Baseball Way Back: 'Capital punisher' was also a gentle giant

They called him "The Capital Punisher," a nod to both his home team, the Washington Senators, and the unremitting justice he meted out with his mighty bat.

With that gavel, he launched mammoth home runs, as you can see if you go to YouTube and watch him deposit a Mickey Lolich pitch into the left-field seats at Tiger Stadium in 1968, the year he led the American League with 44 round-trippers.

But while he swung a big bat, Howard, who passed away last month at 87, also carried a big heart, something I learned from former Cubs PR director Bob Ibach, who encountered the slugger at various stages in his life.

"I used to call him 'the Gentle Giant,'" said Ibach, whose first encounter with Howard was when he was about 14 and growing up in Rockville, Maryland.

Ibach was among the sons of executives from Grand Union Supermarkets who took a group picture with Howard in the Senators bullpen during an outing at the Washington ballpark.

"He was out there talking to us," he said. "And what a nice guy. He couldn't take enough time with you."

Ibach would encounter Howard again while earning money for college as a bag boy at a Grand Union Supermarket in nearby Glenmont, Maryland. The store would let Howard, an area resident, shop at the store an hour-and-a-half before opening. That way, he could get to RFK Stadium in time for batting practice.

Ibach said he would fill up Howard's car with the contents of two full carts of groceries.

Later in the 1960s, Ibach worked as an usher at RFK Stadium.

"My section was down the left-field line," he said. "So I would see Frank quite a bit. Frank would occasionally wave to me. We got to know each other."

Ibach later met Howard as a reporter covering the Senators.

When Howard saw Ibach approach with his pad of paper, he said, "What the Hell are you doing here? They let bag boys in the locker room?" and started laughing.

"I said, 'I'm now a sports writer, Frank, and I've got some questions for you.' He says, 'Come on over.'"

Later, when Ibach was covering the Orioles for the Baltimore Evening Sun, he worked on a story about ballplayers and their idiosyncrasies. Asking one clubhouse attendant whether Howard had any special requests, he was told, "Yeah, the big guy wants two six packs of beer underneath his locker after the game. He puts his sweat jacket on and goes in the sweat box and he brings one six pack in there and as he's drinking his six beers, he's sweating it right out."

After Ibach left the Cubs in 1989, former Cubs GM Dallas Green, now managing the Yankees, invited Ibach to dinner at the Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee following a game with the Brewers.

It turned out Howard was one of the guests.

"He looks at me and he says, 'What the Hell are you doing here?' I said, 'Frank, Dallas used to be my boss and he asked me up for dinner.' He says, 'Well, welcome to the table!' And he proceeded to tell Dallas, 'You know, I've known this guy since he was an usher. He was a bag boy. He was a reporter. And now he's eating dinner with me up here in Milwaukee."

The last time Ibach saw Howard was when Ibach's son Kevin, vice president of player personnel with the Tampa Bay Rays, got him tickets to see the Nationals in the World Series in 2019 - Ibach's father, who passed away in 2009, said, "If the Senators ever get to the World Series, we will be going."

Ibach, sitting behind the Nationals dugout saw Howard rolling onto the field in his wheelchair before the game.

"As he goes by, I yelled out, 'Hey, Frank!' and he hit his head and he says, 'Oh, no,' as if to say, 'Not you, again.' And he started to laugh. He says, 'Bobby, good to see you, man.' And as he came off the field, he gave a salute."

Although it was the last time he saw Howard, Ibach did receive one final gift from his hero. He asked a friend at the Babe Ruth Museum in Baltimore for a favor ­­- could he get Howard, who was appearing as a guest three months ago, to autograph a baseball. It was something he had never asked Howard to do.

When Howard was informed of the request, "He broke out laughing. He says, 'I can't get rid of this guy.'"

The baseball arrived at Ibach's house about three weeks ago. It was inscribed, "To my #1 'Slugger' Bob Good luck 'Hondo.'"