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

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

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 (baseball), National League (NL) National League Eas ...

from to . He won the

1995 World Series The 1995 World Series was the World Series, championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1995 Major League Baseball season, 1995 season. The 91st edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff played between the National Lea ...

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 , the team ...

Biography

Early life

Lemke grew up in Whitesboro, New York. 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 university#United States, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded ...

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 Nort ...

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. 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 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 It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union Dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapsed, leaving Post-soviet states, fifteen sovereign republics and the Commonwealth of Independent State ...

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

), all with Atlanta in their " Big Three" era. He led the team with a .417 batting average in the 1991 World Series. He won a World Series with the Braves in 1995. He also was the last out in the 1996 World Series, when the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Am ...

won their first World Series in 18 years, popping out to Yankee third baseman Charlie Hayes 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) American League East, East Division. Founded in as one of the Ameri ...

. 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) American League Central, Central Division. The club plays its ...

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 (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 flow, lamin ...

pitcher with the New Jersey Jackals an independent Northern League 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 and Buck Belue on WCNN-AM in Atlanta. Lemke also fills in on radio during

spring training Spring training, also called spring camp, is the preseason of the Summer Professional Baseball Leagues, such as Major League Baseball (MLB), and it is a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spri ...

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 S ...

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 person may also be referred to as a summariser (outside North America) ...

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

In popular culture

Lemke is considered the indirect namesake of the '' Homestar Runner'' cartoon. When naming the character, creators Mike and Matt Chapman recalled a gaffe by friend James Huggins: imitating a local commercial that mentioned Lemke, Huggins imaginatively referred to the baseballer as the "home star runner" for the Braves as he could not recall the position Lemke played.

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 Utica, New York Major League Baseball broadcasters Major League Baseball second basemen New Jersey Jackals players Anderson Braves players Durham Bulls players Gulf Coast Braves players Greenville Braves players Sumter Braves players