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Bob Lemon, Hall of Famer
• The pitcher gave the Cleveland Indians their last World Series title.
CLEVELAND – Thirty years after he pitched the Cleveland Indians to their last World Series title, Bob Lemon guided the New York Yankees to one they’ll never forget.
Lemon, a Hall of Famer who won 20 games seven times during his brilliant pitching career in Cleveland, died Tuesday night in Long Beach, Calif. He was 79.
The right-hander – who pitched at Tucson’s Hi Corbett Field from 1946-58 when the Indians trained there – led the American League in victories three times.
He won two games in the 1948 World Series, the last time the Indians were champions. He finished with a 207-128 record and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1976.
Two years later, Lemon, who also managed for Kansas City and the Chicago White Sox, took over the Yankees at midseason when Billy Martin resigned. He focused a turbulent clubhouse, where Martin, owner George Steinbrenner, Thurman Munson and Reggie Jackson had been feuding.
Under Lemon’s easygoing leadership, the Yankees overcame a 14-game deficit, beat Boston in a one-game playoff at Fenway Park to win the AL East, then defeated the Royals in the AL playoffs. New York then triumphed over the Los Angeles Dodgers to win its second straight World Series title.
Lemon, who often said all he did was ”fill out the lineup card,” was given a ”lifetime contract” by Steinbrenner and remained on the Yankees’ payroll until his death, as a scout and adviser.
”When our team was going through the turmoil during the 1978 season, Bob Lemon was just what we needed,” Steinbrenner said. ”He was such a calming influence and, of course, he guided the club to the world championship in one of the greatest comebacks in sports history. He was a gentle but consummate competitor.”
The news of Lemon’s death came just hours after another former Cleveland sports figure, Cavaliers guard Bobby Phills, was killed in a traffic accident in Charlotte, N.C.
Lemon, a seven-time All-Star, began his playing career as a third baseman with the Indians in 1941 and briefly played center field. But after Lemon served in the Navy during World War II, the Indians decided to try him as a pitcher, and he became one of the most successful in club history.
”He made himself a great pitcher,” said Mel Harder, Lemon’s pitching coach in Cleveland. ”He worked hard at it. He had a good sinker, especially for a guy who never did pitch.”
Lemon twice won 23 games. In 1948, sometimes pitching on one day’s rest, he went 20-14 with a 2.82 ERA and led the AL with 20 complete games, 10 shutouts and 293 innings pitched.
”Lem” as he was known to his teammates, then beat Boston’s Warren Spahn in Game 2 of the World Series before pitching Cleveland to a 4-3 win in Game 6.
In 1954, Lemon went 23-7 and along with Bob Feller, Early Wynn and Mike Garcia combined on what many still call the best starting rotation ever. The Indians won a then-record 111 games that season but were swept in the World Series by the New York Giants.
”They don’t make them like Bob Lemon anymore,” Feller said yesterday.
Lemon’s No. 21 was retired by the Indians in 1998.
Lemon, who pitched a no-hitter at Detroit on June 30, 1948, also was an outstanding hitter, as far as pitchers go, finishing with a .232 career average and 37 home runs. He occasionally was used as a pinch-hitter, batting .284 in 109 at-bats.
After retiring in 1958, Lemon worked as a scout, coach and minor league manager. In 1966, he applied for Cleveland’s vacant managing position, but was turned down by Indians owner Gabe Paul, who later called his decision not to hire Lemon ”the biggest mistake I made in baseball.”
Lemon managed Kansas City from 1970-72 and the White Sox in 1977-78, before taking over the Yankees on July 25.
Lemon was replaced by Martin midway through the 1979 season, but returned to the Yankees for the second half of the strike-shortened 1981 season. New York won its division and the AL pennant before losing to the Dodgers in the Series.
Lemon is survived by his wife, Jane, and two sons.
(Dated Jan 13, 2000)
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Former Tucson chef cooked for resorts, top Navy brass
Mark André Spisak, a native Tucsonan who served as an apprentice chef at the Arizona Inn, personal chef to the secretary of the Navy and the commander of the Pacific Fleet in Hawaii while in the Navy, and executive chef at several West Coast hotels and resorts, has died in Modesto, Calif.
Mr. Spisak was born Feb. 9, 1955, at St. Mary’s Hospital. He attended Ss. Peter & Paul Catholic School and graduated from Salpointe Catholic High School.
He died at his home Dec. 25, 1999, at age 44. The cause of death was not given.
He most recently served as director of food services at Covenant Village, a Turlock, Calif., retirement and assisted-living community.
Dwayne Gabrielson, administrator at Covenant Village, said, ”Mark really added flair and class to everything he did.”
Gabrielson said Mr. Spisak was particularly gifted with ice sculpting and other touches designed to make food more eye-appealing.
”He was a great guy and very gifted. It’s so unfortunate that he’s no longer with us to share those talents with the world.”
Mr. Spisak served as an apprentice to the Arizona Inn’s Swiss-born head chef, the late Ernest Gasser, before entering the Navy.
He was a member of Sacred Heart Catholic Church and the Knights of Columbus in Turlock.
He was buried with full military honors in San Joaquin Valley National Military Cemetery.
Survivors include his wife, Marina, of Modesto, Calif.; daughters Daisy and Veronica; sons Christopher and Michael; his mother, Adele M. Spisak of Tucson; and brothers John Spisak of Lone Tree, Colo., and Christopher Spisak of Tucson.
(Dated Jan 19, 2000)
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Memorial set for Winston Smith
A memorial service is planned tomorrow for Winston Lee Smith, a former Pima County Democratic Party chairman and candidate for county supervisor and county recorder.
Mr. Smith, 48, died last Tuesday after a sixyear battle with malignant melanoma.
His wife, Julie, said his passion was politics.
”He loved the process of it, the excitement of it – he just lived it, loved it. His political inclinations started in the Nixon era. That is what excited him, the Vietnam War era.
”He graduated from high school in 1970, at the height of Vietnam. He decided that only through politics could he change things.”
When the couple moved to Tucson in 1983, the two campaigned for Carolyn Warner in her unsuccessful bid for the governorship.
Allison Hughes, a Democrat who lost to nowcouncil member Fred Ronstadt in the 1998 City Council race, said Mr. Smith was an ardent supporter of her campaign.
”He stepped in and gave great dedication and a lot of hard work. His cancer was in remission, and he put all his energy into that campaign.”
She added, ”Between the (Arizona) Wildcats and the Democrats, those two things were his life.
”A week and a half before he died, friends packed him up with his wheelchair and took him to the Wildcats-Stanford game. He was just delighted to see the Wildcats beat Stanford.”
Jesse George, now chairman for the Democratic Party in the county, said, ”Winston Smith was a dedicated public servant, dedicated to civil rights and human rights, a hard worker, and we will miss him.”
State Sen. George Cunningham, D-Tucson, for whom Mr. Smith also campaigned, said, ”I knew him as a guy who worked tirelessly to strengthen the Democratic Party and elect people to public office. Very often he did that in such an unselfish manner, it was actually not in his interest.
”I remember in the Democratic primary when he ran for county recorder in 1992, he was helping others campaign – including me, and other campaigns – and not devoting the time and resources that he could have to his own campaign,” Cunningham said.
He added, ”He was my friend, and it hurts. He was a young man who passed away and left us at least three or four decades before his time was due. I’ll miss him.”
Mr. Smith was born in Louisville, Ky., on Nov. 27, 1951.
He attended school and graduated from high school in Washington Courthouse, Ohio, before moving west and enrolling at Northern Arizona University. He graduated there in 1976 with a bachelor’s degree in geology.
His work experience was eclectic.
He was an industrial engineer with copper mines in Utah and Arizona, a food service manager at the University of Arizona Student Union, and a licensed stockbroker at various times.
Most recently, he was a water treatment supervisor with the Arizona State Prison Complex-Tucson on South Wilmot Road.
His illness forced him to quit that job in May 1999.
Mr. Smith served as chairman of the Democratic Party here from 1990 to 1992.
He campaigned unsuccessfully for county recorder in 1992 against F. Ann Rodriguez and was a candidate for county supervisor in 1996, losing to Mike Boyd.
His wife said he learned of his cancer in 1994.
”Typically, people (with the disease) live three years on average, and Winston lived six years,” she said.
He underwent treatment at the Arizona Cancer Center and at hospitals in Dallas and Bethesda, Md.
Mr. Smith was a member of the Exchange Club and also served as vice chairman of the state Democratic Party for a time.
The party honored him as Outstanding District Chair and Outstanding Candidate Volunteer and recently made him a member of the Democratic Hall of Fame.
He was a member of Dove of Peace Lutheran Church and served on its leadership council in 1998. He was a member of Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity and Sons of the American Revolution.
The memorial service is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. tomorrow at Dove of Peace, 665 W. Roller Coaster Road.
The family suggests donations to the Winston Smith Memorial Fund for Cancer Research, c/o Arizona Cancer Center/UAF (checks payable to Arizona Cancer Center/UAF), P.O. Box 245013, Tucson 85724-5013; or the American Red Cross Blood Bank, 222 S. Cherry Ave., Tucson 85719.
In addition to his wife, Mr. Smith is survived by his mother, Sally Smith; a sister, Beth Guepin; and a brother, Bob Smith.
(Dated Jan 24, 2000)
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John F. Porter, liaison for foreign pilots
• A service is set for Monday to honor the Air National Guard flier killed in a car wreck Sunday.
A memorial service is scheduled Monday for Lt. Col. John F. Porter, an F-16 instructor pilot with the Air National Guard’s 162nd Fighter Wing.
Lt. Col. Porter, 50, was killed Sunday in a single-vehicle car crash near Casa Grande while returning from Phoenix.
He had been a member of the Tucson International Airport-based unit since 1987, when he came here to instruct student pilots to fly the A-7D ”Corsair II” fighter.
He became an F-16 ”Fighting Falcon” instructor pilot in 1990. In addition to his flying duties, he served as chief of instructional syllabus development for the chief of training with the 162nd Operations Group, and as chief of the International Military Student Office.
In the latter capacity, Lt. Col. Porter worked closely with the Tucson Council for International Visitors, introducing student pilots from the air forces of allied nations – in Tucson for training – to people from their homelands who had become United States citizens.
Lt. Col. Porter was born June 3, 1949, in Dover, Del., son of U.S. Air Force Maj. John H. Porter, a Tuskegee Airman.
He was a 1967 graduate of Dover High School, and began his military career as a midshipman with the U.S. Naval Academy. He joined the U.S. Marine Corps upon graduation, and flew the F-4 ”Phantom” as a Marine aviator.
He left the Marine Corps after seven years to become a civilian pilot with Trans World Airlines, flying Lockheed L-1011 airliners.
Lt. Col. Porter played a key role in re-establishing the Chief Master Sgt. Fred Archer Chapter of Tuskegee Airmen in Tucson – the only chapter named in honor of an enlisted man. The colonel served as the re-established chapter’s president.
He was a command pilot with more than 5,000 flying hours – more than 3,000 of them in military aircraft.
A memorial service is scheduled at 10 a.m. Monday t Chapel 1 at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, 5385 E. Ironwood.
Survivors include two sons, Robert of Dover, Del. and Trevor of Tucson; and a brother, Robert Porter of Asheville, N.C.
(Dated Jan 29, 2000)
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