Sunday, July 15, 2018

TRADED- 1977 WILLIE HORTON

Today's post has a 1977 "Traded" card for former Detroit slugger Willie Horton, who found himself way South in Texas after 15 stellar years with the Tigers:

Horton was dealt to the Rangers for pitcher Steve Foucault in April of 1977, where he would go on to post a very solid season for s new team.
He would go on to hit .289 with 15 homers and 75 runs batted in for the Rangers, with 150 hits over 519 at-bats in 139 games.
But surprisingly, he would be dealt again in the off-season, this time to the Cleveland Indians along with former overall #1 pick David Clyde, for Tom Buskey and John Lowenstein.
Now 35 years of age, he'd put in a half season with the Tribe before finding himself playing with TWO more teams that year: the Oakland A's and Toronto Blue Jays.
However 1979 saw him put in one last All-Star season in the Big Leagues, now playing for the Seattle Mariners, when strictly a Designated Hitter he'd play all 162 games and slug 29 home runs with 106 runs batted in while batting .279.
Not bad for a 36 year old who played for five teams over the past two years!
After a partial season in 1980, which saw him play 97 games, he retired as a player, ending up with 325 home runs and 1163 RBIs, along with a very nice .273 batting average over 2028 games, with four All-Star nods and a World Championship in 1968 with the Tigers.