When Chicago Gives You a Lemon, Make a Great Team
You might need to add a little Willie Hernandez to get there
Note: When you click on links to various merchants in this newsletter and make a purchase, this can result in this newsletter earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
1977 Topps Chet Lemon (#58) - Card of the Day
(affiliate link)
Do you remember when Steve Kemp was one of baseball’s up-and-coming young sluggers?
I kinda sorta remember, thanks to his baseball cards. Because, although Kemp was a part-timer for the Yankees by the time I started collecting in 1983, his card backs told a different story.
Here was a guy who had hit 20+ home runs and driven in 100+ runs in both 1979 and 1980 for the Tigers. Those were legit power numbers back then, especially for an also-ran team (though one with a winning record).
Even in the strike-shortened 1981 season, Kemp hit .277 with nine homers and 49 RBI.
So it’s not surprising he looked pretty good to the White Sox, who were light on power until Greg Luzinski arrived to DH for the ‘81 season.
In November of that year, general manager Roland Hemond, no doubt spurred on by manager Tony La Russa, traded for Kemp.
The price?
Center fielder Chet Lemon.
By that point, Lemon was a two-time All-Star who could hit .300 with decent pop of his own. He even led the American League with 44 doubles in 1979.
Along the way, Lemond had also managed to break out of his four-guy rookie card boundaries and score the pretty nifty first solo card you see up there — 1977 Topps, #58, if you’re keeping score.
What’s Lemon looking at, out of frame to his left? Hard to say, but it just might be Detroit, circa 1984.
After all, that would be the scene of some of his best moments, even if he was overshadowed by teammates like Alan Trammell, Lou Whitaker, Lance Parrish, Willie Hernandez, and Jack Morris.
Truth is, though, Lemon gave Tram a run for his money as the best Tigers position player that summer. He was certainly a key cog for an all-time great Detroit team. Lemon was just 29 in 1984, too, and he stuck with the Tigers through 1990, when he was 35.
That was the same year he was diagnosed with a harsh blood disorder and missed a third of the season. He tried to come back in 1991, but the Tigers cut him at the end of Spring Training.
Who knows? With a less dramatic brick wall at the end of his career, Lemon might have been jostling with Whitaker these days as the next 1980s Tiger to get the call from the Hall of Fame.
On the other side of the deal, Kemp paid off in the short term for the White Sox when he hit 19 home runs with 98 RBI in 1982. But he walked away in free agency, signing with the Yankees. He hit 12 homers his first year in the Bronx but never topped 10 — or 100 games played — again.
Today, Chet Lemon is clicking off birthday number 69 — which pulls him into an age tie with Kemp (until August, anyway).
1980 TCMA All-Time White Sox
Lemon didn’t make the cut of All-Time White Sox when minor league cardmaker TCMA rolled out this set in 1980 — he was hardly alone.
No Nellie Fox.
No Dick Allen.
No Lowell Palmer, for goodness sake!
Still, this is an interesting, if cheaply-made set, that does feature several southside luminaries:
Ted Lyons
Eddie Collins
Al Lopez
Luke Appling
Billy Pierce
Willie Kamm
Johnny Mostil
Al Simmons
Ray Schalk
Gerry Staley
Harry Hooper
Eddie Robinson
Some Hall of Famers and good representation for the 1959 Go-Go Sox pennant winners, so Fox’s omission is a bit curious. He didn’t make it to Cooperstown until 1997, but he was American League MVP when the ChiSox made it to the World Series.
Oh, well — 12 cards is a short checklist, especially when you have nearly a century of candidates to choose from.
This is one of several team-or-theme sets TCMA made in the late 1970s or early 1980s, and you can usually pick one up on eBay for under ten bucks.
Check eBay listings now (affiliate link)
Wow! Wax of the (Mon)day
(affiliate link)
OK, not technically wax, but…
If you ever dreamed about diving into 12,000 brand new, unsearched wood-grained baseball cards at once, this is your chance!
When I was a collector kid in the 1980s, I definitely had visions of getting my hands on a vending case every year. Never happened.
I would have made all sorts of Faustian deals to land this 1987 Topps vending case, though. Twenty-four boxes of 500 cards each, with multiples of Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco, Benito Santiago, Ruben Sierra, Will Clark, Kevin Mitchell, and all the other tantalizing rookie cards the set had to offer.
As usual, this isn’t my case, but it’s a fun one to ogle and ponder. Looks like bidding lasts until tonight, too, so you still have time if you want to jump in.
Just saying.
Check out the full listing on eBay (affiliate link).
—
That’s all for this Monday edition of “Cardboard Shenanigans.”
May your week start off on the right foot but also incorporate the left so you stay balanced. And don’t forget — Wednesday is Valentine’s day. A dozen Roses always hit the spot…or 13 Schmidts…or 11 Carltons. The options are endless.
Thanks for reading.
—Adam
I made good on my youthful dreams by treating myself to a case of both 1990 and 1991 Topps baseball 10 years ago or so.... That did the trick. Likely never open them all.... ha ha.