By Bianca Sierra

FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS

Chester Earl Lemon (February 12, 1955 – May 8, 2025) was an American professional baseball outfielder. He played sixteen seasons in Major League Baseball, beginning with the Chicago White Sox in 1975, where he played for six years. He was then traded to the Detroit Tigers, where he played the rest of his career from 1982 to 1990.

A native of Jackson, Mississippi, he grew up in Los Angeles. He was drafted in the first round of the 1972 Major League Baseball draft. He was selected as an American League All-Star in 1978, 1979, and 1984 and was the starting center fielder for the 1984 Detroit Tigers team that won the 1984 World Series. Lemon was known as one of the best defensive center fielders in baseball from 1977 to 1987. In 1977, he led the American League with 512 outfield putouts, the fourth highest single-season tally in major league history and the highest tally since 1951. He also totaled over 400 outfield putouts in four other years (1979 and 1983-1985). He led the American League with 44 doubles in 1979 and also led the league in times hit by pitch (HBP) four times, including a career-high 20 HBP in 1983. After his playing career ended, he became a baseball instructor and coach.

Lemon was born in 1955 in Jackson, Mississippi, and moved to Los Angeles when he was six months old. He attended John C. Fremont High School, where he played in the backfield with Ricky Bell on the football team and also starred on the baseball team.

Lemon became a member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses while playing in the minor leagues in the 1970s. He was introduced to the religion by Jerry Hairston Sr. while they were teammates in the Chicago White Sox organization. Due to his religious faith, Lemon declined to stand for “The Star-Spangled Banner“, a point for which he was sometimes criticized. In a 1987 interview, Lemon explained:

I believe in God’s kingdom. I acknowledge God’s kingdom over earth. I give my allegiance to him and not to the flag. I am grateful to be in the United States, grateful to be able to live in the U.S. and have the opportunity to have my beliefs and go door to door to share them. But the national anthem is a ritual. You have to think about what’s being said — rockets’ red glare, bombs bursting in air? We do not believe in nor do we salute war.

In 1993, Lemon established the Chet Lemon Baseball School in Lake Mary, Florida. He coached two successful AAU teams, Chet Lemon’s Juice (18 and under) and Chet Lemon’s Juice II (14 and under) in Eustis, Florida. Several players who played on those teams eventually became MLB players, most notably with Zack Greinke and Prince Fielder. He was also the head coach for Eustis High School, where he led the Panthers to the 2003 state championship.

In August 2024, ahead of the Detroit Tigers 40th Anniversary World Series Championship reunion in Detroit, Lemon’s family revealed that Polycythemia vera, a rare blood disorder, had led to a series of strokes, which left him unable to speak or walk.

Lemon died in May 2025 at age 70 at his home in Apopka, Florida.