Don Demeter

Donald Lee Demeter

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 4", Weight 190 lb.
• School Oklahoma City University
• High School Capitol Hill High School
• Debut September 18, 1956
• Final Game August 28, 1967
• Born June 25, 1935 in Oklahoma City, OK USA
• Died November 29, 2021 in Oklahoma City, OK USA

BR page

Biographical Information

Tall, lanky Don Demeter was an outfielder with an 11-year major league career who hit 20 home runs four times. He also played over 100 games at third base and at first base.

He was a regular on the 1959 Los Angeles Dodgers team that won the World Series. In the Series, he batted sixth in the order or was a late-inning replacement.

His best year came with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1962, when he was in the top ten in the National League in batting average, slugging percentage, home runs, and RBI. He led the league in sacrifice flies, and was second in the league in hit-by-pitch.

He was the main target in the Detroit Tigers' trade of future Hall of Famer Jim Bunning to the Phillies after the 1963 season. The development of young outfielders such as Willie Horton, Gates Brown and Jim Northrup, alongside the great Al Kaline, left no room in the Tiger outfield for him (and he failed as yet another of GM Jim Campbell's endless possibilities to oust Norm Cash from first base). Demeter was thus traded by Detroit to the Boston Red Sox for a different righthanded pitcher, Earl Wilson, on June 14, 1966.

The most similar player, according to similarity scores is his contemporary, Jim Lemon. He is the answer to this trivia question: Who replaced the great Duke Snider in center field for the Dodgers?

Demeter's son, Todd Demeter, was a minor league 1B/OF.

Don Demeter is currently a pastor in Oklahoma City, OK.

Notable Achievements

• 20-Home Run Seasons: 4 (1961-1964)
• 100 RBI Seasons: 1 (1962)
• Won a World Series with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1959

Further Reading

• Jonathan Arnold: "Don Demeter", in Bill Nowlin and Dan Desrochers, eds.: The 1967 Impossible Dream Red Sox: 'Pandemonium on the Field', SABR, Rounder Books, Burlington, MA, 2007, pp. 43-47. ISBN 978-1-5794-0141-2
• Ed Godfrey: "Don Demeter, former Brooklyn Dodger and Oklahoma City native, dies at age 86", Yahoo!News, November 30, 2021. [1]

Related Sites

• Don Demeter at the SABR Bio Project
• Grace Community Baptist Church Facebook page