Early Life
Born in San Bernardino, California, Lemon's father, Earl Lemon, ran an ice business and later moved the family to Long Beach, California. There, Lemon attended Wilson Classical High School and played shortstop on the school's baseball team. He was the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Southern Section and state baseball Player of the Year in 1938. Later that same year, at the age of 17, Lemon began his professional baseball career in the farm system of the Cleveland Indians as a member of the Oswego Netherlands of the Canadian-American League and later that year, the Middle Atlantic League's Springfield Indians. In 75 games with the Netherlands he recorded a .312 batting average. The following season he played 80 games with Springfield, and hit .293, and then joined the New Orleans Pelicans of the Southern Association, where Lemon hit .309. He spent the next two seasons at Class A level with the Eastern League's Wilkes-Barre Barons as he hit .255 in 1940 and .301 in 1941. In his final stint in the minors before he ascended to the majors, Lemon hit .268 with the Baltimore Orioles of the International League.
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