Chet Lemon

Quotes About Lemon
“Chet wasn’t a very good outfielder at first because he came up as an infielder and made the change but Chet worked very hard. He hustled, he learned. He had trouble running the bases at first despite the fact that he was fast, but he picked up.” — Jimmy Piersall, from an interview with Mark Liptak

Played For
Chicago White Sox (1975-1981)
Detroit Tigers (1982-1990)

All-Time Rankings
Chet Lemon ranks #43 among the Top 50 all-time at CF. Rankings ⇒

Best Season: 1984
His .287 average and .495 slugging percentage were the best he put up in Detroit.

Factoids
Lemon was part of an all-Detroit middle unit for the American League in the 1984 All-Star Game starting lineup. Catcher Lance Parrish, and double play duo Alan Trammell and Lou Whitaker, joined Lemon, who started in center field.

MLB Hit By Pitch Leaders, 1980-1989
Don Baylor... 160
Chet Lemon... 108
Brian Downing... 88
Carlton Fisk... 81
Lonnie Smith... 68

Worst Stolen Base Percentage, 1980-1989
(Minimum 50 attempts)

Chet Lemon... 34.4% (21-for-61) Ben Oglivie... 39.6% (21-for-53) Pete O'Brien... 40.7% (22-for-54) Mike Marshall... 45.6% (26-for-57) Keith Moreland... 45.9% (28-for-33)

Lemon is the only player in this group who was considered fast during his career. Lemon did have great instincts in the field and got to a lot of fly balls, but for whatever reason, he failed to translate those instincts to the base paths.

Worst Stolen Base Percentage, All-Time
(Minimum 125 attempts)

Pat Duncan... 39.6% Buddy Bell... 41.0% Chet Lemon... 43.3% Doc Cramer... 45.9% Babe Pinelli... 47.0%

Duncan was an outfielder, primarily with the Reds in the early 1920s. He hit well enough to stick around until Cincinnati realized you could shake a tree and find .300 hitting outfielders in the minor leagues. In four full years as Cincinnati's starting left fielder, he hit .295, .308, .328 and .327. He had enough speed to reach double figures in triples three times, but he was a miserable base stealer. In 1921-1922 he was gunned down in 46 of his 65 steal attempts.

Streak-Breaker
Lemon hit a line drive against the Angels on July 22, 1983, which left fielder Brian Downing misplayed, allowing Lemon to reach second. The error by Downing broke his record string of 244 games without a miscue in the outfield.

Near Death Experience
Lemon became ill after the 1990 season, shortly after he had retired from baseball. He rapidly lost weight and become more and more sick as the fall turned to winter. Finally, he was diagnosed with a rare spleen ailment. He survived what doctors called "risky spleen surgery" at the University of Michigan in December of 1990.

Description
Lemon was known for being hit by pitches, making leaping catches over the outfield wall, and sliding head-first into first base. He probably slid into first base three out of every ten times he grounded out, despite warnings of injury and the pleadings of his managers.

Where He Played
Lemon was one of the best defensive center fielders in baseball from the late 1970s through the 1980s. He also played some right field earlier in his career.

Born
Chester Earl Lemon was born on February 12, 1955, in Jackson, MS.

Batted:  Right
Threw:  Right

Primary Position:  OF

Primary Team:  CHA

College:  Cerritos JC

Major League Debut
September 9, 1975

Nine Other Players Who Debuted in 1975
Willie Randolph
Jack Clark
Chet Lemon
Craig Reynolds
Dennis Eckersley
Roy Smalley
Ron Guidry
Donnie Moore
Lyman Bostock

Nicknames
The Jet

I never heard that Chet was ever called "Lem," which other Lemon's have been called. It was funny to hear Sparky Anderson call him "Chester Earl Lemon," as Sparky often called players by their full names, as in "Peter Edward Rose was one of the best competitors ever placed on this Earth."

Uniform Numbers
#34 with the Tigers

Similar Players
Johnny Callison

Related Players
Steve Kemp was traded to the Sox for Lemon after the 1981 season in a deal unpopular with many Tiger fans. Lemon quickly made them forget Kemp, who played regularly in just two seasons after leaving Detroit... Darrell Evans hit his 400th homer in the same game in which Lemon hit his 200th... Lemon and Detroit second baseman Lou Whitaker were close friends.

Hall of Fame Voting Year Election Votes Pct 1996 BBWAA 1 .2%

Post-Season Appearances
1984 American League Championship Series
1984 World Series
1987 American League Championship Series

Post-Season Notes
Lemon hit a home run in his last post-season at-bat, in Game Five of the 1987 ALCS ... He went 0-for-13 in the 1984 playoff victory over Kansas City.

Feats
On September 20, 1988, Lemon hit his 200th home run, off Scott Bailes of the Indians. The homer came at Tiger Stadium in the 9th inning and gave Detroit a 3-1 victory.

Milestones

• September 20, 1988: 200th HR... Homer was a walk-off against Scott Bailes at Tiger Stadium… Came in the same game that teammate Darrell Evans slugged his 400th career homer.

Hitting Streaks
19 games (1979)

All-Star Selections
1978 AL
1979 AL
1984 AL

Replaced
In 1981, the year before Chet Lemon's arrival in Detroit, the Tigers had Al Cowens, Kirk Gibson, and Ricky Peters out in center field at various times. Lemon's acquisition ended Detroit's experiment of Gibson in center.

Replaced By
In 1988, Gary Pettis, who was an excellent defender, pushed Lemon to right field in the Tiger outfield. A few years later, after Chet retired, he was replaced in RF by Rob Deer.

Largest Weakness as a Player
Lemon was a notoriously bad baserunner, and might have made more blunders on the basepaths than any other regular player of his era.

Learn More about Chet Lemon
Search Amazon.com for Books about Chet Lemon ⇒
Search for Chet Lemon at Google ⇒
View a map of his hometown at Mapquest ⇒

Sources used for the Chet Lemon Player Page:
Mark Liptak interview with Jimmy Piersall: http://www.whitesoxinteractive.com/rwas/index.php?category=11&id=2852