1965 Topps #40 Frank Howard
About Frank Howard
Topps opened its 1965 first series with Howard at #40, and the card still shows him as a Los Angeles Dodger although he had been traded to Washington the previous December. The season it covered gave him the thing Los Angeles never would: a lineup spot every day. Gil Hodges, his Dodgers teammate a few years earlier and now his manager, ran him out 149 times, mostly in left field instead of right, and Howard fought injuries all year to hit .289 with 21 home runs and 84 RBIs, leading the Senators in all three. He was blunt about the rest of his game; Hodges was blunter about the job: Frank's being paid to hit.
Frank Oliver Howard, born August 8, 1936 in Columbus, Ohio, was one of the most physically imposing sluggers the game has seen, listed at 6-foot-7 and 255 pounds and heavier still in later years. An All-American in both basketball and baseball at Ohio State, he was drafted by the NBA's Philadelphia Warriors but signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1958 for a $108,000 bonus. After The Sporting News named him its 1959 Minor League Player of the Year, he took over in right field and won the 1960 National League Rookie of the Year award; he later homered off Whitey Ford in Game 4 of the Dodgers' 1963 World Series sweep. Traded to the Washington Senators in December 1964, he became the franchise's biggest draw, twice leading the American League in home runs and making four straight All-Star teams from 1968 through 1971. Teammates tagged him "Hondo" in 1958 after the John Wayne film; in Washington he added "the Capital Punisher" and "the Washington Monument." He retired after the 1973 season with 382 home runs and 1,119 RBIs, coached and managed in the majors for most of the next two decades, entered the Washington Nationals Ring of Honor in 2016, and died in 2023 at 87.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 365 | 5 | 53 | 162 | 81 | 33 | 17 | 14 | 0 |
| SGC | 25 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 8 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Data as of 2026-09-04. Half grades fold down for both graders (8.5→8); PSA qualified slabs (OC, ST, PD, MC and the like) are not counted. The two checklist variations, #79 and #508, are listed under the wording PSA uses for each state.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1965 Topps #40 card?
It is card #40 of the 598-card 1965 Topps Baseball set, picturing Frank Howard of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
How many cards are in the 1965 Topps Baseball set?
598 cards, tracked as 600 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 598 with no gaps and no printed-number collisions, and two checklist cards - #79 and #508 - carry catalogued print variations that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, BaseballCardPedia, Baseball Almanac, Baseball-Reference, the SABR BioProject and the National Baseball Hall of Fame, PSA & SGC population reports. Card data compiled and maintained by T206Cards.com. Page last updated 2026-10-11.