Frank Herbert Johnson (born July 22, 1942) is a retired American

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Modern professional ...

player. Primarily an

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to c ...

and

third baseman A third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball or softball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. In the scoring system us ...

, he had a 13-season career that included one full season () and parts of five others (1966–1967; 1969–1971) with the

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Y ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

. He threw and batted right-handed, stood tall and weighed during his active career. Johnson batted over .290 in four of his first seven seasons in minor league baseball, and had late-season trials with the Giants in both and . He got into 67 games played with the Giants, but batted only .190 in 174

at bats In baseball, an at bat (AB) or time at bat is a batter's turn batting against a pitcher. An at bat is different from a plate appearance. A batter is credited with a plate appearance regardless of what happens during their turn at bat, but a batt ...

during "The Year of the Pitcher." His best pro season came in when he batted .353 in the Pacific Coast League, then spent another 67 games with the MLB Giants, where he registered a career-high .273 batting average, 44 hits, three home runs and 31

runs batted in A run batted in (RBI; plural RBIs ) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if the ba ...

as a backup

left fielder In baseball, a left fielder, abbreviated LF, is an outfielder who plays defense in left field. Left field is the area of the outfield to the left of a person standing at home plate and facing towards the pitcher's mound. In the numbering system ...

and

first baseman A first baseman, abbreviated 1B, is the player on a baseball or softball team who fields the area nearest first base, the first of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. The first baseman is responsible for the majori ...

. His MLB career coincided with the final years of the

Willie Mays Willie Howard Mays Jr. (born May 6, 1931), nicknamed "the Say Hey Kid" and "Buck", is a former center fielder in Major League Baseball (MLB). Regarded as one of the greatest players ever, Mays ranks second behind only Babe Ruth on most all-tim ...

era, when the Giants also featured such young outfielders as

Jesús Alou Jesús María Rojas Alou (born March 24, 1942) is a Dominican former professional baseball outfielder. During a 15-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career, he played for the San Francisco Giants (1963–68), Houston Astros (1969–73; 1978–79) ...

, Bobby Bonds, Ollie Brown, George Foster,

Jim Ray Hart James Ray Hart (October 30, 1941 – May 19, 2016) was an American baseball player who was a third baseman in Major League Baseball. He played for the National League's San Francisco Giants from 1963 to 1973 and the American League's New York Yank ...

and

Ken Henderson Kenneth Joseph Henderson (born June 15, 1946) is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as an outfielder from through for the San Francisco Giants, Chicago White Sox, Atlanta Braves, Texas Rangers, ...

. All told, Johnson collected 92 Major League hits in 192 games and 436 at bats. His playing career ended after the 1975 campaign.

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1942 births Living people African-American baseball players Baseball players from El Paso, Texas Decatur Commodores players Hawaii Islanders players Lotte Orions players Major League Baseball outfielders Nippon Professional Baseball outfielders Phoenix Giants players Salem Rebels (baseball) players San Francisco Giants players Springfield Giants players Tacoma Giants players 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople {{US-baseball-outfielder-1940s-stub