International Pastime: Bob Horner Swallows Beer With the Swallows

International Pastime will look at baseball's influence outside the U.S.


Yes folks, that's former Braves slugger Bob Horner in a beer commercial in Japan. It's a 1987 commercial from Horner's only season with the Yakult Swallows, and apparently he drank a lot of beer. Seriously, did you see how many cans he was holding? If he was getting that much beer for doing those commercials, just think of the opportunity John Kruk missed out on by never playing in Japan.

Horner, in 1985, hit four home runs in a major league game which thrust him into the spotlight of the pure major league slugger. But in '87, he surprised everyone by going to Japan, where in one season with Yakult, Horner hit .327, led the team with 31 home runs while driving in 73 runs. But apparently all that beer he drank caught up to him as in 1988, he came to the Cardinals to replace Jack Clark, and hit a grand total of three HRs in 206 at-bats (a long way from four in one game). A shoulder injury ended his season and basically ended his career as well. But we'll always have that four HR game, and we'll always have beer with the Swallows.

And unfortunately, we'll always have that green hat and that pink shirt ... and those suspenders.