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Nixon's home team also boasts a man whose performance has been worthy of the highest admiration—bespectacled Frank Howard. While Jackson is relatively unprepossessing in appearance, Howard at 33 is absolutely forbidding. One of his home runs once splintered a bleacher seat 530 ft. from the plate. A veteran of seven years with the Los Angeles Dodgers, the 6-ft. 7-in., 260-lb. first baseman was always a prodigious but sporadic long-ball hitter. Only after he was traded to the Senators in 1964 did he begin living up to his potential. In 1968 Howard led both leagues with 44 home runs. Says Manager Ted Williams: "That son-of-a-gun is the biggest and strongest hitter who ever played this game. Nobody ever hit the ball harder or farther. Nobody."
Others are certainly trying. Boston's Carl Yastrzemski and Minnesota's Harmon Killebrew have slammed 28 home runs apiece. In the National League, San Francisco's Willie McCovey and Cincinnati's Lee May also have 28, while Atlanta's durable Hank Aaron has 24, to bring his career total to 534. With the season little more than half over, seven or eight hitters thus have a shot at hitting 50 or more home runs—a feat that has been accomplished by only nine players in major league history.* If 1968 was the year of the pitcher, 1969 may well be remembered as the year of the fence-busters.
* Hack Wilson, Hank Greenberg, Johnny Mize and Maris each did it once; Ralph Kiner, Jimmy Foxx, Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle twice; and Ruth four times.