1979 Topps #333 Chet Lemon
About Chet Lemon
Lemon's best offensive year came in 1979. He hit .318 with 17 home runs and 86 RBI. His 44 doubles tied Cecil Cooper for the American League lead. Again the White Sox' only All-Star, he replaced Fred Lynn in center field in the second inning and scored in the third after being hit by a Joaquin Andujar pitch. He led the league with 13 times hit by pitch that season. Topps issued him as #333.
Chet Lemon was an outfielder who played 16 seasons, seven with the Chicago White Sox and nine with the Detroit Tigers. Oakland drafted him 22nd overall in 1972 as an infielder, and the White Sox acquired him in a June 1975 trade for Stan Bahnsen and Skip Pitlock. Manager Paul Richards moved him to center field in spring 1976, and in 1977 he set an American League mark with 512 outfield putouts. On July 24, 1983, he leaped to rob Rod Carew of a game-winning home run in the 12th inning. The Tigers got him from Chicago for Steve Kemp in November 1981, and he started in center for their 1984 World Series champions and for the American League in that year's All-Star Game. He finished with 215 home runs and a .273 average. He was diagnosed with polycythemia vera, a blood disorder, in spring 1990, and Detroit waived him on April 5, 1991. He later ran a baseball school in Florida and coached Eustis High School to the 2003 state title. He died in 2025.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 128 | 31 | 63 | 23 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| SGC | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Data as of 2026-10-19. Half grades fold down for both graders (8.5→8); PSA qualified slabs (OC, ST, PD, MC and the like) are not counted.
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Related cards
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1979 Topps #333 card?
It is card #333 of the 726-card 1979 Topps Baseball set, picturing Chet Lemon of the Chicago White Sox.
How many cards are in the 1979 Topps Baseball set?
726 cards, numbered 1 through 726 with none skipped and issued as a single series, tracked as 727 collectible states: #369 Bump Wills comes with a Rangers or a Blue Jays team banner, and the master set counts both.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA, BaseballCardPedia, Cardboard Connection, Baseball Almanac, Baseball-Reference, the SABR BioProject and the National Baseball Hall of Fame, PSA & SGC population reports. Card data compiled and maintained by T206Cards.com. Page last updated 2026-10-25.