OT: Tribute to Dick Howser

[kcchief19]

A very well-done summary in today's Kansas City Star about Dick Howser, the Royals manager and former Yankees skipper who passed away in a bout with brain cancer in 1987.

The story coincides with this year's all-star game being in Houston. The last time the game was in Houston was in 1986, the last game managed by Howser.

While trivial in all respects compared to the loss of Howser -- whom I believe would have made it to the Hall of Fame as a manager (three division titles and a World Series in six seasons) -- this by and large precipated the decline of the Royals franchise. 1986 was a rough season with so many injuries, and while 1987 the entire season was played under the cloud of losing Howser. It was hard to care about baseball that season. Ewing Kauffman tried to right the ship though free agency -- the 1990 Royals I believe remain the only team to open the season with both league's reigning Cy Young Award winnes on roster, but it never quite worked out. Hal McRae seemed to finally be righting the ship when the '94 strike tore the heart out of baseball in this city.

Yeah, I'm an old guy waxing nostalgic, but to this day the events around the all-star game in 1986 are such as a bittersweet reminder of what was and what could have been. Howser was a class act and the world has been worse off without him.

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A winning legacy

Howser's dreams of success led him to '86 All-Star Game


By JEFF PASSAN

The Kansas City Star

HOUSTON — First the names went. He always remembered names. Some guy he met 10 minutes ago or 10 years ago, Dick Howser knew his name and treated him like a friend.

Then Jim became John. Or Bob became Bill. Or Frank became Lou, as it did almost 18 years ago today.

July 15, 1986. One of Howser's spoils for guiding the Royals to a World Series victory in 1985 was the American League managerial spot at the All-Star Game in Houston.

“Lou Whitaker was on that team, too,” says Frank White, a second baseman under Howser for six seasons. “(Howser) kept calling me Lou. I thought he might've been confused.”

Dick Howser managed his last game that night.

The AL won 3-2 in the Astrodome.

Three days later, Howser found out he had brain cancer.

Cancer does terrible things. It ate and ate and ate until it finally pierced his resolve. That resolve, really, was why Howser succeeded as he did.

He dreamed. Always.

At 5 feet 8 and 155 pounds, Howser, or “Peanut,” walked on to the Florida State baseball team and ended up as the rock around which the program was built.

Managing the Yankees seemed like an impossibility until he led them to a 103-win season in 1980.

Coming back to Kansas City, where he started his career with the A's in 1961, and building a good team, and then a great team, and then the 1985 outfit, the one to which all Royals teams compare themselves?

Yeah, Dick Howser dreamed. That's why his diagnosis prompted more than 10,000 letters from fans and admirers. And why his No. 10 jersey joins White's and George Brett's as the only three to be retired in Royals history.

The All-Star Game is back in Houston this year at Minute Maid Park. The Astros' Roger Clemens, 41, expects to start. He made his first All-Star start and won the game's most valuable player award in 1986.

“We had heard that Dick didn't know who the starting pitcher was when he was going to the press conference,” says Brett, the Royals' other All-Star that season. “He said, ‘Who was pitching for the AL again?' ”

Everything was changing for Howser. His body wasn't right. Neither was his head.

He knew it, too.

***

There are people who dislike going to the doctors. And there are people who would rather subsist on belly-button lint than see one.

“That's Dick,” says Nancy, his wife for 15 years. “I remember him being in bed and sleeping and waking up feeling really, really tired. He finally did say, ‘Yeah, OK, let's go see the doctor.' I knew right then it was pretty serious.”

Fatigue, he figured. Same with Nancy. The off-season had been so hectic, what with all the personal appearances and motivational speeches and awards dinners and appreciation parties.

Howser loved this stuff. He mingled with friends and fans alike, big glasses lording over his face, as if he were some sort of mad-genius professor.

Well, actually. Three first-place finishes in six seasons as a manager. A career winning percentage of .544. Respect of players and admiration of colleagues.

“Your life is very exciting,” Nancy says. “You're on top. You're on the top of the hill. In the baseball profession, that's your ultimate goal. So very few people have the opportunity. It's Christmas every day.”

Stress intervened simultaneously. Howser's mother suffered a heart attack after the World Series and lived with them for the next few months.

So when the weariness kicked in, blame lay elsewhere. There was a flu going around California. The Royals just played there. Probably a flu bug, Nancy thought. And maybe lack of rest.

Then the names went. Howser misplaced his keys more frequently. Absent-mindedness surfaced.

A doctor's visit? Fine. He would make that concession. Begrudgingly.

“He never had a moment he felt defeated,” White says. “His favorite line was, ‘We'll get it done.' You're talking about a cool guy. You never saw him sweat. You never saw him out of control. If you had the belief and confidence, you'd get it done.”

***

Belief and confidence. Burt Reynolds knows about Dick Howser's.

In the early 1950s, Reynolds moved near Howser's house in West Palm Beach, Fla., and started attending the same high school. Reynolds noticed Howser's BMOC status and wanted in. Howser said no.

So Reynolds challenged him to a foot race. If Reynolds won, he was cool. That's how it worked; no ifs, ands or buts.

Howser didn't hesitate. Challenge Dick Howser? Why, at that point, it would've been just as silly as saying you were sending someone to the moon.

Reynolds won. Howser let him in the crew. They became closest of friends.

As much as all his other loving and kind characteristics, stubbornness helped guide Howser. On Sept. 15, 1986, less than two months after a malignant tumor had been removed from his brain, he came out and said: “I can handle it.”

“At times, it frustrated him,” Nancy says. “At times, he also had a good sense of humor about it. He would know it wasn't right. He would stand there and say, ‘Well, I screwed this up, didn't I?' Then he'd think about it and do it again.”

Howser aimed for a return in the 1987 season. It would be triumphant, and help the Royals forget about the 76-86 season that followed their lone World Series title.

“The next year in spring training, he had lost a ton of weight,” Brett says. “He came out to visit with us out on the field. His jersey looked like he was wearing Steve Balboni's. Next thing you know, he had to go in just after making his welcome-to-spring-training speech. He was fatigued already.”

Two days into spring training, Howser retired.

“I always thought,” White says, “he would manage again.”

***

And that's why White calls the game-winning home run he hit in the 1986 All-Star Game — one, at that time, of little consequence — one of his most important hits.

He won it for Dick.

Howser needed it. After the initial surgery, he had another in December. When spring training rolled around, he insisted on trying the comeback.

“He knew what his limitations were,” Nancy says. “He had to go and find out. He wanted to try. That's all he could do — try.”

On June 17, 1987, Howser died. He was 51.

Family tried to make those last few months peaceful. They surrounded Howser and told stories and prayed. On occasion, the cheery, upbeat Howser surfaced. He spun a good yarn and broke up a room, and then they all remembered Dick before the disease took over.

Actually, that might not be fair. As little control as he had over his situation, Howser still kept his reins on it.

He made a concerted effort to remember names better in the end. It worked.

“The great thing about Dick's life was that he had a lot of goals,” Nancy says. “And he had a lot of dreams. And, you know, he didn't have a long life. But his dreams came true.”

1986 ALL-STAR GAME

American League 3, National League 2

American	A	R	H	BI	National	A	R	H	BI
Kirby Puckett cf	3	0	1	0	Tony Gwynn lf	3	0	0	0
Rickey Henderson lf	3	0	0	0	Steve Sax 2b	1	0	1	1
Lloyd Moseby lf	0	0	0	0	Ryne Sandberg 2b	3	0	0	0
Wade Boggs 3b	3	0	1	0	Mike Scott p	0	0	0	0
Brook Jacoby ph-3b	1	0	0	0	Sid Fernandez p	0	0	0	0
Lance Parrish c	3	0	0	0	Glenn Davis ph	1	0	0	0
Jim Rice ph	1	0	0	0	Mike Krukow p	0	0	0	0
Rich Gedman c	0	0	0	0	Keith Hernandez 1b	4	0	0	0
Wally Joyner 1b	1	0	0	0	Gary Carter c	3	0	0	0
Don Mattingly ph-1b	3	0	0	0	Jody Davis c	1	0	1	0
Cal Ripken Jr. ss	4	0	0	0	Tony Pena pr	0	0	0	0
Tony Fernandez ss	0	0	0	0	Darryl Strawberry rf	2	0	1	0
Dave Winfield rf	1	1	1	0	Dave Parker rf	2	0	1	0
Jesse Barfield ph-rf	3	0	0	0	Mike Schmidt 3b	1	0	0	0
Lou Whitaker 2b	2	1	1	2	Chris Brown 3b	2	1	1	0
Frank White 2b	2	1	1	1	Dale Murphy cf	2	0	0	0
Roger Clemens p	1	0	0	0	Chili Davis cf	1	0	0	0
Teddy Higuera p	1	0	0	0	Ozzie Smith ss	1	0	0	0
Harold Baines ph	1	0	0	0	Hubie Brooks ph-ss	2	1	0	0
Charlie Hough p	0	0	0	0	Dwight Gooden p	0	0	0	0
Dave Righetti p	0	0	0	0	Kevin Bass ph	1	0	0	0
Don Aase p	0	0	0	0	Fernando Valenzuela p	0	0	0	0
					Tim Raines ph-lf	2	0	0	0
Totals	33	3	5	3	Totals	32	2	5	1

American	020	000	100	—	3	5	0
National	000	000	020	—	2	5	1

E: Sandberg. LOB: American 5, National 4. 2B: Winfield, Brown. HR: Whitaker, White. SB: Puckett, Moseby, Sax. GIDP: Brown. DP: American 1 (White and Mattingly).

American	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
Roger Clemens, W	3	0	0	0	0	2
Teddy Higuera	3	1	0	0	1	2
Charlie Hough	1 2/3	2	2	1	0	3
Dave Righetti	2/3	2	0	0	0	0
Don Aase, S	2/3	0	0	0	0	0
National	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
Dwight Gooden, L	3	3	2	2	0	2
Fernando Valenzuela	3	1	0	0	0	5
Mike Scott	1	1	1	1	0	2
Sid Fernandez	1	0	0	0	2	3
Mike Krukow	1	0	0	0	0	0

WP: Hough. Balk: Hough, Gooden. PB: Gedman.

Umpires: Home, Bruce Froemming; First, Steve Palermo; Second, Paul Runge; Third, Rick Reed; Left, Eric Gregg; Right, Tim McClelland. Time: 2:28. Attendance: 45,774.

• BEYOND THE BOX: Royals second baseman Frank White's pinch-hit homer in the seventh inning was the game-winning hit. … Royals third baseman George Brett did not play because of an injury. … Current Royals manager Tony Peña, a Pirates catcher at the time, was a pinch runner. … This was Steve Palermo's only All-Star game as an umpire. … The Angels' Wally Joyner, who later played for the Royals, was the first rookie elected as a starter by the fans. … Former Royals Chili Davis and Hubie Brooks were members of the National League squad.

[Schmidty]

I'm a fan of his son, Doogie.