Chet Lemon made outfield defense cool in Detroit

The magic of 1984 included feats of derring-do by the Tigers' graceful centerfielder.

Once upon a time, the winter meetings for MLB in December was an eagerly awaited event, full of curiosity, excitement and anticipation.

Each team’s front office would gather in one place and player trades were brokered in hotel lobbies, bars and banquet halls. Most of the deals were negotiated in person, face-to-face. I’m not exaggerating when I say that trade proposals were literally drafted on cocktail napkins.

As fans, we’d eagerly open the sports section of the newspaper to catch the latest. I often couldn’t wait til the next morning, so I’d tune into the 11:00 news on TV and impatiently wait until the sports came on at 11:17 p.m. to see if the Tigers made any moves.

Then after the trades were made, we’d have to wait nearly three months to see the new Tigers in their creamy white uniforms in Lakeland.

It was a grand time.

The winter meetings of 1981 were of particular interest.

The Tigers had narrowly missed a share of the AL East title in the strike-shortened season, dropping 2 of 3 to the Brewers on the final weekend. It was the young core’s first taste of meaningful stretch-run baseball.

That December, the Tigers traded away one of the young core.

Steve Kemp was a balls-to-the-wall outfielder whose penchant for running out every ground ball as if his life depended on it, ingratiated himself with Tigers fans. Kemp wasn’t a great outfielder with the glove, but he had a heavy bat and smacked the baseball around Tiger Stadium pretty good. He was a fan favorite because even though he was a Texas kid who attended USC, he embodied the blue collar nature of Detroit with his style of play.

Kemp made the All-Star team in 1979, the year he hit .318 (26 HR, 105 RBI) with a .941 OPS.

But the Tigers traded Kemp to the Chicago White Sox in December 1981.

It was a 1-for-1 deal. Coming to Detroit was a slick centerfielder named Chet Lemon.

Any nuance to the trade was overwhelmed by Tigers fans sad to see Kemp leave. Forget that Lemon was widely believed to be the best centerfielder in the American League, defensively. Fans didn’t show up at the ballpark to see defense.

But Lemon had a bat, too.

Lemon’s OPS numbers in Chicago were amazingly consistent: .803, .887, .887, .830, .874 (1977-81).

If a similar trade was made today, it’d be all over the Internet like a virus. But in 1981, it was just another winter meetings transaction.

Chet Lemon was a master with the glove in CF and Tiger Stadium was infamous for its enormous outfield from alley to alley. So of course Tigers manager Sparky Anderson stuck Lemon in RF in 1982.

Kirk Gibson played CF back then for Detroit. Well, he tried to play it—let’s put it that way. When Gibby got hurt, Sparky used Glenn Wilson in center.

Oy vay.

Thankfully, Sparky wised up and Lemon was the starting CF from 1983-87.

No one has played it better since in Detroit. My opinion. Sorry, Austin Jackson fans. Take a step back, Curtis Granderson.

Chet Lemon has passed. He was 70.

It was a tough life after Chet hung up the spikes.

Health problems dominated Lemon’s legacy and they were cruel. His ability to communicate properly had been stolen, for starters.

Yet one final appearance at Comerica Park last August, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the 1984 World Series champion team, brought Chet so much joy.

“I think it added more months,” Lemon’s wife, Gigi, said about the reunion and the effect it had on her husband. “He was able to see his teammates. I thought that was so important.”

So there was that, at least.

Lemon, sadly, isn’t the only 1984 champion we’ve lost. Chet joins P Aurelio Lopez (1992), P Willie Hernandez (2023), 1B Dave Bergman (2014) and C Dwight Lowry (1997) in that regard.

Chet arguably was the most popular of this group.

He patrolled CF like a beat cop, but instead of a nightstick he carried a glove.

There was no one who took cleaner routes, who made difficult plays look easy, who gave fans an overall sense of calm, better than Chester (as Sparky called him) Lemon.

Ironically, the best catch I ever saw Chet make didn’t happen in the expanse of Detroit’s CF at all.

It was in Anaheim in 1983.

I don’t remember which Angel hit the ball but it was late in a tight ballgame. Chet raced back to the wall at the Big A and leaped. I don’t recall him slowing down at all before he jumped, crashing into the wall at the same time. He stuck his glove over the fence and literally robbed the batter of a home run.

It was pretty amazing.

Lemon wasn’t a slugger, per se, but he had some pop in his bat. I was surprised to see that he accumulated 1,875 hits, for example—215 of which were home runs.

Lemon changed Tigers fans’ appreciation of outfield defense. The magic of 1984 put that in the forefront. It wasn’t unheard of to take in a ballgame in Detroit and hope to see Chester chase down a flyball—as much as hoping to see Gibby clobber a baseball or Tram and Whitaker turn an inning-ending double play.

Chet Lemon looked like he was having fun playing baseball.

His sliding into first base and his overall less-than-smart baserunning wasn’t great but it was part of his hustle and his carefree approach. It caused many fans’ eyes to roll, but with Chet you had to take the bad with the good.

And there was a lot of good—especially with that magic glove of his.

As for Steve Kemp?

His career nosedived after the trade to Chicago. After a solid year in 1982, Kemp signed as a free agent with the Yankees. That’s when things started to go sideways. An unfortunate pre-game accident when he played for the Bronx Bombers (he was hit in the face by a baseball during batting practice) didn’t help. His last year in the big leagues was a cameo for the Rangers in 1988.

Yet Steve Kemp will always occupy a soft spot in the hearts of Tigers fans. And to get someone of Lemon’s caliber, you have to give up someone of quality, right?

I think many of us realized that we were likely seeing the last of Chet Lemon publicly in Detroit, when he made that appearance at CoPa last August. Just like with Bergie in 2014, who helped turn one last DP on the field with Tram and Lou. Cancer had ravaged Bergie and it was obvious.

But the end is never expected, even when it’s anticipated.

Gigi Lemon said Chet was sleeping in his reclining chair and then became non-responsive. Doesn’t get much more peaceful or dignified than that.

But still not easy to deal with for his family, friends and Tigers fans.

Chet Lemon used the same glove throughout his 16-year big league career.

That’s not superstition—that’s trust.