1967 Topps #255 Frank Howard
About Frank Howard
#255 comes from the 1967 third series, a plain base card. Before the season Gil Hodges rebuilt his swing, arguing that a level cut was only producing hard ground balls, and asked him to stand closer to the plate and add a slight uppercut so he could pull the ball. The results came fast: 24 home runs by midseason, 36 for the year, third in the American League behind Harmon Killebrew and Carl Yastrzemski, with a .256 average, 89 RBIs and a league-leading 155 strikeouts. It was the best season of his career to that point.
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 | 401 | 9 | 93 | 202 | 42 | 23 | 18 | 14 | 0 |
| SGC | 19 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 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. PSA registers a row for every one of the 624 states; SGC lists no separate row for the #149 white-streak state.
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Related cards
Team card: #437 Washington Senators
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- #26 Bob Priddy
- #27 Bob Saverine
- #47 Ken McMullen
- #64 Fred Valentine
- #71 Camilo Pascual
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- #118 Bernie Allen
- #167 Senators 1967 Rookie Stars
- #188 Ken Harrelson
- #207 John Orsino
- #228 Gil Hodges
- #273 Dick Lines
- #291 Jim Hannan
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1967 Topps #255 card?
It is card #255 of the 609-card 1967 Topps Baseball set, picturing Frank Howard of the Washington Senators.
How many cards are in the 1967 Topps Baseball set?
609 cards, tracked as 624 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 609 without a gap - no number was skipped and none was used twice - and 15 cards carry catalogued print variations that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, Baseball Almanac, BaseballCardPedia, 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 2026-10-12.