Willie Horton (baseball)

Did You Know?

• Horton is the youngest of 14 children of James Horton and his wife Lillian (Wattison) Horton.
• He hit a home run at Tiger Stadium at 16 years old during an all-city high school game.
• After winning a city championship with Detroit Northwestern High School in 1959 he signed with the Tigers in 1961, playing for the Tigers' farm team, the Duluth Dukes.

Professional career

From 1965 through 1976, Willie Horton hit at least ten home runs in twelve different seasons. He had 30 games where he hit two homers. His best power year came in 1968, when he slugged 36 home runs—a career high—during a season dominated by pitchers. That same year, the Detroit Tigers won the World Series. Horton finished second in the American League to Frank Howard in homers, slugging percentage, and total bases. The league batting average that year was just .230, and Carl Yastrzemski took the batting title at .301; Horton’s .285 average ranked fourth in the AL. He also placed fourth in MVP voting. In the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals, he hit .304.

To keep Horton’s bat in the lineup while improving the defense, Tigers manager Mayo Smith made a bold move. He shifted regular center fielder Mickey Stanley to shortstop, benching Ray Oyler, who had hit only .135. Al Kaline, a perennial Gold Glove winner, stayed in right field, and Jim Northrup—who had platooned with Kaline in right for most of the season—moved to center. When Detroit had a comfortable lead, Oyler would replace Stanley at shortstop and bat in Horton’s spot; Stanley would go back to center, and Northrup would shift to left to replace Horton.

In Game 2, Horton hit a solo home run to put the Tigers up 1–0 early, and they won 8–1. Though not known as a strong defensive outfielder, he made a crucial play in the fifth inning of Game 5. With St. Louis up 3–1 in the series and leading 3–2 in the game, Lou Brock doubled with one out. He tried to score on Julián Javier’s single but did not slide; Horton’s one-hop throw to catcher Bill Freehan beat Brock at the plate.

Horton still calls that throw the most memorable moment of his career. Detroit rallied for three runs in the seventh to win 5–3, then took Games 6 and 7. Horton scored twice and drove in two runs in the 13–1 blowout in Game 6, and had two hits and a run in the 4–1 clincher.

Horton made four AL All-Star teams: 1965, 1968, 1970, and 1973. On July 18, 1969, against the Cleveland Indians, he tied the record for most putouts by a left fielder in a nine-inning game, with nine—a mark first set by Boston Braves outfielder Earl Clark and later matched by Jacoby Ellsbury of the Boston Red Sox. On June 9, 1970, he hit three home runs in a game against the Milwaukee Brewers.

Career summary

Willie Horton played 18 seasons, finishing with a .273 average, .457 slugging percentage, 1,993 hits, 284 doubles, 1,163 RBIs, 873 runs, and 20 stolen bases across 2,028 games. Among American League right-handed hitters, his 325 home runs ranked sixth, trailing Harmon Killebrew, Jimmie Foxx, teammate Al Kaline, Rocky Colavito, and Joe DiMaggio. A notable superstition: he used the same batting helmet his whole career, simply repainting it whenever he switched teams.

Honors

On July 15, 2000, the Detroit Tigers honored Willie Horton as only the sixth former player to receive their highest tribute. A statue of him was installed at Comerica Park, and his number 23 was retired, placing him alongside Ty Cobb, Charlie Gehringer, Hank Greenberg, Al Kaline, and Hal Newhouser. In 2004, Michigan began celebrating October 18 as Willie Horton Day each year, recognizing his charitable work in Detroit since his playing career. Then-Governor Jennifer Granholm issued a statement about the proclamation. In 2019, Detroit named a street Willie Horton Drive at the corner of Canfield Street and the John C. Lodge service drive. That same year, on August 17, Horton was inducted into the Michigan Baseball Hall of Fame.

Post-playing life

After his playing days ended, Horton worked as a coach for both the New York Yankees and the Chicago White Sox. He has been a Special Assistant to the Tigers’ top baseball executive since 2003, serving under Dave Dombrowski, then Al Avila, and now Scott Harris. His former teammate Al Kaline once held the same role, and together they threw the ceremonial first pitch at Comerica Park for the 2006 World Series. On Opening Day in 2013, Horton again threw out the first pitch in Detroit, and the Tigers beat the Yankees 8-3.

His autobiography, titled 23: Detroit's Own Willie the Wonder, the Tigers' First Black Great, came out in July 2022. Horton and his wife Gloria live in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and have seven children and 21 grandchildren. In September 1968, he legally changed his name from William Wattison Horton to Willie Horton, explaining he liked "Willie" better than his more formal birth name.