Tom Brennan - PETE ALONSO VS. FRANK HOWARD, HARMON KILLEBREW, AND ORLANDO CEPEDA

1B/OF Frank "Hondo" Howard, who was 6’8” and weighed 300 near the end of his career, played 15 years and hit .273 average, with 382 HR and 1,119 RBIs. In 1968-70, he hit 44, 48 and 44 home runs. A big jump from 1966, when he hit just 18 HRs.

Like Pete Alonso, he had prodigious power - but probably more power given that Pete is BIG but Howard was BIGGER.  

Per a 1991 Baltimore Sun article, writer Rob Rubin recalled a double Howard hit against Ford to deepest left-center at Yankee Stadium in the opener of the Dodgers' four-game sweep of the Yankees in the 1963 World Series.

Rubin said, "Hardest-hit ball I ever saw." 

"Me, too," pitcher Whitey Ford added. 

Rubin also wrote that Tony Kubek, the Yankees shortstop that day, said, "Howard hit a line drive right over my head. I jumped for it and missed it by about a foot, maybe two tops. There was a speaker in left-center, 457 feet away. The ball hit the speaker and bounced back like a bullet to Mickey Mantle in centerfield. I don't think it was higher than 10-12 feet all the way out." 

I was a kid and saw that one on TV and it was really amazing. Here's the Youtube clip - it's a few minutes in.  1963 World Series Game 1: Dodgers @ Yankees - Bing video

Rubin also wrote that, “No fair ball had ever been hit out of Yankee Stadium. Only Tony Kubek thinks Howard hit one out. 

"He hit one completely out down the leftfield line off Bobby Shantz that was called foul, but both Bobby and 3B Clete Boyer said later it was fair," said Kubek. "The foul poles didn't go way up then, and the ball was hit so high the umps couldn't judge it."

Anyway, Howard managed to do something Pete still has to show he can do...hit for average...Howard hit as high as .296 twice, and in the .280s twice.  He also, other than his 3 peak HR years, averaged just 26 HRs per season in his other 7 mostly full seasons.  He may have traded off some focus on HRs to focusing on producing hits. 

Lastly, he got dramatically BETTER in not striking out starting in 1969. That year, he fanned just 96 times in 702 plate appearances.  Overall, he averaged a K every 5.1 PAs in his career.

Maybe there are some Hondo lessons for Pete there.

HARMON KILLEBREW:  Hall of Fame, 573 HRs, 1,584 RBIs, .256.  He was a substandard fielding 1B, 3B, and LF.  He had 8 seasons of 40+ HRs, and one with 39. Nine seasons with 100 or more RBIs. In 9,833 at bats, he fanned a not so bad 1,699 times, while walking a commendable 1,599 times.  

Prodigious power, too - he had a recorded 522 foot HR in Minnesota in 1967.

He hit a career high .288 at age 25, then slid to .243 the next year...but still hit 48 HRs.

In the year of the pitcher, 1968, he suffered a severe groin injury doing an unintended split at first base, and played just 100 games, hitting .210 with just 40 RBIs. 

Washed up?  Nah.  

Undaunted, in 1969, he won the MVP by playing all 162 games and hitting 49 HRs and driving in 140 runs despite being walked 145 times.

Some lessons, perhaps, for Pete, that you will rebound from 2020, probably big, and not to get discouraged but keep improving, and try to put up career numbers in the same realm as Hammerin' Harmon.

ORLANDO CEPEDA: The “Baby Bull” was less like Pete than were Howard and Killebrew. He was a high average guy early in his career, and hit a lot more doubles than the other 3.  He struck out less, walked less, and stole 142 career bases.

Cepeda won the ROY at age 20, was an MVP runner up in 1961 despite hitting .311 with 46 HRs and 142 RBIs at age 23.  

He hit a career .299, as he, like Howard and Killebrew, went into heavy decline in his mid 30s ( in his case, in his last year at age 36).  Besides that awesome season at 23, he never hit as many as 40 again, hitting 30 or more just 3 other times and 20 or more 7 other times.  He ended up, though, with 9 seasons of 96 or more RBIs, and hit .300 or more 10 times.

But he had a few mediocre seasons, too, yet he bounced back from those and compiled enough numbers to make the Hall of Fame. He had, for instance, a mere 58 RBIs in 1966, but won the MVP in 1967.  

I think the lesson for Pete in Cepeda is to expect that some years may not go quite as hoped, but the next one sure might, so to never get discouraged and just keep working and fighting.

PETE ALONSO: Surreal 2019 followed by a struggling 2020. What will 2021 bring?

I'm expecting Pete to bounce back in 2021 like Howard did in 1968, Killebrew did in 1969 and Cepeda did in 1967.  For the great ones, like those 3, adversity often is decisively answered with outstanding years.  Now, it's Pete's turn.