Chet Lemon Stats & Facts
Chet Lemon
Position: Centerfielder
Bats: Right • Throws: Right
6-0, 190lb (183cm, 86kg)
Born: February 12, 1955 in Jackson, MS
Draft: Drafted by the Oakland Athletics in the 1st round (22nd) of the 1972 MLB June Amateur Draft from Fremont HS (Los Angeles, CA).
High School: Fremont HS (Los Angeles, CA)
School: Pepperdine University (Malibu, CA)
Debut: September 9, 1975 (13,719th in major league history)
vs. CAL 1 AB, 0 H, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 0 SB
Last Game: October 3, 1990
vs. NYY 5 AB, 3 H, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 0 SB
Full Name: Chester Earl Lemon
Nicknames: The Jet
View Player Info from the B-R Bullpen
View Player Bio from the SABR BioProject
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
The Chet Lemon Teammate Team
C: Carlton Fisk
1B: Darrell Evans
2B: Lou Whitaker
3B: Tony Phillips
SS: Alan Trammell
LF: Fred Lynn
CF: Ron LeFlore
RF: Kirk Gibson
DH: Lance Parrish
SP: Jack Morris
SP: Dan Petry
SP: Milt Wilcox
SP: Frank Tanana
SP: Jim Kaat
RP: Goose Gossage
M: Sparky Anderson
Notable Events and Chronology for Chet Lemon Career
Biography
Lemon first signed with the A’s but was acquired by the White Sox in a June 1975 trade for Stan Bahnsen. A third baseman in the minors, he became Chicago’s center fielder in 1976. He made a hustling, aggressive style of play his trademark, with headfirst slides into first base and his willingness to be hit by a pitch. Getting great jumps on the ball, he broke two AL records in 1977: most chances for an outfielder (524) and most putouts (512). From 1978 through 1981, he batted .304, with a high of .318 in 1979, when he tied for the AL lead with 44 doubles.
After the ’81 season, Lemon was traded to Detroit for Steve Kemp. Leaving spacious Comiskey Park for smaller Tiger Stadium, his home run production went up, but his average dipped. He matured as a player, becoming a smarter baserunner and a key contributor to Detroit’s perennially strong teams.
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Factoids, Quotes, Milestones and Odd Facts
Played For
Chicago White Sox (1975-1981)
Detroit Tigers (1982-1990)
Similar: Johnny Callison
Linked: 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.
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.”
Best Season, 1984
His .287 average and .495 slugging percentage were the best he put up in Detroit.
Post-Season Appearances
1984 American League Championship Series
1984 World Series
1987 American League Championship Series
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.
Factoid
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.
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.
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.
Hitting Streaks
19 games (1979)
19 games (1979)
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.
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
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.
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.