Joe Horlen

American baseball player (1937–2022)

Joel Edward Horlen (August 14, 1937 – April 10, 2022) was an American professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1961 to 1972 for the Chicago White Sox and Oakland Athletics. In references, he is called Joe Horlen or Joel Horlen with roughly equal frequency. From 1964 to 1968, Horlen led all American League pitchers with a 2.32 ERA. In his career, Horlen won 116 games against 117 losses, with a 3.11 earned run average and 1,065 strikeouts in 2,002 innings pitched. He is the only baseball player to play for teams that won a Pony League World Series (1952), a College World Series (Oklahoma State, 1959), and a Major League World Series (Oakland, 1972).

Horlen was born in San Antonio, Texas. He attended Luther Burbank High School, in San Antonio. Horlen attended Oklahoma State University and played college baseball for the Oklahoma State Cowboys. He was named to the American Baseball Coaches Association All America second team, as he helped lead Oklahoma State to the 1959 College World Series.

Horlen was signed by the Chicago White Sox in 1959. That year he pitched for the Lincoln Chiefs. The next season he pitched in Class A for the Charleston White Sox, and had a 7–5 win–loss record with a 2.93 earned run average (ERA). Horlen recorded victories in his next three starts, including one five days later against the Twins. However, on September 27, which would be known by fans as "Black Wednesday", the lowly Kansas City Athletics swept a doubleheader from the White Sox and effectively eliminated Eddie Stanky's "Hitless Wonders" (the White Sox led the Majors with a 2.45 earned run average but also posted a .225 batting average, with no regular batting above .250) from pennant contention. Horlen lost the second game, as 21 year old Catfish Hunter shut out the White Sox 4–0. The two games were the last played by the Athletics in Kansas City before the team moved to Oakland for the start of the 1968 season. The White Sox finished fourth, three games behind the Red Sox who, after finishing next to last in 1966, won the pennant on the final day, finishing one game ahead of the Twins and Tigers. Horlen finished runner up to Jim Lonborg, the star of the Red Sox staff, in the American League Cy Young Award balloting, and fourth in MVP voting, won by Boston's Carl Yastrzemski.

Horlen later signed with Oakland, and pitched mostly in relief as the Athletics won the 1972 World Series.