In 1978, Bob Horner was the first pick of the baseball draft, went straight from Arizona State to the Braves and was named National League rookie of the year. Horner went on to become an integral member of the Braves until he left as a free agent after the 1986 season. After playing in Japan and with the St. Louis Cardinals, he retired before the 1989 season. He is in the top 10 in Braves history in slugging percentage and home runs and is a member of the college baseball and Arizona sports halls of fame. Horner, 52, who lives in Irving, Texas, spoke this week with the AJC about his career. Answers were edited for length.
Q: What are you up to these days?
A: I don't do anything. I'd like to tell you I do, but I play a little golf and enjoy my wife and my children. If you're looking for some deep, dark explanation, I don't have one. We're just enjoying life.
Q: Do you keep up with the Braves?
A: Absolutely. You don't spend 10 years in Atlanta playing for the Braves [and not keep up with the team]. They're still my team, and I follow them as best I can.
Q: Who was the best player you played against?
A: That's tough. I was fortunate to play against Willie McCovey and Mike Schmidt and Pete Rose. To separate one from the other -- Willie Stargell, Andre Dawson -- you can't count them all. You marveled at them all. They were all such special talents and could do so many things to help their team win. It's hard to really just point at one.
Q: Is there a player from your era who isn't in the Hall of Fame but should be?
A: Absolutely, there's one player that stands head and shoulders above all the others who has never even been considered for the Hall of Fame. If you look at his career statistics and compare them to anybody in his time and era, in his position and compare him, he's better than almost every single one of them. That's Ted Simmons, the old catcher for the St. Louis Cardinals.
I would charge you with looking at his statistics and compare them with Johnny Bench, compare them with Gary Carter, compare them with Yogi Berra. Not that these guys weren't great players, because they were. ... I think it's an absolute crying shame that Ted Simmons is not in the Hall of Fame.
Q: You played for Bobby Cox and Joe Torre before they gained the reputations they have now. How were they as managers then?
A: I played for Bobby my first four years in the major leagues. Bobby was kind of learning. He was kind of like the rest of us. Bobby had played in the big leagues. He was like we all do, we feel our way around. Bobby's turned out to be probably one of the best managers of all-time.
Joe came from the Mets and Joe was -- I'm trying to figure out the word -- you almost felt like he was part of the team. He was almost a player. Anything that you had as a problem or that bothered you, you felt no compunction to go to him to talk to him about it. Between Bobby and Joe, and also Chuck Tanner was even there, just great men, great leaders of men.
Q: Were you aware of players using performance-enhancing drugs?
A: I've been asked that question a bunch of times. In all honesty, if they were doing it, I had no clue. We didn't know what the [heck] any of that stuff was. We were scared to take aspirin. We didn't know anything about that stuff. If anybody was doing it, they could have been doing it in front of us and we wouldn't have known it.
Q: What sticks out to you about your four-home run game in 1986?
A: Quite honestly, this is going to sound stupid, but really, nothing. It was a Sunday getaway day, and we were playing at home. Right after the game, we're getting on the plane and flying to Philadelphia. The whole game, we're behind. Every time I came up to bat, we're behind, so the pitchers, luckily for me, are trying to come after me because they had nothing to lose.
The stars aligned. They're throwing at me and trying to get me out and we're behind every time we're at bat. It happened, and my only regret is we didn't win.
Q: What advice would you give Jason Heyward about dealing with expectations as a rookie?
A: If and when I get a chance to meet him, I would tell him all of the expectations when you come out and people are writing stories and scouts feel like you're this kind of player, you've got to be real careful to not let that information go to your head.
What you really need to do is concentrate on your team and winning baseball games. All that other stuff that happens off the field is going to happen. You can't control that. What you can control is how you play on the field every day.
Q: How would you evaluate your career?
A: I had a great time. I lived a dream. I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. I made some great friends, fabulous people who to this day I call friends. My regret is that you have a couple of injuries, and it cuts short a couple of things you'd like to have done. You start going down that road, it serves no purpose. It is what it is.
You do what you do, you play as hard as you can. At the end of the day, it's over with and now it's like a dream you had. It's not even like it's real anymore. I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.
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