Bob Horner 1958-2026

A week ago, I started reading Robert Whiting's book You Gotta Have Wa. Published in 1989, the book is an examination of baseball in Japan, and how American players adjusted to playing in Japan. The first chapter of the book focuses on Bob Horner, a star player for the Atlanta Braves during the 1980's who signed a large contract to play for the Yakult Swallows in 1987. Because of the book, I was thinking of Bob Horner for the first time in many years. And then yesterday I read that Bob Horner died. The universe is so strange sometimes.  

Horner was treated like a deity when he first arrived in Japan, and his every move was documented by the Japanese press with a fervency usually reserved for pop stars or heads of state. Inevitably, Horner fever cooled, as he fell short of the 50 home runs that the Swallows wanted him to hit—they even issued him uniform number 50, to drill the point home. Horner played in 93 games for Yakult, hitting 31 home runs and batting .327. Excellent numbers, but not 50 home runs. After the 1987 season, Horner returned stateside, signing a deal with the St. Louis Cardinals.  

Bob Horner had an unusual career in baseball. A college standout at Arizona State, he went directly from college to the major leagues. It worked out well for both Horner and the Atlanta Braves. In 1978, his first season in the major leagues, Horner smashed 23 home runs in only 89 games and won the NL Rookie of the Year award. Horner would go on to rack up 3 seasons of 30 or more home runs, with a high of 35 homers in 1980. In 1986, Horner became one of a select group of players to hit 4 home runs in a single game.  

After the 1986 season, Horner seemed to be on top of the baseball world. He had just completed his 9th major league season, and he had hit 215 home runs in his career. He wasn’t even 30 years old yet. Horner was looking for a deal that would pay him $2 million a year. He had been making about $1.5 million per year in his previous contract with the Braves. But the owners of major league baseball had decided to illegally collude with each other and not sign any big free agent deals. Future Hall of Famers like Tim Raines and Andre Dawson hit the free agent market and expected an abundance of offers. They got crickets. Dawson famously handed the Chicago Cubs a blank check and told them to pay him whatever they thought he was worth. Dawson took a 50% pay cut, as he went from making over $1 million dollars in 1986 to a salary of $500,000 in 1987. It fueled his competitive fire, as Dawson slugged 49 home runs and drove in 137 RBIs, both figures leading the league, and he won the MVP award.  

No one was making a move on Horner, so he signed with the Yakult Swallows, novelist Haruki Murakami's favorite baseball team. Murakami has famously said that the idea of becoming a novelist occurred to him at a Swallows baseball game, when he saw Dave Hilton smack a beautiful double into the outfield. I'm not sure what Murakami thought of Bob Horner, but I'm sure he could write a short story about a chunky, blonde American third baseman coming over to Japan to play for the Yakult Swallows and igniting a fever throughout Japan.  

Horner didn't always practice before he played baseball. Shoot, when it got hot down in Atlanta during the summer, ol' Bob would just roll up to the stadium in his t-roof Camaro, pound a Budweiser in the clubhouse, put his uniform on, and just start to playin'. No batting practice, no fielding practice, no nuthin. He reckoned, why tire yourself out like a fool practicin' before the game even got goin'? They don't call it Hotlanta fur nuthin, ya know. This was anathema to the Japanese, who revered tough, brutal practice sessions that often left players on the verge of keeling over. Suffice it to say, Horner's way and the Swallows way were not always compatible.  

When Horner returned to the United States in 1988, he appeared in 60 games for the Cardinals, hitting a paltry 3 home runs, before injuries wiped out the rest of his season. In the spring of 1989, Bob Horner retired from baseball at the age of 31. His career stands as something of a "what might have been," those first 9 seasons being the summit of what he could achieve in the game, which was substantial. And then that gap year of 1987 in Japan, followed by just a feeble return.  

Bob Horner did not become a Hall of Famer. Few players do. It is rude to criticize a man for what he is not. Better instead to celebrate him for what he was. And for 9 years, Bob Horner was a hitter who struck fear into the hearts of pitchers in the National League.  

Movie Review: Farewell, Friend starring Alain Delon and Charles Bronson (1968)

Charles Bronson and Alain Delon. This picture just radiates coolness.

If you put French icon Alain Delon and American tough guy Charles Bronson together, you would expect some serious fireworks on the screen. That’s exactly what we get in the slick 1968 thriller Farewell, Friend. In French, the title is Adieu l’ami, and when the movie was finally released in the US in 1973, it was given the title Honor Among Thieves. But whatever the title, the movie is a fun piece of entertainment.  

In 1968, Alain Delon’s career was well established in France. After spending a disappointing year or so in Hollywood in 1964-65, Delon was now in the middle of an astonishing run of hits in France. Delon was making three movies a year, and they were all successful at the box office. In 1967 he was in The Last Adventure, Le Samourai, and Diabolically Yours. 1968 saw the release of Spirits of the Dead, The Girl on a Motorcycle, and Farewell, Friend. 1969 gave viewers La Piscine, The Sicilian Clan, and Jeff.  

Charles Bronson had a much longer road to establish himself as an actor than Delon did. By 1968, Bronson had established himself as a star character actor in the classic ensemble action movies The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, and The Dirty Dozen. He had also played supporting roles in dramas like The Sandpiper, with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, and This Property is Condemned, with Natalie Wood and Robert Redford. But Bronson had yet to headline a Hollywood hit all by himself. Part of this was no doubt due to Bronson’s unusual looks. If you look up “rugged” or “craggy” in the dictionary, you’ll find a picture of Charles Bronson. And while Bronson’s rugged, craggy looks might play great when surrounded by more conventionally handsome actors like Steve McQueen and James Garner, would Bronson really be able to carry a movie all by himself? Hollywood wasn’t quite sure.  

Farewell, Friend begins with Delon and Bronson meeting by accident as they are both finishing up their French military service. Bronson was part of the Foreign Legion, and Delon was a doctor. It feels fitting to use the actor’s names rather than their characters, since they are essentially playing their star personas. Both Delon and Bronson are able to do so much acting while doing so little physically, and with minimal dialogue. They are both great examples of effective movie acting. 

Delon is helping the girlfriend of his friend who was killed in the Army, played by the lovely Olga Georges-Picot. She enlists Delon’s help in trying to break into a company’s safe to put some missing documents back into the safe. But the fool-proof plan hits some snags—the camera that she promised would take photos of the seven-digit combination to the safe only has clear photos of three of the numbers. Delon is prepared to stay in the basement during the Christmas holiday weekend and try all of the possible combinations to the safe. But guess who keeps showing up, just like a bad penny, huh, doc? That’s right, it’s Bronson.  

Bronson and Delon are now locked in the basement with the safe, and they have to avoid the security detail, which comes around every 12 hours. Bronson doesn’t believe Delon’s protestations that he’s only going to put documents into the safe and not take any money out of the safe. The tension ratchets up when they fall asleep and aren’t able to escape from the vault before the security detail comes. Now they are locked in with the safe, with seemingly no chance to escape until several days later, when the workers will return from the Christmas weekend. The increasing heat in the room compels Delon and Bronson to take off their shirts, a sight that no doubt pleased female audience members. It’s been a while since I’ve seen The Great Escape, so I had forgotten how massive Charles Bronson’s arms were—he obviously spent some time at the gym.  

There’s a great shot where we see Bronson and Delon’s feet start walking in unison—the two men become one. Thus continuing the theme of doubles that runs throughout Delon’s filmography: Plein Soleil, La Piscine, Spirits of the Dead, Le Cercle Rouge, Mr. Klein.  

Bronson and Delon were like opposites in appearance—Delon with his delicate, almost feminine prettiness, and Bronson with his rough, craggy features. But they were both intense, magnetic performers: you can’t take your eyes off of them on the screen, no matter what they are doing.  

Farewell, Friend was yet another heist movie for Delon. The heist sequence is probably even longer than the 30-minute-long heist in Le Cercle Rouge. But while the heist in Le Cercle Rouge left me feeling cold and uninvolved, I thought the heist in Farewell, Friend was tense and exciting. The viewer knows that the stakes are high for Delon and Bronson’s characters, and that lends the sequence a tense excitement. The late 1960’s art direction and set decoration is fantastic as well, creating a memorable maze-like basement where Delon and Bronson are stuck.  

Farewell, Friend would alter Charles Bronson’s career by providing him with a huge hit in Europe and proving that he could be a leading man. Later in 1968, Sergio Leone’s classic Once Upon a Time in the West would further elevate Bronson’s standing among European audiences. Bronson would become one of the most popular American actors in Europe, especially in France. Starring almost exclusively in action movies, Bronson forged a long and fruitful career.  

Delon and Bronson appeared together again in Red Sun, a 1971 spaghetti western that also starred Toshiro Mifune, Ursula Andress, and Capucine. That’s on my list of movies to watch.  

The Kino Lorber Blu-Ray of Farewell, Friend features an interview with the director, Jean Vautrin. Vautrin started out directing short films, then moved into full-length features. In the mid-1970's, Vautrin stopped directing, but continued writing screenplays and novels. Vautrin also directed Alain Delon in 1969’s Jeff. Vautrin talks in the interview about what a difficult time he had with his two stars on the set of Farewell, Friend. Vautrin said that Bronson was mainly dismissive of the French—when he felt that the set was too flimsy, he broke off a piece of the vault and slammed it on the floor. Hopefully Bronson’s attitude improved as he made more films in France. Vautrin never got along well with Bronson. Vautrin described Delon as a mercurial presence, who was often withdrawn and introspective, but could sometimes be the personification of charm. That doesn’t really surprise me too much. In a way I would be disappointed if Alain Delon was a perfect angel on every film set he was on. I can’t imagine that an actor would be capable of the great, brooding performances Delon gave without having some of that melancholy in his soul.  

Farewell, Friend is also notable for being the second film to showcase Charles Bronson’s iconic mustache. The first film that Bronson had a mustache in was Villa Rides, filmed just before Farewell, Friend. But Farewell, Friend shows Bronson looking like how I always picture him: long hair, almost Beatle-esque, but always with a few strands askew, and his signature mustache, with a little gap in the middle of it.  

Farewell, Friend is a fascinating little movie, and fans of Alain Delon and Charles Bronson should check it out.