Mark Alan Lemke (born August 13, 1965) is a former

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (A ...

player and current broadcaster. Nicknamed "the Lemmer", he was a popular second baseman for the

Atlanta Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East division. The Braves were founded in ...

from to . He won the 1995 World Series with the Braves over the

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central division. Since , they have ...

Biography

Early life

Lemke grew up in

Whitesboro, New York Whitesboro is a village in Oneida County, New York, United States. The population was 3,772 at the 2010 census. The village is named after Hugh White, an early settler. The Village of Whitesboro is inside the Town of Whitestown. History The vi ...

. He attended the now closed Sacred Heart Elementary Catholic school in West Utica. Lemke is also a graduate of Notre Dame High School in Utica.

Minor league

Lemke was drafted in the 27th round of the amateur draft by the

. Lemke decided against attending

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and ...

and spent the next four years in the Braves'

minor league Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in No ...

system, spending time with the Gulf Coast League Braves, Anderson Braves, Sumter Braves,

Durham Bulls The Durham Bulls are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays. They are located in Durham, North Carolina, and play their home games at Durham Bulls Athletic Park, which opened ...

Greenville Braves The Greenville Braves were an American minor league baseball franchise, based in Greenville, South Carolina, that served as the Class AA farm team of the Atlanta Braves between 1984 and 2004. The Braves played in Greenville Municipal Stadium f ...

, and

Richmond Braves The Richmond Braves were an American minor league baseball club based in Richmond, Virginia, the Triple-A International League affiliate of the Atlanta Braves from 1966 to 2008. Owned by the parent Atlanta club and colloquially referred to as the ...

. He made his major league debut on September 17, 1988, when the Braves called him up from AAA when the roster expanded to 40 players. In 1988, Lemke won the

Hank Aaron Award The Hank Aaron Award is given annually to the Major League Baseball (MLB) players selected as the top hitter in each league, as voted on by baseball fans and members of the media. It was introduced in 1999 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Ha ...

as the top offensive player in the Braves' minor league system. Lemke split time between the minor and major leagues until .

Career

In his 11-year career, Lemke played in 62 postseason games and appeared in four World Series (

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phi ...

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment building in Amsterdam after two of its engin ...

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 800, causing the plane to crash and killing everyone o ...

). He won a World Series with the Braves in 1995, and he led all Braves players with a .417 batting average in the 1991 World Series. He also was the last out in the 1996 World Series, when the New York Yankees won their first World Series in 18 years, popping out to Yankee third baseman

Charlie Hayes Charles Dewayne Hayes (born May 29, 1965) is an American former professional baseball third baseman and former coach for the FCL Phillies. Hayes played in Major League Baseball for the San Francisco Giants, Philadelphia Phillies, New York ...

with the count full. Lemke is the all-time record holder for most career plate appearances without being hit by a pitch (3,664).

Boston Red Sox

The sharp fielding Lemke left the Braves after the season. On March 26, 1998, he signed as a free agent with the

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight ...

. While trying to turn a double play in a game against the

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and ...

on May 19, 1998, Lemke was injured in a collision with baserunner Chad Kreuter. He suffered a concussion that finished his season and essentially ended his major league career.

Post major leagues

With his big league career over, Lemke decided to chase a dream and, in 1999, signed as a

knuckleball A knuckleball or knuckler is a baseball pitch thrown to minimize the spin of the ball in flight, causing an erratic, unpredictable motion. The air flow over a seam of the ball causes the ball to change from laminar to turbulent flow. This cha ...

pitcher with the

New Jersey Jackals The New Jersey Jackals are an American professional baseball team based in Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. The team was founded in 1998 by Floyd Hall and is owned by Al Dorso, a businessman who also owns the Sussex County Miners, Sk ...

an independent

Northern League Northern League may refer to: Sport Baseball * Northern League (baseball, 1902–71), a name used by several minor leagues that operated in the upper midwestern U.S. and Manitoba from 1902 to 1971 * Northern League (baseball, 1993–2010), an indep ...

team. Lemke, who also worked as an infield coach during his stint with the Jackals, was 5-1 with a 6.68 earned run average in 1999. He returned the next season with the Jackals, but was released on June 20, 2000, after being hammered in his first few appearances. In that stint though, he was wild with his knuckleball and threw an independent league record nine wild pitches in successive at bats. Currently, Lemke hosts the Braves pregame show on the Braves Radio Network with co-hosts

Leo Mazzone Leo David Mazzone (born October 16, 1948) is a former pitcher in minor league baseball and pitching coach in Major League Baseball. He worked with the Atlanta Braves' organization from to and was the pitching coach for the Baltimore Orioles fr ...

and

Buck Belue Benjamin Franklin "Buck" Belue played American football and baseball at the University of Georgia from 1978 to 1981. He was the quarterback for the Georgia Bulldogs in 1980, when the team went 12–0, and, after beating Notre Dame in the Su ...

on WCNN-AM in Atlanta. Lemke also fills in on radio during

spring training Spring training is the preseason in Major League Baseball (MLB), a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spring training allows new players to try out for roster and position spots, and gives estab ...

and road games during the

regular season In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of ...

color commentator A color commentator or expert commentator is a sports commentator who assists the main ( play-by-play) commentator, typically by filling in when play is not in progress. The phrase "colour commentator" is primarily used in Canadian English and ...

, until 2008 with Pete Van Wieren and presently with Jim Powell

In popular culture

He is credited as the accidental namesake of '' Homestar Runner'' cartoon, when a friend of creators Mike and Matt Chapman, of Montreal band member James Huggins, unfamiliar with baseball terminology incorrectly referred to Lemke as the "home star runner" for the Braves.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lemke, Mark 1965 births Living people Atlanta Braves announcers Atlanta Braves players Boston Red Sox players Richmond Braves players Baseball players from New York (state) Major League Baseball broadcasters Major League Baseball second basemen Sportspeople from Utica, New York New Jersey Jackals players Anderson Braves players Durham Bulls players Gulf Coast Braves players Greenville Braves players Sumter Braves players