BY DAVE PEMBERTON
Clarkston News Sports Writer
Steve Howe, who’s life was full of ultimate highs and lows, died on April 27 when the pickup truck he was driving rolled over in Coachella, Calif.
According to reports, Howe’s pickup truck left the roadway and rolled several times, ejecting Howe from the vehicle. The accident occurred around 5:55 a.m. about 130 miles east of Los Angeles.
Whether or not drugs or alcohol was a factor is yet to be determined. Howe was 48 years old.
During his life, Howe became a baseball legend in Clarkston and across the nation.
He helped lead Clarkston to the 1976 Class A state title. Former Clarkston baseball coach Paul Tungate remembers fondly how great Howe was in high school.
‘He was the best high school pitcher I ever saw,? Tungate said. ‘He was a team player. He did anything you asked him to do. He didn’t take a lot of coaching. He was naturally talented. He wasn’t arrogant. He fit with the team and carried his load.?
After high school, Howe played for the University of Michigan from 1977-1979.
He then made the big leagues and won the 1980 National League Rookie of the Year Award as member of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He also helped the Dodgers win the 1981 World Series and pitched the final out in the deciding game.
His professional baseball career started out like a dream, but was later marred with controversy. Howe was suspended seven times for drug problems and was the first player ever banned from baseball for life for drug use in 1992.
An arbitrator later reinstated him after the season. His final season was in 1996 with the Yankees and he was cut in June. He attempted a comeback in 1997 with Sioux Falls of the independent Northern League, but was critically injured in a motorcycle accident in Montana and charged with drunk driving.
Over his major league career, Howe was 47-41 with 91 saves and a 3.03 ERA with the Dodgers, Twins, Rangers and Yankees.
Many who knew Howe do not remember him for the negative things that happened during his career. Tungate’s favorite memory of Howe was forged one weekend while the Dodgers were playing the Cincinnati Reds.
Howe called Tungate and told him to bring his wife and two kids down to Cincinnati to see the game.
‘I’ll never forget it,? Tungate said. ‘He called us and told us to come down for the weekend. He paid for everything. The kids got a chance to meet some of the players. We all still remember it. That’s the kind of guy he was. He stayed in touch with the people who helped him.?
Tungate said he was shocked when he heard what happened on Friday and hopes people remember Howe for the positive things he did in his life.
Howe is survived by his wife, Cindy, daughter Chelsi and son Brian.

The Point After
By Al Zawacky
My first and only meeting with Steve Howe occurred more than 25 years ago. Yet, when I heard the tragic news about his death, I was surprised how much of this meeting was still indelibly preserved in my memory.
The occasion was ‘Steve Howe Night,? a special tribute to the Clarkston High School alumnus during halftime of a varsity basketball game. It was December 1980, and Howe was a 22-year-old prodigy, an extraordinary athlete who had just been named National League Rookie of the Year after a superlative maiden season pitching for the Los Angeles Dodgers. I was a far-less illustrious 24-year-old rookie reporter with the Clarkson News, excited at the opportunity to interview a big-league star.
I doubt very much if Steve Howe would have remembered me or anything from the 20 or so minutes that we sat and talked in the old Clarkston High School cafeteria, but the impression the experience left on me proved lasting. Envy is an emotion alien to my nature, but it was difficult not to be a bit envious of the supremely confident young athlete who sat across from me that evening ? fielding each question as easily as he would a slow one-hopper to the mound.
Steve Howe had self-assurance and aplomb, and struck me as a bit cocky ? but it was an attitude redeemed from arrogance by the fact that he had a lot to be cocky about. Good looking. Gifted athlete. Articulate. A pretty wife at his side. And now, fame and fortune, too. Pardon the clich?, but this man did indeed seem to ‘have it all.?
About the same time, I visited his parents? home off of Clarkston Road, interviewing his mom, dad and younger brother. I remember his mom describing how she jumped out of her chair, yelling, ‘That’s Steve! That’s Steve!? the first time she saw her son pitch on television. The family’s pride and excitement in having a budding baseball star as a son and brother was palpable. I sensed a similar pride in Paul Tungate, the former Clarkston High School athletic director, who had coached Howe as a youngster. And it was a pride shared by the entire Clarkston community.
Just 10 months after our 1980 interview, Howe helped the Dodgers win a World Series, and appeared to be in the early stages of a brilliant, hall-of-fame-caliber career. But while his pitching prowess never seemed to desert him, his judgment and cool-headed aplomb did. The result was a checkered career darkened by frequent suspensions and controversy. As a baseball fan, I followed his career and could only lament what could have, should have, been ? if only Howe had been able to conquer his demons.
Now he is gone, a life ended all too soon, and his family, friends and fans are left with their memories. In has been 10 years since he pitched, and 48 is, of course, extreme old age in the world of professional athletics ? but I am still reminded of some lines from ‘To An Athlete Dying Young,? by A.E. Housman: The time you won your town the race/We chaired you through the market place/Man and boy stood cheering by/And home we brought you shoulder high. Today, the road all runners come/Shoulder-high we bring you home/And set you at your threshold down/Townsman of a stiller town . . . And early though the laurel grows/It withers quicker than the rose . . . And silence sounds no worse than cheers/After earth has stopped the ears.
I wish there were some way I could thank Steve Howe for that interview, for taking the time to sit down with a small-time, inexperienced reporter and politely answer questions he had probably already heard hundreds of times.
And, if I may presume for just a moment to speak for his hometown, I’d also like to tell him: Clarkston will never forget you, Steve.
Al was a sports and general assignment reporter at the Clarkston News from 1979 to 1982. His column was called, The Point After. He currently resides in Farmington Hills, employed as editor for the Plymouth-based trade association, the Michigan Credit Union League. He also owns Michigan Sports Enterprises, a recreational hockey/sports business based in Fraser.