Chet Lemon obit

Chet Lemon, World Series 1984 champion Detroit Tiger, has died

 

He was not on the list.

Former Detroit Tiger Chet Lemon, the starting center fielder for 1984 World Series champions, has died. He was 70.

The Tigers confirmed the news on Thursday.

Lemon was traded to the Tigers in 1982, after seven years with the Chicago White Sox. He spent the final nine seasons of his 16-year MLB career in Detroit, where he hit .263 over 1,203 games.

His best season with the Tigers came during their title run in 1984, when he posted a .287/.357/.495 slash line with 20 home runs and 76 RBIs to earn his lone All-Star nod during his time in Detroit.

Lemon was among the more than 20 players who returned to Comerica Park last year for the 40-year anniversary of the 1984 champs. Lemon — whose health problems, including a stroke and global aphasia, had left him unable to walk or talk — made the trip from Florida with his family.

Lemon was born in 1955 in Jackson, Miss.

He was selected in the first round of the 1972 MLB Draft by the Oakland Athletics. He was traded to the White Sox in 1975 and played in Chicago for seven season.

Lemon came to Detroit after the 1981 season as the Tigers shipped Steve Kemp to the White Sox.

For his MLB career, covering 1,988 games, Lemon hit .273 with a .355 on-base percentage. He had 1,875 hits, including 396 doubles, and his career WAR was 55.7.

Lemon was drafted in the first round (22nd overall) of the 1972 Major League Baseball draft by the Oakland Athletics. He began his professional baseball career in 1972 playing for the Athletics' minor league team in Coos Bay-North Bend, Oregon. After 38 games in Oregon, he moved up to the Burlington Bees in the Midwest League. He remained with Burlington through the 1973 and 1974 seasons.

Lemon was traded along with Dave Hamilton from the Athletics to the Chicago White Sox for Stan Bahnsen and Skip Pitlock at the non-waiver trade deadline on June 15, 1975. During the 1975 season, he batted .307 with eight home runs and 49 runs batted in for the Triple A Denver Bears to earn a call up to the White Sox that September.

An infielder in the minor leagues, Lemon played third base during his brief stint with the Chicago White Sox in 1975. He entered spring training 1976 as the leading candidate for the third base job, but after failing to impress manager Paul Richards with his glove, was moved to the outfield. He made the transition seamlessly, as he made only three errors all season while logging a .992 fielding percentage in centerfield. He batted .246 with four home runs, 38 RBIs and 46 runs scored to earn Topps All-Star Rookie Teams honors.

He came into his own as both a hitter and centerfielder in 1977. He scored a career high 99 runs, while showing a dramatic increase in power, hitting fifteen more home runs than he had his rookie season. He also set an American League record with 524 total chances and 512 putouts in the outfield, a record that still stands.

With the White Sox in sixth place in the American League West, ahead only of the expansion Seattle Mariners, Lemon was selected as his team's lone representative at the 1978 All-Star Game. Though he did not receive an at-bat, he entered the game in left field in the eighth inning, and committed an error in the National League's four-run eighth. The White Sox finished the season in fifth, eventually passing the Oakland A's in the standings. Lemon went 2-for-5 on the second-to-last day of the season to bring his season batting average to .300. He sat out his team's final game.

In 1979, Lemon was again the sole White Sox player on the American League All-Star team. He entered the game in the second inning, and scored in the third after being hit by a Joaquín Andújar pitch. He ended the season with a .318 batting average and 86 RBIs, both career highs. He also hit 44 doubles, tying the Milwaukee Brewers' Cecil Cooper for the American League season best total.

The White Sox finished near the bottom of the division standings during most of Lemon's tenure with the club. With the addition of free agent catcher Carlton Fisk and designated hitter Greg Luzinski, the team improved to 31-22 and finished in third in the first half of the strike shortened 1981 season. For his part, Lemon batted .299 with three home runs and 22 RBIs in the first half. Though his team finished in sixth place in the second half, his stats improved, as he batted .305 with six home runs and drove in 28. Following the season, Lemon was traded to the Detroit Tigers for outfielder Steve Kemp.

In his first season with Detroit, Lemon shifted from his regular position in center field, starting 92 games in right field and 25 in center field. The 1982 Tigers compiled an 83-79 record and finished fourth in American League East (AL East). Lemon 's batting average dropped to .266, 38 points lower than he had averaged in the preceding four years. Newspaper columnist Mike Downey opined that uprooting Lemon and his young family, along with a torn rib cage, damaged ligaments in his left wrist, and several pulled muscles, had resulted in the worst season in his major league career. Lemon later noted that moving to right field also affected him: "Playing right field wasn't real difficult. I didn't want to play it, that was my problem. It affected me so much mentally. I wasn't happy."

Despite Lemon's 1982 performance, the Tigers signed Lemon to a five-year contract in November 1982. The contract paid Lemon an estimated $450,000 a year.

In 1983, Lemon became the Tigers' regular center fielder, starting 133 games at the position. With only three errors in 417 chances, he provided the club with solid defense in the middle of the outfield. Manager Sparky Anderson in July 1983 called Lemon "the best defensive center fielder I've been around." On July 24, 1983, he gained national attention for a leaping catch that deprived Rod Carew of a game-winning home run in the 12th inning. Lemon also developed power with a career-high 24 home runs in 1983, and he led the American League with a career-high 20 times being hit by pitch. However, his batting average fell to .255. His overall contributions helped the 1983 Tigers improve to 92-70, good for second in AL East.