The
next Topps rookie card to get the “missing rookie cup” treatment is
that iconic card from the 1979 set: Bob Horner’s first cardboard slab:
We all remember the hype, and the fact that for some time this was THE
card to pull out of a pack because of the splash Horner made in his
first season, just weeks after being drafted #1 overall by the Atlanta
Braves in June of 1978.
An All-American out of Arizona State where he set NCAA records for home
runs, Horner never broke stride after making his debut 10 days after
being picked in the draft.
Over the final 89 games of the season, all he’d do is club 23 homers
while batting .266, with 63 runs batted in and 50 runs scored,
eventually getting picked for the National League Rookie of the Year
Award, though I feel Ozzie Smith should have won it based on his
full-season (he got shafted).
Horner would go on to hit over 30 homers in three of the next four
seasons, the only time missing the mark due to the 1981 strike, while
also topping 20 homers in three of the next four after that.
However, his career was essentially ruined due to the baseball owners
colluding in 1986, purposely NOT offering any high-dollar contracts to
him and others (Jack Morris, etc), eventually leading to Horner signing
with the Yakult Swallows of the Japanese League where he’d hit 31 homers
in only 93 games.
He’d make it back to the Majors the following season, now with the St.
Louis Cardinals in 1988, but after getting injured after only 60 games,
though batting a not-so-terrible .257, he’d call it a career at only 30
years of age.
Think about this: Horner hit 218 home runs with 685 RBIs and 560 runs
scored in only 10 abbreviated seasons, in only 3777 at-bats, and a very
decent .277 career average.
His last full season, 1986, at only 28 years of age, he hit .273 with 27
homers and 89 RBIs, yet had his career screwed because of collusion.
Years later he’d win a $7 Million settlement with baseball owners due to
the nefarious act, but man, this guy could have easily hit 400+ homers
with some other gaudy numbers had he been given his rightful chance to
keep playing, even with his nagging injuries that held him to one season
of 500+ at-bats, ironically that 1986 season.