Nats fans will have a bittersweet reunion with superstar Juan Soto this weekend, when he returns to Nationals Park for a series with the San Diego Padres.
A half-century ago, D.C. fans also lost a star with Soto’s outsize impact on the team – but they never had the chance to see him return as a player. That’s because when slugger Frank Howard left town after the 1971 season, the rest of the Washington Senators went with him, leaving the city without a baseball team for 33 years.
Soto and Howard came from very different backgrounds and had different styles of play.