64780

Zip Code for Rockville, Mo., and my current solitaire score.

Rockville is in Bates County. As of the 2010 census, 166 people lived in the town.

No one lives in my solitaire score, but adding the numbers gives 25. That was Frank Howard’s number when he played for the Dodgers. Howard took number 9 when the Dodgers traded him to Washington.

Rockville was named for nearby white sandstone quarries.

Frank Howard hit 122 home runs with the Dodgers, 1958-1964. He hit 240 home runs with the Senators/Rangers, 1965 to Aug. 30, 1972, and 13 with the Detroit Tigers, Sept. 1,1972, and all of 1973.

In his best years with the Senators, 1967-70, Howard hit 36, 44, 48 and 44 home runs.

Howard was traded with Phil Ortega, Pete Richart, Ken McMullen and a player to be named (Dick Nen) for Claude Osteen, John Kennedy and $100,000.

Howard went with the Senators to Texas and became a Texas Rangers. The Rangers sold him to the Tigers.

Howard was 6’5” and weighed around 250.

"One of these days (Frank) Howard will unleash a line drive at the opposing pitcher and the only identification left on the mound is going to be a laundry mark." - Fresco Thompson in Every Diamond Doesn't Sparkle: Behind The Scenes With The Dodgers (David McKay Company, 1964, Page 44)

At old Arlington Stadium, someone in the late 1970s pointed to the big scoreboard at the top of the left field wall and said Howard hit a home run off the scoreboard.

Rockville has a 95.8 percent white population. The median age was 45. By the 2000 census, 33.3 percent of families and 32.1 percent of the overall population was below the federal poverty line.

Bates County borders Oklahoma and is the sixth county up from Arkansas. Jim’s Village Meats is listed on the internet, but one site notes: CLOSED.

There was a big to-do two years ago on plans by a horse slaughter company opening a plant in Rockville.

Two people writing at yelp.com say the Old Rock Tavern is “hands down” the best eating establishment in Rockville, plus “no Lady Gaga” but George Strait and David Alan Coe.

Well, shoot, it don’t get any better than that. As long as they aren’t killing horses for shipment to France.

Stats on Frank Howard from www.baseball-almanac.com

Rockville info from Wikipedia, Yelp and Topix.