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Donald Lee Demeter
Detroit Tigers
Outfield
Born: June 25, 1935, Oklahoma City, OK
Signed: Signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers as an amateur free agent before 1953 season
Major League Teams: Brooklyn Dodgers 1956; Los Angeles Dodgers 1958-1961; Philadelphia Phillies 1961-1963; Detroit Tigers 1964-1966; Boston Red Sox 1966-1967; Cleveland Indians 1967
Died: November 29, 2021, Oklahoma City, OK (age 86)
Don Demeter was a slugging outfielder who also played solid defense for parts of 11 big league seasons, primarily with the Dodgers, Phillies and Tigers. Demeter became the Dodgers' regular center fielder in 1959, seeing his only postseason action when his team defeated the White Sox in six games in the World Series. He was dealt to the Phillies in May 1961 and he'd enjoy his best seasons while in Philadelphia as the team's regular center fielder or third baseman between 1961 and 1963. Demeter compiled a career year in 1962, batting .307 with 29 home runs and 107 RBIs while finishing 12th in the league's MVP voting. Following the 1963 season, Demeter was part of the trade package that brought Jim Bunning (#20) to the Phillies from Detroit. He put together a few more solid seasons with the Tigers, mainly as a back-up to Mickey Stanley and Jim Northrup (#259). Demeter would spend the last few seasons of his career as a pinch-hitter, retiring following the 1967 season as a result of a heart condition.
Building the Set
March 6, 2022 from The Philly Show (Sports Cards Plus - Cooper City, FL) - Card #575
This is the 91st of 102 cards acquired for our set from the Baseball Card Sports Memorabilia Show, affectionately known as The Philly Show, held in the basement of the Valley Forge Casino Resort in King of Prussia in early March. We went nuts and left the show needing only 12 more cards to complete our 1965 Topps set, and I wrote about the show in detail over at The Phillies Room. After our 51 card haul from Uncle Dick's, and with more card spending budget still in place, I set out to find another dealer with a binder of 1965 Topps cards with reasonable prices. I had purchased cards from Sports Cards Plus before, finding the last few cards needed for our 1971 Topps set from this dealer back in December 2019.
Settling in, we found 37 cards needed for our set with an average price per card working out to around $6. The lot, including this Demeter card, consisted mostly of semi-stars and team cards. After paying for this mini haul, we were officially 13 cards away from a complete set, with one more purchase coming to end the day.
The Card / Tigers Team Set
This is Demeter's first Topps flagship set appearance where he's shown in an actual Tigers uniform. His 1964 Topps card listed him on the Tigers, but he's wearing a full Phillies uniform. His in-progress errorless streak is highlighted on the back, as his clutch hitting from the 1964 season.
1965 Season
In his second season with the Tigers, Demeter was the club's opening day center fielder, and he'd make 97 starts overall between the outfield and first base. Demeter batted .278 with 16 home runs and 58 RBIs, with seven of those RBIs coming on August 12th against the Athletics. He went 3 for 4 that day with a grand slam.
On May 4, 1961, the Phillies acquired Demeter and Charley Smith (#22) from the Dodgers for Turk Farrell (#80) and Joe Koppe. Demeter appeared in 106 games for the Phillies, batting .257 with a team-leading 20 home runs. In 1962, his career year as mentioned above, Demeter moved to the infield, starting 95 games at third base. He'd make 50 starts overall in the outfield as well, beginning a 266 consecutive game errorless streak that would stand until broken by Darren Lewis in 1994. Demeter's marks won the team's triple crown in 1962, and he continued to move around the field the next season when he was the Phillies' opening day first baseman. He'd start 21 games at first base, 36 games at third base and 72 games in the outfield. Despite all the moving around, he still produced at the plate, batting .258 with 22 home runs (second on the club to Johnny Callison - #310) and 83 RBIs (tops on the club).
Now a valuable trade chip, Demeter was sent to the Tigers on December 5, 1963 with Jack Hamilton (#288) for Bunning and Gus Triandos (#248). The Tigers had acquired Demeter to replace slugger Rocky Colavito (#380), who had been dealt to the Athletics the previous month. In 413 games with the Phillies, Demeter batted .276 overall with 71 home runs and 258 RBIs.
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First Mainstream Card: 1956 Topps #63
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (10): 1958-1967
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 1979 TCMA 50's #237
58 - Demeter non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 10/1/22.
Sources:
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
The Phillies Room
SABR
The Trading Card Database
Wikipedia
Previous Card: #428 Bob Shaw - San Francisco Giants
Previous Card: #428 Bob Shaw - San Francisco Giants
Next Card: #430 Gary Peters - Chicago White Sox
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