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!
