At age 87. One of the very few bright spots for this long-suffering Senators fan.
RIP Hondo
My Mom took me and friend to a late season Senator home game at RFK Stadium in either 1968 or 1969. I was only 7 or 8 at the time. I don’t remember many of the players other than Hondo and Eddie Brinkman.
Maybe 1960 to see them play the Yankees. Was it called Griffith Stadium back then? No homers from Mickey Mantle or Frank Howard that day.
When I was in grade school and high school, in Green Bay, Howard was a member of the church where my family went (he was a coach for the Brewers in those years); his daughter was in my grade school (if I remember correctly, she was a year behind me). I didn’t know him well, but I did know him.
A very good man, and a very good baseball player. This is sad news.
He didn’t join the Senators til 1964.
After shutting down the Yankees in the 1963 Series, the Dodgers decided they had too many outfielders and needed pitching, so they dealt Howard off to the Senators for Claude Osteen.
Worked out for both teams. The '62 Dodgers had about two outfields worth, the Davis boys, and Howard, and Ron Fairly, and Wally Moon and Duke Snider.
So he didn’t hit any homers that day. I was maybe 5, Mickey Mantle was the only name I recognized.
I’m too young to remember him as a player I do remember him as the giant in the dugout when he was coaching for the Mets and Yankees. I think players (not Altuve) are bigger now. He really stood out then.
I was 15 in 1969 when they (Nats v.2.0, that is) had their one winning season before absconding for Texas. I can still remember most of their roster from that year.
In 1968, Hondo hit 10 homers in one 6-game stretch in April or May.