1969 Topps #170 Frank Howard
About Frank Howard
Three 1969 Topps cards carry Howard, and none is a high number or a rookie card. #3 and #5 are first-series League Leaders cards recapping 1968: #3 is the American League RBI leaders, his 106 second behind Boston's Ken Harrelson, with Detroit's Jim Northrup third; #5 is the American League home run leaders, his league-best 44 heading Willie Horton and Harrelson. #170, in the second series, is his own Senators card. Its season belonged to Ted Williams. The new manager asked Howard whether he could take a strike; his walks jumped from 54 to 102, his strikeouts fell from 141 to 96, and he hit .296 with 48 home runs, one behind Killebrew, and 111 RBIs, finishing fourth in the MVP vote, the best placing of his career.
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 | 310 | 0 | 49 | 148 | 50 | 27 | 22 | 14 | 0 |
| SGC | 27 | 0 | 3 | 10 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 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.
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Related cards
More Frank Howard in this set: #3 League Leaders, #5 League Leaders
More Washington Senators cards:
- #3 American League 1968 RBI Leaders
- #5 American League 1968 Home Run Leaders
- #27 Bernie Allen
- #48 Brant Alyea
- #84 Bob Humphreys
- #106 Jim Hannan
- #132 Dave Baldwin
- #153 Ed Brinkman
- #199 Jim French
- #226 Bruce Howard
- #246 Joe Coleman
- #272 Ed Stroud
- #294 Jim Lemon
- #319 Ken McMullen
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1969 Topps #170 card?
It is card #170 of the 664-card 1969 Topps Baseball set, picturing Frank Howard of the Washington Senators.
How many cards are in the 1969 Topps Baseball set?
664 cards, tracked as 696 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 664 with none skipped and no printed number shared by two cards; 32 cards carry catalogued print variations that the master set counts separately, 23 of them the yellow- and white-letter name pairs of #440-511.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, 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 2026-10-12.