RIP Joe Horlen

[flavum]

Had some good seasons and bad luck with the Sox.

RIP

 

[runtheballdown]

Another white Sox from the 1960s team. Great pitcher as I remember. I think Gary Peter and Pete ward just passed if my memory serves me. Those teams had great pitching and little hitting but were close to being in the WS a number of times

[flavum]

4 minutes ago, runtheballdown said:

Another white Sox from the 1960s team. Great pitcher as I remember. I think Gary Peter and Pete ward just passed if my memory serves me. Those teams had great pitching and little hitting but were close to being in the WS a number of times

Pete Ward died last month. Gary Peters is alive, and one of a few that had some time with the 1959 team.

[elrockinMT]

Joel Horlen was one of my favorites. He led that ‘67 team with a 19-7 mark and an ERA of 2.06 or so. It wasn’t uncommon for he and Gary Peters to be right there for the lowest ERA. 

[pcq]

No hit the Tigers in Sept 67. Ask Hawk about the greatest pennant race ever. 

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

20 hours ago, elrockinMT said:

Joel Horlen was one of my favorites. He led that ‘67 team with a 19-7 mark and an ERA of 2.06 or so. It wasn’t uncommon for he and Gary Peters to be right there for the lowest ERA. 

Mine , too. RIP Joe(l) ?

Edited April 14, 2022 by CaliSoxFanViaSWside

[flavum]

Did a little research on his name yesterday…

He was quoted as saying he preferred Joe. His given name is Joel, and people went by that because it was on his contract. 

[FoxForce2]

1965 Sox - Lopez' last full regular season.
Horlen didn't get the wins he should have considering his numbers. 39 BB/219 innings (BB9 -1.6). 2.90 FIP.
Check out Fisher and Wilhelm's numbers. Fisher (listed as closer), led the team in wins!  Both of them went over 140 innings. Not a bad hitting team either, 6 of 8 position starters with OPS+ over 104 (an off year for Ward.)

https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/CHW/1965.shtml
 

[CyAcosta41]

Joe was an outstanding major league starting pitcher -- he would have been a star had he played for a team that scored runs -- and an even better person. Total gentleman.

He, Gary Peters, Little Looey Aparicio, and Ken Berry were my favorite mid to late 1960s Sox players. Other than attending Game 1 of the 2005 World Series, favorite ballpark moment was convincing my mother (I was 9 at the time) to let my season ticket holder neighbor take me to a game on September 10, 1967 (my mother's birthday) and being in the park when Joe no-hit the Tigers in the midst of the 1967 pennant race.

Favorite fan moment also involved Joe. Sometime around 2015, a business deal gave me the opportunity to sit in a small booth at Lou Malnati's on Wells for about 2-1/2 hours sharing pizza and beer with Joe and his 1972 Oakland A's World Champions teammate Mike Epstein. I tried to tone-down the "fanboy" stuff, but wasn't very successful. Joe put up with my questions about pitching craft (he was a righty, but stylistically he reminded me a lot of Tom Glavine in his approach to pitching -- everything had a purpose, everything moved, and, in the earlier part of his career threw harder than people realized) and my recollections about his no-hitter. It was sad but kind of joyful too to watch this soft-spoken older gentleman light up when I reminded him that he hadn't given up a hit, but he had a hit, he was also hit-by-a-pitch as a hitter and hit one Tiger too (the only other baserunner against him was E5 Ken Boyer). I mentioned sad because Joe was clearly in the early stages of dementia or Alzheimer's and just a few years later it was announced that he had Alzheimer's. But on that evening, effervescent New Yorker Mike Epstein took care of his teammate while Mike and I regaled him about his career accomplishments. It was my honor and privilege to buy the man a few beers and toast his no-hitter -- about 50 years later, but I reminded him I was only 9 at the time.

While his memory was starting to fade he remembered a lot about the game and his teammates. I asked him who the best player -- teammate or opponent -- he had ever been on the field with. Joe took about a tenth of a second and said that it wasn't even close. He said the single best player WAS a teammate, but he was being tricky because it wasn't a major league season teammate, rather it was a teammate early in his career when he was playing winter ball in Puerto Rico (great side story because many emerging major leaguers played winter league ball to earn extra cash and stay in shape). He said the guy he's talking about was the best he had ever seen in each and every category you could name -- best hitter, best power, best outfielder, best throwing arm, best and fastest  baserunner, most competitive. Roberto Clemente. Joe said that playing with Roberto Clemente in his native Puerto Rico was like being on a team with Elvis. The ladies and men alike couldn't get enough of him. Clemente basked in all of the adoration. Within minutes of ending a game he was out of uni, showered, and dressed in ultra sharp and expensive clothes that would have been joked about if anyone else was dressed that way, but this was Clemente. Joe had a number of amusing "colorful" locker room discussions about Clemente, but this is neither the time nor place to talk about that. Joe said his interactions with the great Clemente were absolutely minimal after the winter ball experience -- mainly just in Florida spring training games -- because of course the A.L. and N.L. had no in-season interaction in those days, other than the World Series, and as a 1960s to early 1970s Sox player, it's not as if Joe was blessed to play in a World Series. That had to wait until 1972 with the A's. Joe added that the rare few times he saw Clemente after winter ball, Clemente always greeted him warmly and called him his nice "Texas friend."

It was truly sad to learn a few years ago that Joe was suffering from Alzheimer's. It didn't surprise me because the beginnings were clearly there when I met him, but still so sad. It's now sadder still to learn he's passed, but, as many of you either know or will come to know, for the good people of the world who you care about, there is a certain grace when suffering is no more.

RIP #20! Not a Hall of Famer, but like Paulie K., a definite inductee in the Hall of Very Good.

Edited April 14, 2022 by CyAcosta41

[The Grinder]

RIP Joe I think I have one of yr cards when you were wearing the powder blue uni's?

[SCCWS]

On 4/13/2022 at 3:57 PM, elrockinMT said:

Joel Horlen was one of my favorites. He led that ‘67 team with a 19-7 mark and an ERA of 2.06 or so. It wasn’t uncommon for he and Gary Peters to be right there for the lowest ERA. 

Some pitching staff  w Horlen, Peters and Tommy John as starters with Wilbur Wood and Hoyt Wilhelm in the pen. 

[elrockinMT]

3 hours ago, SCCWS said:

Some pitching staff  w Horlen, Peters and Tommy John as starters with Wilbur Wood and Hoyt Wilhelm in the pen. 

That was a fun season with Eddie Stankey at the helm

[NWINFan]

A great right hander who would have won many more with a good-hitting team. No-hit the Tigers who had the likes of Kaline, Horton and Freehan. Actually was hit by a pitch in that game and had a sore knee throughout. Should have won the Cy Young in '67. Didn't worry about striking anybody out. Induced hitter after hitter into knocking the ball into the ground. Great part of the winning 1960s teams. Just a fine player who knew how to pitch.

[priznr]

23 hours ago, flavum said:

Did a little research on his name yesterday…

He was quoted as saying he preferred Joe. His given name is Joel, and people went by that because it was on his contract. 

and his baseball cards!

[NWINFan]

The 1967 team was amazing. No regular hit over .250 and their leading home run hitter was Pete Ward with 18 and they came close to winning the pennant. The pitching staff of Horlen, Peters, and Tommy John never really got the recognition they deserved. Horlen had an easy motion and had his career year in 1967.