complications from a stroke. The news hit his friends and fans hard. Dick Bosman, one of his former teammates on the Washington Senators and Texas Rangers, told The Associated Press that Howard was the “greatest guy” he knew next to his dad. He called him the “ultimate teammate.”
Howard started his baseball career playing for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He became the National League’s Rookie of the Year in 1960 and helped the team win the World Series in 1963. In 1965, Howard went to play for the Washington Senators. He hit the Senators’ last home run at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington, DC, before the team moved to Texas and became the Rangers. Ironically, he also hit the Rangers’ first-ever home run.
Although Howard was an incredible hitter, he also got struck out all the time. He drove more than 1,100 runs in his nearly two-decade-long career but was struck out over 1,400 times. He earned the nicknames “The Capital Punisher,” “Hondo,” and “the Washington Monument.”
Howard played for the Detroit Tigers after leaving the Rangers. He retired from the MLB in 1973. In 1977, he began coaching the Milwaukee Brewers. He remained with the team until 1980. From 1982 through 1984, Howard coached the New York Mets. He went on to coach the Brewers again, then the Seattle Mariners, New York Yankees, Mets again, and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. He also managed two MLB teams: the San Diego Padres (1981) and the New York Mets (1983).
The MLB star was married twice and raised six children.
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