CAREER-CAPPERS: 1981 WILLIE HORTON

Good day everyone!

On the blog today, we break out of the 1970's and create a 1981 "career-capper" for slugger Willie Horton, who closed out a wonderful Major League career in 1980 while a member of the Seattle Mariners:

Appearing in 97 games for Seattle that season, Horton hit .221 with eight homers and 36 RBIs in the last playing action of his 18-year career.

It's easy to forget how good a career Horton put together between 1963 and 1979 with all of his contemporaries stealing the spotlight, but a quick look at what he accomplished on the baseball diamond is nothing short of impressive.

In 18 years as a big league outfielder and designated hitter, Horton slammed 325 homers with 873 runs scored and 1163 runs batted in, with a .273 batting average and just under 2000 hits (1993).

14 of his 18 seasons in the sun were spent in the Motor City, where he was an important member of their world championship team of 1968, hitting a career high 36 home runs while driving in 85 and batting .285 (in a season where Carl Yastrzemski won the batting title with a .301 average).

He topped 20 homers seven times in his career with three 100+ RBI campaigns, on his way to four all-star selections and two top-10 MVP finishes (1965 & 1968).

He finished up his career as a designated hitter, and in 1979 had a comeback year at the age of 36 that saw him hit 29 home runs with 106 RBI's while collecting a career high 180 hits with the Seattle Mariners.

After a partial 1980 season that saw him play in only 97 games, he was released by Seattle just before opening day in 1981, and though he did sign with the Pittsburgh Pirates soon afterwards, he never played a Major League game again, closing out a nice career after 2028 games and 7298 at-bats.

MINOR LEAGUE DAYS- WILLIE HORTON

The next player added to my long-running 1971 "Minor League Days" lineup is former Detroit Tigers slugger Willie Horton, who tends to get overlooked for his era:

Horton was playing what turned out to be his final Minor League season in 1964, playing for the Syracuse Chiefs and having a very nice season that saw him hit 28 homers with 99 runs batted in as a 21-year-old.

He'd get the call up to the Majors at the end of the year, playing in 25 games, and would be up for good the following year, a season that saw him named to his first All-Star team while finishing eighth in the A.L. MVP race.

It's easy to forget how good a career Horton put together between 1963 and 1979 with all of his contemporaries stealing the spotlight, but a quick look at what he accomplished on the baseball diamond is nothing short of impressive.

In 18 years as a big league outfielder and designated hitter, Horton slammed 325 homers with 873 runs scored and 1163 runs batted in, with a .273 batting average and just under 2000 hits (1993).

14 of his 18 seasons in the sun were spent in the Motor City, where he was an important member of their world championship team of 1968, hitting a career high 36 home runs while driving in 85 and batting .285 (in a season where Carl Yastrzemski won the batting title with a .301 average).

He topped 20 homers seven times in his career with three 100+ RBI campaigns, on his way to four all-star selections and two top-10 MVP finishes (1965 & 1968).

He finished up his career as a designated hitter, and in 1979 had a comeback year at the age of 36 that saw him hit 29 home runs with 106 RBI's while collecting a career high 180 hits with the Seattle Mariners.

After a partial 1980 season that saw him play in only 97 games, he was released by Seattle just before opening day in 1981, and though he did sign with the Pittsburgh Pirates soon afterwards, he never played a Major League game again, closing out a nice career after 2028 games and 7298 at-bats.

 

1978 TRADED: WILLIE HORTON

Another fun 1978 “traded” card to add to the mix, a Willie Horton edition for the former slugger who had himself an active season as part of four organizations between January and December:

Horton was traded by the Texas Ranger to the Cleveland Indians on February 28th along with former pitching phenom David Clyde for Tom Buskey and John Lowenstein.
He’d play for the Tribe through July 3rd before being released, only to be picked up by the Oakland A’s ten days later, where he’d play for about a month before getting traded to the Toronto Blue Jays for the rest of the season.
Overall he’d hit 11 homers and drive in 60 runs over 115 games, which I’m sure must have been frustrating for the guy.
However, By the time the 1979 season opened up, he found himself a member of the Seattle Mariners as their full-time DH, and boy did he have himself a season, hitting 29 homers and driving in 106 runs, which was a career high at the age of 36.
He also collected 180 hits and batted .279 over 162 games and 646 at-bats, again both career-highs for a guy many considered old and done as far as his career was concerned.
Incredible comeback season.
He’d play one more season before retiring, finishing up with 325 homers and 1163 runs batted in, with just under 2000 hits and a .273 average over 2028 games and 7298 at-bats.
Of course, most of hisn career was spent as a fan favorite Detroit Tiger between 1963 and 1977, the high point as a member of the 1968 World Champion team.
Wonderful career!

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.

ONE OF THOSE GEMS FROM MY YOUTH: 1976 WILLIE HORTON

This is one of those cards that has stuck with me for almost 40-years as a piece of cardboard art: the 1976 Topps Willie Horton card.

Take a look…

Man, what's NOT to like here?!

The colors all meshing well with the photo, the cool-as-hell bad-ass Horton looking like a lumberjack at the place.

Horton just looks like a beast up there!

Ever since I pulled one of those out of a pack it was one of my favorites from that set.

Just awesome.

It's funny how, being in the design business myself and frequently using high-resolution photographs, I always appreciate and cherish those "low-fi" photos Topps used back then that just seemed to make the card that much more "mythic"!

I don't know if a crisp, clean image would have made this any better. In fact it probably wouldn't look as cool to me!

Go figure…

MISSING IN ACTION-"IN ACTION" #38: 1972 WILLIE HORTON

Time to give long time Detroit Tigers slugger Willie Horton a "missing" 1972 In-Action card:

It's easy to forget how good a career Horton put together between 1963 and 1979 with all of his contemporaries stealing the spotlight, but a quick look at what he accomplished on the baseball diamond is nothing short of impressive.

In 18 years as a big league outfielder and designated hitter, Horton slammed 325 homers with 873 runs scored and 1163 runs batted in, with a .273 batting average and just under 2000 hits (1993).

14 of his 18 seasons in the sun were spent in the Motor City, where he was an important member of their world championship team of 1968, hitting a career high 36 home runs while driving in 85 and batting .285 (in a season where Carl Yastrzemski won the batting title with a .301 average).

He topped 20 homers seven times in his career with three 100+ RBI campaigns, on his way to four all-star selections and two top-10 MVP finishes (1965 & 1968).

He finished up his career as a designated hitter, and in 1979 had a comeback year at the age of 36 that saw him hit 29 home runs with 106 RBI's while collecting a career high 180 hits with the Seattle Mariners.

After a partial 1980 season that saw him play in only 97 games, he was released by Seattle just before opening day in 1981, and though he did sign with the Pittsburgh Pirates soon afterwards, he never played a Major League game again, closing out a nice career after 2028 games and 7298 at-bats.