15 of the most amazing numbers from Bob Horner’s career with the Braves

Remember Atlanta Braves slugger Bob Horner? He and Dale Murphy were two of the scariest hitters in the heart of any National League lineup from the late 1970s to mid-80s. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a whole lot surrounding them during those years.

Why look at Horner now? Recently, as part of a series I do at NCAA.com looking back at program’s all-time starting nine’s, it was Arizona State’s turn. The numbers Horner put up at Arizona State were insane and made me dive down the old Baseball Reference rabbit hole and look at some of his pro numbers. Injury, and that pesky lawsuit, marred the career of what could have been one of the greatest Braves sluggers in recent history.

So, 40 years after he played in his first full season (kind of, but we’ll get to that in a bit), let’s take a look back at some of the more remarkable numbers in Horner’s curious career.

58

Total home runs Horner finished with in three years at Arizona State. That was the NCAA record at the time. The Sun Devils reached Omaha and the College World Series in all three seasons Horner was there, and he earned Most Outstanding Player honors in the 1977 national title run.

None of that compared to his 1978 season, when he hit .412 with 25 home runs, 100 RBI and 81 runs scored...in 60 games. Think about that. Horner earned the first-ever Golden Spikes Award amongst a slew of other honors in leaving college baseball as one of its greatest all-time players.

1

Horner was the first overall pick in the 1978 MLB Draft. His Sun Devils’ teammate Hubie Brooks was drafted two picks later, but took a bit longer to reach the big leagues than Horner.

0

Zero isn’t the number you often see on a list of remarkable stats, but it sure is for Horner. That’s the total innings of minor league baseball Horner played after being drafted by the Braves in 1978. That’s how amazing Horner was coming out of Arizona State.

Despite all his injuries, he also never rehabbed a game in the minors. Amid an early season slump in 1980, Ted Turner suggested sending him down to Triple-A to which Horner responded by (in)famously calling Turner a jerk.

June 16, 2025

Horner’s first game in the big leagues after being drafted just eight days earlier. The then-third baseman went 1-for-3, slugging a home run off of Bert Blyleven.

23

He hit 22 more home runs after taking the future Hall of Famer yard in his MLB debut. As a 20-year-old he tied first baseman Dale Murphy and left fielder Jeff Burroughs for the team lead. Horner won the NL Rookie of the Year Award in just 89 games, culminating arguably the single greatest amateur-pro year in the history of sports.

On September 23 of that season, Horner hit his 22nd home run of the season in an 8-1 victory over the Cincinnati Reds. Glenn Hubbard also went yard for his first career home run. Both Horner and Hubbard were 20, a record that would stand for 40 years.

3

Horner is one of three Braves to have hit 20 (or more) home runs before his 21st birthday. Eddie Matthews and Ronald Acuña, Jr. are the others. That’s not bad company at all.

19

Horner had 19 multi-home run games before his 25th birthday. The others to accomplish the same feat? Jimmie Foxx, Willie Mays, and Alex Rodriguez.

146

Ok, that’s not a Horner number alone, but he certainly helped. Atlanta had the youngest lineup in the National League in 1982 (an average of 27.0 years) and behind Murphy’s 36 home runs and Horner’s 32, the young Braves led the NL in home runs with 146 in capturing their first NL West title since 1969.

4

This is the number people most remember about Horner. On July 6, 1986, Horner went 4-for-5 against the Montreal Expos. All four hits were home runs. The Braves lost that game 11-8, making him just the second player in MLB history to lose a game after hitting four home runs.

141

The most games Horner ever played in a single season in his career. In 1979 he slugged 33 home runs and finished fourth in the National League while playing just 121 games. The following season he had his career-best of 35 homers finishing second while playing in just 124 games.

He was red-hot in both the 1983 and 1984 seasons — the ‘83 season in particular was shaping up to be a career-year with a career-best 25 doubles, 20 home runs and a .303/.383/.528 slash line an .911 OPS in just 104 games — when the same broken wrist ended both seasons early. We will forever wonder what could have been if Horner was healthy.

.329/.398/.605

That was Horner’s slash line in the 450-plus games the Braves won with him in the lineup during his career. He hit 130 of his 218 career home runs and boasted a 1.004 OPS as opposed to a .683 OPS in the (roughly) 500 losses.

50

Horner’s number with Yakult Swallows, rumored to be given to him because that was the number of home runs they expected him to hit. Horner became a free agent in 1987 (and won a lawsuit when it was deemed that the owners were not offering some of the game’s stars fair salaries, or in Horner’s case, any at all) and headed to Japan for his age-29 season. He didn’t reach the 50 mark, but had a heck of a season, slashing .327/.423/.683 with 31 home runs in 355 plate appearances.

210

Home runs Horner hit before hitting his first career grand slam in 1986, a record at the time. Obviously, that’s not so much his fault. Horner actually hit .308 in his career in 101 plate appearances with the bases loaded, driving in 71. He simply never left the yard until his final full season.

.977

Career fielding percentage for Horner. He played 684 career games at third, making 97 errors, and 330 at first, where he made 20.

June 18, 2025

Nearly ten years to the date of his improbable MLB debut, Horner, who had returned stateside with the Cardinals, finally hangs it up. Injuries had done him in, and Horner’s final “season” saw him play in only 60 games. He had one at bat on his final day in an MLB uniform, and he made it count, driving in a run on his 169th career double.

Maybe the wins weren’t there. Maybe the career wasn’t long enough. But Horner’s career will always be one of the biggest what-ifs in MLB history.