Who in the hell is Bob Lemon. He's a god damn American hero that's who he is. Bob played 17 years in the MLB, all for the Cleveland Indians... Oh wait I think that's racist or something now... 17 years for the Cleveland Guardians. From 1941-1958. But wait, wasn’t there kind of a little war at the beginning of his career there? Yeah there was, WW2 broke out before his 3rd season in the bigs and he joined the Navy. Why? Because he is Bob Lemon, an American hero, that's why. So what makes Bob Lemon like Shohei Ohtani? Let me drop some knowledge bombs on you.
Bob Lemon started his career as a utility guy. He played a little bit of outfield, and a little bit of corner infield. He only had 9 at bats in his first 2 seasons before he went off and fought some Nazis. While he was out, you know fighting the bad littler German man, Bob played some ball with the Navy boys, who also included Yankees catcher Bill Dickey, Birdie Tebbets of the Tigers, and Johnny Pesky of the Red Sox. Before we go any further, yes Johnny Pesky is who the Pesky Pole at Fenway Park is named after.
After the war was over when the German man with the funny mustache was gone, Bob Lemon went back to the Indians? Guardians? Indians? I'm gonna go with Indians for the rest of the blog. Bob became the Indians Opening Day starter in centerfield in 1946 and was known for his poor bat skills, but very strong arm. The other Bob on the Indians, Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Feller, even had a no-hitter saved by a great Bob Lemon defensive play that year.
Remember those other 3 players that played Navy ball with Bob Lemon? Well, during the Indians campaign in the 1946 season they all told Indians Manager Lou Boudreau that Bob Lemon was an incredible pitcher in the Navy. Lou Boudreau (all time fun name to say) did what any manager would do in 1946, start Bob Lemon as a pitcher in a Major League baseball game, without ever starting a game as pitcher in his life. Bob would go on to have a heck of a year bouncing between starter and reliever with a 4-5 record, and a career low 2.49 ERA. His first 2 years as a pitcher he still found his way into playing the field, with his hitting also improving when he would pitch.
1948 was when Bob Lemon went full time to pitcher and he put on a season that would make most modern day pitchers arms hurt just by looking at his stat sheet. Bob Lemon started 37 games, 20 of them were complete games which led the league, and 10 of them were shut outs which also led the league, totaling to 293.2 innings. Bob Lemon would finish his career with 188 complete games with a season high of 28 in 1952. That is more complete games in one year than the entirety of Major League Baseball in 2024.
So what made Bob Lemon go from a below average utility player to a All-Star caliber pitcher? He did not throw a ball straight, or hard. Every pitch that he threw was always moving. In terms of Looney Tunes, it was Bugs Bunny's slow ball.
How is Bob Lemon, Shohei Ohtani before Shohei Ohtani? Well his first 4 years of being a full time starting pitcher he had a .282 batting average and a 128 OPS+ which means he was 28% better than the average hitter. Thats the same OPS+ as Kieth Hernandez and Rickey Henderson. So not only do you have a guy going out there and eating enough innings to make a fat man say "dayum" but then you got Rickey Henderson up at the plate too. That is why Bob Lemon was Shohei Ohtani before Ohtani was even born.
After those 5 excellent years of being an All-star and finishing top 10 in MVP voting 4 times, age started to get to Bob and he was never really as good of a hitter as he would only bat .209 in his last 7 years as a pitcher. He did finish his career with 37 home runs though which as a pitcher in the 1950's is pretty impressive. Bob Lemon would go on to be inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1976 when he made it on his 12th year of being on the ballet.
Just remember, when the entire MLB and all of the baseball analysts are sucking off Shohei Ohtani for pitching and hitting at an elite level, Bob Lemon did it first. And when Ben Verlander is on his knees sucking off Ohtani, make sure you tweet at him that Bob Lemon went 11-5 and hit .321 in 1947.
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No Lemonade, just Tea, with T
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