Best All-Time Center Fielders #17: Chet Lemon
“It was incredible. We were like rock stars.”—Chet Lemon, on the fan enthusiasm during the Detroit Tigers incredible 1984 season.
Chet Lemon was drafted by the Oakland A’s in the first round of the 1972 MLB Draft out of Fremont High School. There was some impressive baseball talent in Oakland in those days. Future big leaguers such as Bob Watson, Bobby Tolan, George Hendrick and Willie Crawford were from the area. Later, Rickey Henderson would star as a young player growing up in Oakland.
Lemon played shortstop and third base in the minor leagues, but was switched to the outfield after making 38 errors in 112 games in 1975. That was the same year he was traded from Oakland to the Chicago White Sox, the team for which he would make his major league debut in September.
The 1977 season was Lemon’s first great year. He scored a career-high 99 runs and combined above average offense with strong defense to be worth 5 WAR (Fangraphs). He followed that up with four more years with the White Sox during which he averaged 4.6 WAR per season.
These were the Bill Veeck years, when the eccentric owner ran promotions like “Disco Demolition Night” and had White Sox players wear shorts and a white top with a collar for the first time in a game on August 8, 1976. Lemon didn’t start that game but did get an at-bat late in the action.
After seven years in Chicago, Lemon was traded to the Detroit Tigers prior to the 1982 season. Two years later, he was part of the World Series-winning Tigers squad that began the year with 35 wins in their first 40 games. He also made the all-star team that year for the third time in his career.
Lemon continued to be a productive player with the Tigers through the rest of his career. The only below average season he had with Detroit was in 1989, but he bounced back with a 2.1-WAR season in 1990 before hanging up his spikes. He was on the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot in 1996, but received just one vote.