Detroit Tigers
Lemon joined a Tiger team with a talented, young nucleus of Alan Trammell, Lou Whitaker, Jack Morris, Kirk Gibson and Lance Parrish. The team got off to a 35–5 start in 1984, and went on to take the American League East by fifteen games over the Toronto Blue Jays. Lemon arguably had his best season in 1984, as he hit .287 with 20 home runs and 76 RBIs, and collected a .990 fielding percentage while handling 421 total chances. He was also the starting center fielder for the American League at the 1984 All-Star game.
Reaching the post-season for the first time in his career, Lemon went hitless in thirteen at-bats in the Tigers' three game sweep of the Kansas City Royals in the 1984 American League Championship Series. He improved in the World Series, batting .294 with a run scored and a run batted in.
In 1988, Lemon moved from center field to right field to make room for speedy new acquisition Gary Pettis. On September 20, he hit his 200th career home run off the Cleveland Indians's Scott Bailes. In the same game, Darrell Evans hit his 400th career home run.
Following the 1990 season, he became ill with a serious spleen disease, polycythemia vera. In December 2001, Lemon successfully underwent surgery at the Mayo Clinic. He attempted a comeback with the Tigers in 1991, but was unsuccessful, and retired. Shortly after his retirement, he required a second surgery.
Read more about this topic: Chet Lemon
Famous quotes containing the word tigers:
“The ocean is a wilderness reaching round the globe, wilder than a Bengal jungle, and fuller of monsters, washing the very wharves of our cities and the gardens of our sea-side residences. Serpents, bears, hyenas, tigers rapidly vanish as civilization advances, but the most populous and civilized city cannot scare a shark far from its wharves.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)