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Explore the people, places, events, achievements, struggles and stories that shaped our journey.
Movements, leaders, victories and the continuing fight for equality.
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Pioneers, champions, Negro Leagues, records, activism and excellence.
Meet the people whose lives, choices and achievements shaped the journey.
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Moments that changed communities, movements, institutions and the nation.
In 1968 Shirley Chisholm became the first Black woman elected to the United States Congress. In 1972 she launched a campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, breaking another political barrier.
MORE →Reflects the personal views, recollections, and perspective of the author, Mike Davis.
This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985
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| Bob Horner | |
|---|---|
 Horner with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1988 | |
| Third baseman / First baseman | |
| Born: August 6, 1957 Junction City, Kansas, U.S. | |
| Died: May 26, 2026 (aged 68) Irving, Texas, U.S. | |
Batted: Right Threw: Right | |
| Professional debut | |
| MLB: June 16, 1978, for the Atlanta Braves | |
| NPB: 1987, for the Yakult Swallows | |
| Last appearance | |
| NPB: 1987, for the Yakult Swallows | |
| MLB: June 18, 1988, for the St. Louis Cardinals | |
| MLB statistics | |
| Batting average | .277 |
| Home runs | 218 |
| Runs batted in | 685 |
| NPB statistics | |
| Batting average | .327 |
| Home runs | 31 |
| Runs batted in | 73 |
| Stats at Baseball Reference | |
| Teams | |
| Career highlights and awards | |
| |
| Member of the National College | |
 Baseball Hall of Fame | |
| Induction | 2006 |
James Robert Horner (August 6, 1957 – May 26, 2026) was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball and the Nippon Professional Baseball league as a third baseman and a first baseman from 1978 to 1988, most prominently as a member of the Atlanta Braves where he was named the 1978 National League (NL) Rookie of the Year and was a member of the 1982 National League All-Star team.
After a record-setting NCAA college athletic career with the Arizona State Sun Devils, Horner bypassed the minor leagues and moved directly to the major leagues, where together with Dale Murphy, he formed a power-hitting tandem for the Atlanta Braves teams of the early 1980s. Horner averaged 35 home runs and 109 runs batted in per his 162-game average and became the 11th player in Major League Baseball history to hit four home runs in one game on July 6, 1986.[1]
Horner became a victim of the Major League Baseball collusion scandal of 1986–87 after the courts found that owners had illegally shared information during free agency negotiations seeking to deflate player salaries.[2] He was among hundreds of players and former players who were awarded millions of dollars in lost salary.[2] He played the 1987 season in the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Yakult Swallows, before returning to play one final season in MLB with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1988. A string of injuries prematurely ended Horner's baseball career after just 11 seasons. He was inducted into the College Baseball Hall of Fame as a member of its inaugural class on July 4, 2006.[3]
Horner was born in Junction City, Kansas, but grew up in Glendale, Arizona. He attended Apollo High School, where he set school records.[citation needed]
As a freshman at Arizona State in 1976, he hit .339 with 42 RBI and nine home runs (tied with Ike Davis for third all-time by a Sun Devil freshman, two behind Barry Bonds) as ASU won the Western Athletic Conference championship and made a trip to the College World Series.[4]
As a sophomore, Horner was a First Team All-American as he hit .389 with 87 RBI and a school record 22 home runs as ASU again won the WAC title. The Sun Devils went on to win the 1977 College World Series with Horner winning the Most Outstanding Player award.[4]
In his junior and final season at ASU, Horner hit .412, had 100 RBI and set a new school-record with 25 home runs, leading the team to a third-consecutive conference title and another trip to the College World Series.[4]
His college career at Arizona State University culminated with Horner again being named a First Team All-American and the first winner of the Golden Spikes Award, college baseball's equivalent of the Heisman Trophy.[4]
Overall, at ASU, Horner batted .383 with a then-NCAA and still-standing ASU record 56 home runs and 229 RBI.[4]
Horner was drafted by Atlanta with the first overall pick in the 1978 amateur draft, and he made his Major League Baseball debut the same year. He is among the few players who went straight from college to a starting position in the major leagues without spending any time in the minors. In his first game, he belted a home run off future Hall of Fame pitcher Bert Blyleven of the Pirates. In 89 games, Horner batted .266 with 23 home runs and 63 RBI in 323 at-bats, with an on-base percentage of .313 and a slugging percentage of .539. His 23 home runs led all National League third basemen in 1978. He won the National League Rookie of the Year award over future Hall-of-Famer Ozzie Smith.
In 1979, Horner batted .314 with 33 homers and 98 RBIs. In 1980, Horner posted a .268 batting average with 35 home runs and 89 RBIs, despite missing a total of 79 games over two seasons due to recurring shoulder and leg injuries. In the strike-shortened 1981 season, he hit .277 with 15 home runs and 42 RBIs in 79 games. Horner rejuvenated in 1982, finishing with 32 home runs, 97 RBIs, and an OBP of .350, while slugging .501.
In August 1983, Horner was hitting .303 with 20 homers and a career-high on-base-percentage of .383 when he fractured his right wrist while sliding, missing the last 43 games of the season. In May 1984, Horner broke his left wrist while diving after a ball and he was sidelined for the rest of the season.[5]
In 1985, Horner played 130 games and finished with a .267 batting average, 27 home runs, and 89 RBIs. In 1986, Horner set personal career highs. On July 6, 1986, in a game against the Expos, he became the eleventh player in Major League Baseball history to hit four home runs in a single game and only the second one to do so in a game that his team lost (the first one being Ed Delahanty). Later in the season, after hitting a record 210 career home runs without a grand slam home run, Horner finally belted a homer with the bases loaded to give the Braves a 4–2 victory over the Pirates. Horner's record for homers without a grand slam stood until 1998 when Sammy Sosa surpassed the mark by hitting his first grand slam on the 248th home run of his career.
Horner became a free agent in 1987, after his first season of more than 500 at-bats. Although Horner was still near his peak, the Major League clubs were then colluding to drive down salaries, so no offers were made to Horner, whose asking price was $2 million.[6] (In 2004, Horner received $7,034,112 from the successful lawsuit the players filed against the owners and their illegal collusion.)[7] After failing to reach an agreement with an MLB club, Horner signed a $2 million, one-year contract with the Yakult Swallows of Japan's Central League.[8] He was given number 50 by the organization because that was the number of home runs they expected him to hit.[9] He ended up hitting 31 homers and had 73 RBIs for the team.
Despite Yakult offering Horner a reported $10 million for a new three-year contract,[10] Horner returned to the majors in 1988 with the St. Louis Cardinals. After 60 games, however, he injured his left shoulder. After being invited to spring training by the Baltimore Orioles in 1989, Horner announced his retirement.[11]
In his ten-year Major League career, Horner batted .277 with 218 home runs, 685 RBIs, 560 runs, 1,047 hits, 169 doubles, 8 triples, 14 stolen bases, a .340 on-base percentage, and a .499 slugging average in 1,020 games. Defensively, in 684 games at third base, he compiled a .946 fielding percentage, and in 330 games at first base, he posted a .994 fielding percentage. Overall, his career fielding percentage was .977.[12]
Horner was married to Chris, with whom he raised two sons.[13][14]
In 1979, Horner was inducted into the Sun Devil Athletics Hall of Fame. His No. 5 is honored on the outfield wall at Phoenix Municipal Stadium.[4] On July 4, 2006, Horner was inducted into the College Baseball Hall of Fame as a member of its inaugural class.[15] In 2022, Horner was inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame.[16]
Horner died in Irving, Texas, on May 26, 2026, at the age of 68.[17][18][19]
| International | |
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| National | |
Source: Wikipedia. Article content is retrieved live through the MediaWiki API.
James Robert Horner (August 6, 1957 – May 26, 2026) was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball and the Nippon Professional Baseball league as a third baseman and a first baseman from 1978 to 1988, most prominently as a member of the Atlanta Braves where he was named the 1978 National League (NL) Rookie of the Year and was a member of the 1982 National League All-Star team. After a record-setting NCAA college athletic career with the Arizona State Sun Devils, Horner bypassed the minor leagues and moved directly to the major leagues, where together with Dale Murphy, he formed a power-hitting tandem for the Atlanta Braves teams of the early 1980s. Horner averaged 35 home runs and 109 runs batted in per his 162-game average and became the 11th player in Major League Baseball history to hit four home runs in one game on July 6, 1986. Horner became a victim of the Major League Baseball collusion scandal of 1986–87 after the courts found that owners had illegally shared information during free agency negotiations seeking to deflate player salaries. He was among hundreds of players and former players who were awarded millions of dollars in lost salary. He played the 1987 season in the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Yakult Swallows, before returning to play one final season in MLB with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1988. A string of injuries prematurely ended Horner's baseball career after just 11 seasons. He was inducted into the College Baseball Hall of Fame as a member of its inaugural class on July 4, 2006.
In baseball, a home run occurs when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team in the process. In modern baseball the feat is typically achieved by hitting the ball over the outfield fence between the foul poles (or making contact with either foul pole) without first touching the ground, resulting in an automatic home run. There is also the "inside-the-park" home run where the batter reaches home safely while the baseball is in play on the field. Twenty-one players have hit four home runs in a single Major League Baseball (MLB) game, which writers of Sporting News described as "baseball's greatest single-game accomplishment". The most recent to accomplish the feat to date is Kyle Schwarber with the Philadelphia Phillies against the Atlanta Braves on August 28, 2025. No player has done this more than once in his career. In the pre-professional era, Lipman Pike also hit five home runs in 1866. No player has ever hit four home runs in a postseason game; that record is three, first accomplished by Babe Ruth in Game 4 of the 1926 World Series. Bobby Lowe was the first to hit four home runs in a single game, doing so on May 30, 1894, for the Boston Beaneaters. Fans were reportedly so excited that they threw $160 in silver coins ($6,000 today) onto the field after his fourth home run. Of all players to achieve the feat, Lowe hit the fewest career home runs, with a total of 71, making his four homers 5.6% of his career total. Two years after Lowe's feat, Ed Delahanty of the Philadelphia Phillies became the second player to hit four home runs in a game. Three other Phillies players have achieved the feat, Chuck Klein in 1936, Mike Schmidt in 1976, and Kyle Schwarber in 2025. Three other current franchises, the Atlanta Braves (with three), the Los Angeles Dodgers (with two), and the Arizona Diamondbacks (with two) have had multiple four-homer games in their history; the former two share the distinction of having one four-homer game in each city they have called home (for the Braves, Boston, Milwaukee, and Atlanta; for the Dodgers, Brooklyn and Los Angeles). The Braves also hold the record for most four-homer games surrendered by a single franchise with four, while the Baltimore Orioles, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, and Athletics have each surrendered two such games over their histories. Fourteen of the 30 franchises (as of 2025) have achieved at least one four-homer game, and thirteen franchises have surrendered at least one. Ten have never been involved in a four-homer game at all, although only three of these (Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers, Minnesota Twins) date back to before the 1960s expansion era. Despite Delahanty's achievement on July 13, 1896, the Phillies lost to the Chicago Colts, one of only three occasions when a player hit four home runs but was on the losing team. One took place in 1986, when Bob Horner had four home runs for the Atlanta Braves but the Montreal Expos emerged victorious, and the other occurred in 2025, when Eugenio Suárez hit four home runs for the Arizona Diamondbacks but the Braves won the game. Following Delahanty's four-home run game in 1896, no other player would accomplish the feat for nearly 36 years, the longest gap between such occurrences. The shortest interval took place in 2002, when Mike Cameron hit his four on May 2, 2002, and Shawn Green repeated the feat 21 days later, on May 23. This was the first time two players had achieved a four-homer game in the same season; this would occur again in 2017 when Scooter Gennett and J. D. Martinez achieved the feat in June and September respectively. 2025 was the first season to see three four-home run games: by Suárez, Nick Kurtz, and Schwarber. Cameron was also the first, and to date only, player to hit four solo home runs in one game, accounting for the minimum of four RBIs when accomplishing the feat. When Martinez struck his four home runs for the Arizona Diamondbacks against the Los Angeles Dodgers, he became the first, and to date only, player with a four-homer game to hit more homers than his opponents gained base hits. These games have resulted in other MLB single-game records due to the extreme offensive performance. Mark Whiten tied Jim Bottomley for the most runs batted in in a single game with 12 in his four-homer game. Shawn Green in 2002 and Nick Kurtz in 2025 each hit a double and a single along with their four home runs for 19 total bases, an MLB record. The previous record was Joe Adcock's mark of 18, which also came from a four-homer game. Carlos Delgado and Eugenio Suárez are the only players to make four plate appearances in a game and hit a home run each time. Warren Spahn pitched the ball which Gil Hodges hit for the first of his four, the only Hall of Fame pitcher faced during a four-home-run game. As of 2025, of the 21 players who have hit four home runs in a game, 14 players have been eligible for the Hall of Fame, and six have been elected. Players are eligible for the Hall of Fame if they have played in at least 10 major league seasons and have either been retired for five seasons or deceased for at least six months. These requirements exclude three players actively playing for a major league team, one player ineligible who is living and has played in the past five seasons (Martinez), and three (Seerey, Hamilton, and Gennett) who did not play 10 seasons in MLB.
The Atlanta Braves are a Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise based in Atlanta. The Braves formed in 1871 as the Boston Red Stockings. After moving in 1953 to Milwaukee for 12 years and a World Series Championship in '57, the Braves relocated to Atlanta in 1966. Through 2010, the Braves have played 20,053 games, winning 9,945, losing 9,954, and tying 154, for a winning percentage of approximately .500. This list documents the superlative records and accomplishments of team members during their tenures in MLB. Hank Aaron holds the most franchise records as of the end of the 2010 season, with ten, including most career hits, doubles, and the best career on-base plus slugging percentage. Aaron also held the career home runs record from April 8, 1974 until August 8, 2007. He is followed by Hugh Duffy, who holds eight records, including best single-season batting average and the best single-season slugging percentage record. Four Braves players currently hold Major League Baseball records. Duffy holds the best single-season batting average record, accumulating an average of .440 in 1894. Bobby Lowe and Bob Horner are tied with 16 others for the most home runs in a game, with four, which they recorded on May 30, 1890, and July 6, 1986, respectively. Red Barrett, a Brave for six years, holds the record for fewest pitches by a single pitcher in a complete game, with 58, which he achieved on August 10, 1944. On September 9, 2020, the Braves scored a franchise record 29 runs in a game against the Miami Marlins at Truist Park. In the second inning, there were 11 runs scored. Adam Duval hit three home runs, including a grand slam in the seventh inning. On September 22, 2020, the Braves won their third division title in a row, making the franchise record a league-leading 20 Eastern Division titles. In the Wildcard Playoff series against the Cincinnati Reds during the 2020 postseason, the Braves and Reds played thirteen innings until Freddie Freeman singled in the winning run for the Braves. During the series, the Braves set another record against the Reds. Braves pitchers held the Reds scoreless through all 22 innings of their National League Wild Card Series victory, meaning Cincinnati surpassed the 1921 Giants (20 innings) for the most consecutive scoreless innings to begin a postseason series. The Braves are also the first team to win a multi-game postseason series (excluding the Wild Card Game) without surrendering a run. The Yankees previously held the low mark after allowing just one total run to the Rangers in back-to-back three-game sweeps of the 1998 and ’99 ALDS.
The first-year player draft, also known as the Rule 4 Draft, is the primary mechanism for assigning amateur baseball players from high schools, colleges, and other amateur baseball clubs to Major League Baseball (MLB) teams. Unlike most professional sports, MLB does not permit the trading of draft picks. Since 2023, the first six selections are determined by a lottery; the previous season's standings determine the remaining selections. If two teams have identical records, the team with the worse record in the previous season will receive the higher pick. In addition, teams that lost free agents in the previous off-season may be awarded "compensatory" picks. The first draft took place in 1965; it was introduced to prevent richer teams from negotiating wealthier contracts with top-level prospects and therefore, monopolizing the player market. Originally, three drafts were held each year. The first draft took place in June and involved high-school graduates and college seniors who had just finished their seasons. The second draft took place in January for high school and college players who had graduated in December. The third draft took place in August and was for players who participated in American amateur summer leagues. The August draft was eliminated after two years, and the January draft lasted until 1986. In 1965, Rick Monday became MLB's first draft pick after being selected by the Kansas City Athletics. Roch Cholowsky is the most recent first overall pick; he was drafted by the Chicago White Sox in 2026. Overall, 23 of the 50 picks before 2015 have participated in the All-Star Game, and four (Bob Horner, Darryl Strawberry, Bryce Harper, and Carlos Correa) have won the Rookie of the Year Award. Twenty-five of the fifty picks before 2015 have been drafted from high schools, one has been drafted out of the Independent American Association, and the others were drafted from universities. To date, Arizona State University, Vanderbilt University, Louisiana State University, and Oregon State University are the only schools from which multiple number-one overall draft picks have been chosen. No first overall pick was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame until 2016, when Ken Griffey Jr. was inducted with a record 99.3 percent of votes cast. Griffey has since been joined by three other top picks: Chipper Jones, inducted in 2018; Harold Baines, elected in December 2018 and inducted in July 2019, and Joe Mauer, inducted in 2024. In the 60 drafts that have taken place through 2024, 23 of the 30 MLB franchises have had the first pick at least once. The Toronto Blue Jays, St. Louis Cardinals, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants, Cincinnati Reds, Boston Red Sox, and Colorado Rockies have never had the first pick. The Montreal Expos never had the first pick, but the Nationals, their successor, have had it three times. The Athletics have never had the first pick, but the Kansas City Athletics, one of their predecessors, had the first pick in MLB draft history. The Pittsburgh Pirates have had the first overall pick a record six times, while the New York Mets, San Diego Padres, and Houston Astros have each had the first overall pick five times.
Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.
MORE →Mae Jemison, aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1992.
