Former World Series hero Chet Lemon has died at age 70

Former MLB All-Star Chet Lemon has died at the age of 70.

Lemon played 16 seasons in MLB, nine with the Detroit Tigers and seven with the Chicago White Sox. He made the All-Star team in consecutive seasons from 1978-1979, and then again in 1984 with the Tigers. Lemon led the ’84 Tigers to the World Series and was one of the heroes of that team.

Lemon played center field and batted .287 with 20 home runs in the ’84 season. He batted .294 during the World Series, walked twice and stole two bases.

Lemon was born in Jackson, Miss., but grew up in the Los Angeles, Calif., area. He was a first-round pick out of Pepperdine University in 1972. Lemon batted .273 with a .797 OPS during his MLB career and whacked 396 doubles with 215 home runs.

After his MLB career ended, Lemon became involved in the traveling baseball scene. He opened a baseball school in Florida in 1993 and developed a few traveling baseball clubs called Chet Lemon’s Juice, which were highly successful teams. Upon his death, he was remembered for his presence on the traveling scene.

Chet Lemon did more for youth baseball than almost anyone I know. One of the original “travel teams” who did it originally to put the best players on one team and played a key role in sparking this entire thing. Impacted big leaguer after big leaguer at the youth ages.

Chet… https://t.co/aSdcdLFGhN

— Matt Bomeisl (@RealMattyBo) May 8, 2025