{"id":709682,"date":"2026-05-27T00:45:27","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T00:45:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/709682\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T00:45:27","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T00:45:27","slug":"former-braves-all-star-rookie-of-the-year-dies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/709682\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Braves All-Star, Rookie of the Year, Dies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bob Horner, who took his power-hitting prowess straight from college baseball to the big leagues before injuries cut short his career, died. He was 68<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Atlanta Braves<\/a>, for whom Horner played nine of his 10 seasons in MLB<\/a>, announced his death on May 26.<\/p>\n

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More news: Former Braves, Mets All-Star, 1974 ERA Champion Dies<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cBob Horner built a career out of being first,\u201d the statement read. \u201cHe was the first overall pick in the 1978 draft after an illustrious collegiate career. He was the first Braves draftee to skip the minor leagues entirely and debut directly in the majors. And he was the first Atlanta player to ever hit four home runs in a single game when he did so against the Montreal Expos in 1986.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe National League Rookie of the Year in 1978 and an NL All-Star in 1982, Horner teamed with Dale Murphy to form one of the most feared power duos in the game for nearly a decade.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Atlanta Braves extend sincere sympathies to his wife, Chris, two sons, Tyler and Trent, and his numerous friends and fans across the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BravesATLANTA, GA \u2013 CIRCA 1982: Bob Horner #5 and Dale Murphy #3 of the Atlanta Braves hold their kids in their arms prior to the start of Major League Baseball game circa 1982 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium in Atlanta<\/a>, Georgia. Horner played for the Braves from 1978-86. (Photo by Focus on Sport\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Horner was the first pick in the 1978 MLB Draft out of Arizona State University, where he helped lead the Sun Devils to three consecutive College World Series appearances and a national championship in 1977.<\/p>\n

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Rather than assigning him to a minor league affiliate, the Braves promoted Horner straight to the big leagues. He hit 23 home runs in 89 games to capture the National League Rookie of the Year Award \u2014\u00a0a rapid rise without precedent in any era.<\/p>\n

More news: Former Red Sox Pitcher, Member of 1975 World Series Team, Dies<\/a><\/p>\n

Horner hit 215 of his 218 career home runs in Atlanta from 1978-86. He spent the 1987 season in Japan with the Yakult Swallows, then returned to MLB with the St. Louis Cardinals<\/a> in 1988.<\/p>\n

Shoulder injuries forced Horner to retire in spring training in 1989 with the Baltimore Orioles<\/a>. He lived a quiet life out of the public spotlight in retirement.<\/p>\n

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Horner was part of the inaugural class<\/a> of the College Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006.<\/p>\n

For more MLB news, visit Newsweek Sports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Start your unlimited Newsweek trial<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bob Horner, who took his power-hitting prowess straight from college baseball to the big leagues before injuries cut…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":709683,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2394],"tags":[191,46,4166,47,5,89049,192,38728,101,4,89,67],"class_list":["post-709682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-atlanta-braves","tag-atlanta","tag-atlanta-braves","tag-atlantabraves","tag-baltimore-orioles","tag-baseball","tag-bob-horner","tag-braves","tag-dale-murphy","tag-mets","tag-mlb","tag-red-sox","tag-st-louis-cardinals"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116643779479374341","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=709682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/709683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}