The front: Taking batting practice on a sunny day at Tiger
Stadium.
The back: Lemon’s 512 putouts in 1977 remain an American
League record. Taylor Douthit had 547 for the 1928 Cardinals for the MLB
record. (Richie Ashburn also topped 512 twice.) Lemon’s 524 chances in ’77 remain the AL
record, and Douthit’s 557 in ’28 remain the MLB record.
The player: Chet Lemon played sixteen seasons in the major
leagues, making three All-Star teams and winning a World Series in 1984. In
1,988 games he hit .273 with 215 HR and 884 RBI. In addition to his fielding
records, his highlights including leading the American League in HPB four times
and in doubles in 1979.
The man: He has owned the youth baseball program Chet Lemon’s Juice, considered one of the top programs in the country, since 1993.
He shared his thoughts on baseball cards with this blog in 2011.
My collection: I have 63 of his cards, from 1976 to 1991. I
would be interested in trading for 1978 Hostess #124 and 1982 Fleer Stamps
#191.
One of my favourites when I was a kid.
ReplyDeleteone of my favorite Tigers in 1984
ReplyDeletea great Tiger! Interesting to read your original post. "As a former baseball player the collections for each season are given to us at no cost." That's wild. I find it hard to believe this is still practiced by Topps and friends. No profit in it.
ReplyDelete