BS Report: Remembering Bob Horner

Tuesday, we learned of the death of Bob Horner at the age of 68. Bob Horner was a former Atlanta Brave, a big part of Braves history. But surprisingly and unbelievably, he hasn’t played for the Braves in 40 years. His last season with the Braves was in 1986, so many of you probably don’t even remember Bob pointer. But for those of us who were around back then, well, he was a big part of Braves history.

He came out of Arizona State as one of the best hitters in the history of college baseball, and he was the number one pick in the draft of the 1978 draft by the Braves. And instead of going down in the major leagues for a little while, well, he went straight to Atlanta. The Braves were kind of desperate for some help there, and they thought he could help them.

That 1978 season was also the first year for Bobby Cox as the manager, and the first year that Dale Murphy became a regular for the Atlanta Braves and together with Dale Murphy, Bob Horner became a pretty good duo for a stretch of time between 1978 and 1986. Of course, Murphy won two MVP awards in 1982 and 1983, but Bob Horner was a big part of that because he and Murphy became a power hitting duo.

In the middle of that Atlanta lineup. Back in the day, Atlanta Fulton County Stadium was the Braves home, and it was known as the launching pad, where it was easy to hit home runs out of there. Well, Bob Horner and Dale Murphy did a lot of that. They did a lot of it together. And if you really think about it, Dale Murphy and Bob Horner were the first two Atlanta Braves stars.

Now Hank Aaron, of course, was a huge star, but he was also in Milwaukee. These were the first two that were only Atlanta stars. So they were kind of a big deal there. And this was also the time that the Braves were becoming popular on channel 17, w TCG and then TBS. And then, of course, Ted Turner turned channel 17 into a superstation that beamed all around the country.

The Braves became America’s team because people in Montana or Idaho or North Dakota, or areas where there were not a baseball team. Well, they became Braves fans because they watch the Braves every evening on the superstation. And Bob Warner was just a big part of that. He was a big character in that drama that unfolded every night at 735.

Joe Torey became manager of the Braves in 1982, and he actually named Bob Horner as the captain, which doesn’t happen very much anymore. It did back in the day, but he was the captain of the Braves. Even though Murphy was the best player and the MVP, Torey thought that Horner was the tougher player who could kind of be the leader of the team, and he he really was.

Now he battled injuries, which were a problem for me, missed a lot of time in 1984 with a bad wrist. But he really displayed that leadership time and time again that every team seems to need. And he was a big part of that history now for me. Well, I started watching the Braves in 1978, Horner’s first year. Murphy’s first full season as a regular, Bobby Cox, his first year.

And so for the first nine years of me watching baseball and watching the Atlanta Braves, Bob Horner was a big part of that. So he was one of my favorite players. He was a big part of Braves baseball, and he held many records for a while. But now, after all these years, he’s still sixth in Atlanta history and home runs with 215 eighth and RBIs, 11th in hits.

But he’s kind of falling down the list as some of the players, of course, surpassed his numbers. But for those of us who are around watching the Braves become America’s team and of course, really become the team they are today. Bob Horner was a big part of that, and it was Chris Chambliss and Cordell Washington and Bruce Benedict, Glenn Hubbard, Rafael Ramirez, Dale Murphy, Phil Niekro and Bob Horner four years ago.

Horner was inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame. We were thrilled to get him in there. He belonged in there and he still belongs in the Braves Hall of Fame. It’s a shame they didn’t do that when he was alive, but hopefully they will correct that error and at some point put Bob Horner in the Braves Hall of Fame.

He deserves it because of the impact he had on so many people in the state of Georgia and in the southeast who loved that Braves team, even though they weren’t very good, they were still hours and Bob Horner was a big part of that.