Former Dodger, longtime slugger Howard dies at 87
Frank Howard, a fourtime All-Star who slugged 382 home runs during a 16year major league career that included a World Series title with the Dodgers in 1963, has died. He was 87.
A spokesperson for the Washington Nationals said the team was informed of Howard's death by his family Monday. A cause of death was not provided.
At 6-foot-7 and 255 pounds, Howard was a massive, imposing figure as an outfielder and first baseman.
He played in 17 total games for the Dodgers in 1958 and '59 after being signed out of Ohio State, where he was an All-American in basketball and baseball. He was drafted by the NBA's Philadelphia Warriors.
Howard became the Dodgers' regular right fielder in 1960 and batted .268 with 23 home runs and 77 RBIs in 117 games, earning National League Rookie of the Year accolades.
He played four more seasons for the Dodgers, slugging 98 homers, before being traded in December 1964 to the Washington Senators in a seven-player deal that brought future two-time 20game winner Claude Osteen to Los Angeles.
His best season with the Dodgers was 1962, when he hit .296 with 31 home runs and 119 RBIs.
“He was the ultimate teammate,” Dick Bosman, who played six-plus seasons with Howard with Washington and Texas and remained friends with him for decades, told The Associated Press. “Next to my dad, he's the greatest guy I know.
“Playing with Frank Howard was one of the best experiences I had, and the reason I say that is because he taught us how to be big leaguers, He taught us how to carry ourselves when we were bad — and we were bad. And when we did win, he taught us how to carry ourselves when we won a few ballgames here and there. He was that example in word and deed all the time.
“I don't think I saw him angry more than two or three times. I mean, you didn't want that big guy to be angry anyway, but that's just the way that he felt that he should carry himself.”
Howard played seven seasons with the Senators and was with them when they relocated to Texas and became the Rangers in 1972. He finished his playing career with the Detroit Tigers in 1973.
Nicknamed “Hondo,” Howard was a longtime big league coach and spent a brief time as a manager, with the San Diego Padres in 1981 and the New York Mets in 1983.
Howard led the American League in home runs twice, in 1968 and '70, sandwiched around his 48-homer season that remains the most in Washington baseball history.
• New York Yankees star Aaron Judge won Major League Baseball's Roberto Clemente Award for character, community involvement and philanthropy on Monday.
Judge was presented the award before Game 3 of the World Series. He is the fourth Yankees player to receive the honor after Ron Guidry (1984), Don Baylor (1985) and Derek Jeter (2009).
A five-time All-Star and the 2022 American League MVP, Judge established his All Rise Foundation in 2018. It supports youth in New York and in California's San Joaquin and Fresno counties, near his home.
Messi wins another Ballon d'Or honor
This list reads 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2019, 2021, and now 2023.
Lionel Messi won the men's Ballon d'Or for a record-extending eighth time on Monday after fulfilling his life's ambition by leading his country to the World Cup title in Qatar last year.
The 36-year-old Messi won ahead of Manchester City forward Erling Haaland and his former Paris Saint-Germain teammate Kylian Mbappe.
Aitana Bonmati won the women's award for guiding Spain to victory at the Women's World Cup.
A year after missing out on the shortlist for the 2022 Ballon d'Or, and despite leaving top-level European soccer behind, Messi has recovered his crown.
He won the sport's biggest individual prize due to his tremendous World Cup. In Qatar, Messi was involved in 10 goals for Argentina, scoring seven and assisting three. He scored twice in the final against France.
• The Spanish soccer official who provoked a players' rebellion and reckoning on gender when he kissed an unwilling star player on the lips at the Women's World Cup final trophy ceremony was banned for three years by the sport's global governing body.
Luis Rubiales' conduct at the Aug. 20 final in Australia — and his defiant refusal to resign as Spanish soccer federation president for three weeks — distracted many people from the women's career-defining title win.
Rubiales is now barred from working in soccer until after the men's 2026 World Cup. His ban will expire before the next women's tournament in 2027.
Spanish authorities have launched a criminal investigation against Rubiales for kissing Jenni Hermoso on the lips after the team's 1-0 victory over England in Sydney, and his conduct in the fallout from the scandal.
Spanish prosecutors have formally accused Rubiales of sexual assault and coercion.
Gauff, Swiatek take WTA Finals openers
U.S. Open champion Coco Gauff earned the first WTA Finals win of her career, breezing past threetime major runner-up Ons Jabeur 6-0, 6-1 in a roundrobin match in Cancun, Mexico.
The third-seeded Gauff went 0-3 in singles at the season-ending championship in 2022.
Earlier Monday, No. 2 seed Iga Swiatek climbed out of a deep hole against Marketa Vondrousova and dominated the second set for a 7-6 (3), 6-0 victory.