“I have to rate Lemon as one of the very best pitchers I ever faced. His ball was always moving, hard, sinking, fast-breaking. You could never really uhmmmph with Lemon.” — Ted Williams
Sports writer Ron Fimrite once shared the story of Lemon’s participation in the 1952 film The Winning Team, a biopic of Grover Cleveland Alexander starring Ronald Reagan in the lead role. Lemon was cast as Reagan’s body double for baseball footage. In one scene, the director nailed a catcher’s mask to the side of a barn and asked Lemon to throw the ball into the middle of it. Lemon tried and missed, and the more he missed, the more furious he became.
Finally, Reagan asked if he could try, and on his first toss he hit the target. “I’ve never been so embarrassed in all my life,” Lemon said.
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