A 1980s Card Part 34- 1988 Topps Traded Bob Horner

Every team makes a few poor decisions along the way, as fans we just hope they are short lived, and not too painful.  Bob Horner checked all of those boxes.  The Cardinals should have never signed him, but the team also got rid of him after one season.  In fact, he did not appear in a game for the team after June, and was replaced at first base when the team traded for Pedro Guerrero. 

We got a few baseball cards of Bob Horner in a Cardinals uniform as an added bonus.  A bunch of them were made in 1989, the year after he was a Cardinal, but a few card companies managed to squeeze him into their 1988 sets. 

The Topps Traded set was one of two Topps sets that year with a Horner card. 

Horner was out of shape by the time he joined the Cardinals, and not a very good player.  The card does a pretty good job of hiding the fact that Horner was a little pudgy and not very good as a player during his brief tenure with the Cardinals.  He only hit 3 home runs in 200 at bats in St. Louis.  I tried to track down a highlight of Horner wearing a Cardinals uniform, and the best I could come up with was him getting out of the way while Vince Coleman is stealing home. 

That's it.  Bob Horner as a Cardinal.  Here is the back of the card.  

He was really a good player while he was with the Braves, it's too bad that his time with the Cardinals did not go a little bit better.  In retrospect though, the Cardinals probably would not have ended up with Pedro Guerrero if Horner had done anything during his time with the team.  

Friday Five: Five Cardinals Players I'd Rather Not Have In My Collection

We are winding down on the 2016 baseball season and I have been waiting for a certain Cardinals player to turn around their season.  Do something positive for the team.  I reached a tipping point of sorts today, so I came up with my first Friday Five post in awhile.  These are always fun to write, and tonight, this one is going to help me blow off a little steam about my Cardinals.

Every baseball fan has a player, or players that they wish their team had never ever touched.  The Cardinals are no exception.  While they have been good of late, there have been a few less than stellar signings over the years.  One of them took place this year.  Luckily Jason Heyward and his .630 OPS is not on the team, or there would have been two of them from this year's squad on my list of five.

Without further delay: Five Cardinals Players I'd Rather Not Have In My Collection

5. Bob Horner - 1988

Horner was a fixture for the Braves infield for much of the late 70s and early 1980s.  After finishing the 1986 season in Atlanta he opted to play a season in Japan with Yakult where he hit .327/.423/.683 with 31 home runs and 73 RBIs in just 93 games.  The Cardinals had lost Jack Clark at the end of the 1987 season to the Yankees, so Horner seemed like a good option to fill his spot at first and give Whitey Herzog his token big bat in the middle of the line up.  Horner lasted just 60 games with the Cardinals and hit a whopping 3 home runs in almost 250 plate appearances.  The 1988 Cardinals ended up trading for a few power hitters in season to compensate picking up Tom Brunansky from the Twins and Pedro Guerrero from the Dodgers.

4. Adam Kennedy Part II

Kennedy was originally a Cardinals prospect and number one draft pick.  The team called him up at the end of the 1999 season and then packaged him up with Kent Bottenfield in a trade with the Angels for Jim Edmonds.  Kennedy was sort of an average player for the Angels for the seven years he was on the team, but he also famously went Reggie Jackson in Game 5 of the 2002 ALCS...



For some reason nobody has yet to figure out, the Cardinals brought him back to the team in 2007 where he clashed with Tony LaRussa, played horribly, and ended up getting run out of town.  In fact, he ended up on the Durham Bulls.  Just an all around bad signing by the team who had the opportunity to retain Ronnie Belliard from the 2006 team.  While Belliard was not exactly an All-Star caliber player, he spent the next three seasons post numbers at, or above, the league average from second baseman and got paid less money than Kennedy.  Painful.

3.  Wiggy (Ty Wigginton) 2013

Wiggy got paid $5 million dollars over two years to be a bat off the bench for the Cardinals.  The problem is that Wiggy only made it 57 at bats into the two year deal.  In those 57 at bats he posted a slash line of .158/.238/.193 for an OPS of .431 and OPS+ of 21.  That's better than Bartolo Colon batting, but just slightly better.  On July 9th, 2013 the Cardinals kicked Wiggy to the curb and Cardinals fans rejoiced.

2. Mike Leake 2016

I had really thought about making Mike Leake first on my list this week since he is the inspiration for this post.  When the Cardinals announced his signing I was at a Wendy's in Princeton, West Virginia stopping to eat lunch on road trip to Michigan.  I remember tweeting out, hoping that something would hit a snag, and Mike Leake would not get a five year 80 million dollar contract from the Cardinals.  Welp, didn't happen.  Mike has an ERA of 4.54 and an ERA+ of 90.  I guess Mike has four more years to do something, but I wouldn't mind if he got lost in the bullpen or left in an airport on a road trip.  A lot of luggage gets lost in Denver, the Cardinals were just there, but apparently Mike made the plane to Chicago.  Sigh.

1. Tino Martinez 2002-2003

The Cardinals had Mark McGwire in 2001 for his last season and it was dreadful, so the team signed Tino Martinez to replace him.  Tino was a winner and there was some sort of personal connection to Tony LaRussa, seemed like a good fit until Tino couldn't hit home runs anymore.  In 2001 Tino hit 34 with the Yankees, 2002 he hit 21, and in 2003 he hit 15.  In the two years Tino played for the Cardinals Albert Pujols played left field, but frequently ended up at first base when LaRussa would keep Albert's bat in the lineup moving him to first, and playing a defensive outfielder as a sub for Tino.

I guess being double switch for Kerry Robinson and So Taguchi was not cool in Tino's book who told a New York sports reporter that St. Louis wasn't as good of a baseball town as St. Louis.  Not going to argue the point, but it's never a good idea to put down the city in which you are employed as a professional athlete.

I will give Tino some plus points, and the possibility of moving to second on this list if Mike Leake stinks all five years of his contract, for his fight with Miguel Batista in 2003.  Batista hit Martinez with a pitch during an at-bat early in the game.  Tino had a few words, went to first, and then was forced out at second later in the inning.  Rather than running back to the dugout, Tino decided it was time to charge the mound.  No video, but there is a picture of the fight.....

It was the best of boxes. It was the worst of boxes.

I am going to discuss one of my worst boxes ever.  However, I am sure you could find a collector who opened the same box of cards and had the complete opposite reaction.  I am positive, so our story begins:

It was the best of boxes, it was the worst of boxes, it was an age of wax abundance, it was an age of overproduction...I'll stop.  In 1999 Fleer released the highly anticipated Greats of the Game set.  The boxes of cards had twelve packs and guaranteed one autograph per pack.  The checklist of Hall of Famers was incredible.  People were excited.  At twenty dollars a pack, or $220ish for a box, I ventured into a card shop in west Saint Louis county which longer is open.  I paid for box, sat down at a stool, and started opening.  Some of my highlights:

1999 Fleer Greats of the Game Al Hrabosky Autograph 

1999 Fleer Greats of the Game Bob Horner Autograph

I used the word highlight loosely above.  These cards are only highlights because they have connections to the Cardinals and they can go towards my Cardinals autograph collection.  Although, Hraboksy is the most annoying announcer the Cardinals have ever employed.  Bob Horner was old, fat, and horrible as a Cardinal.  The other ten autographs were even worse than these.  Bo Belinsky, Mickey Rivers, and Rico Petrocilli aren't the names you want to see when you are busting high end wax.  I think the card shop owner felt really bad for me.  In true old man fashion I was then told "The Legend of Greats of the Game"  It went something like this:

"I had a case of these boxes last week.  Had a customer open a box and he got terrible autographs.  I set out the next box, guy comes in and buys one pack.  Pulls a Nolan Ryan autograph.  Leaves the store.  I open the rest of the box and swear that Lou Brock was the worst autograph I pulled.  All short prints, all high end autographs"  

I took this speech with a grain of salt and left the store.  The next weekend I stopped by another card store in south St. Louis county.  I was picking up some cheap singles and didn't have a lot of money with me.  Another customer in the store bought a pack of Greats of the Game and pulled a Yaz autograph.  Naturally the man was pumped up paid for his pack and left the store.  The owner asked me if I was going to buy a pack.  I told him I didn't have much money and was just filling holes.  He then told me the following story: 

"I had a case of these boxes last week.  Had a customer open a box and he got terrible autographs.  I set out the next box, guy comes in and buys one pack.  Pulls a Stan Musial autograph.  Leaves the store.  I open the rest of the box and swear that Steve Carlton was the worst autograph I pulled.  All short prints, all high end autographs"  

The man walked back to the back room of his store returned with a six pack of Natty Lights opened the rest of box.  I swear the worst card the man got was a Buck O'Neill autograph.  The autographs included a Willie Mays, a Banks, and a Killebrew.