Former Expo Denny Lemaster passes away at 85 

August 7, 2024

By Kevin Glew 

Cooperstowners in Canada 

Former Montreal Expos left-hander Denny Lemaster passed away on July 24 in Monroe, Ga., at the age of 85. 

No cause of death has been released. 

After 10 seasons with the Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves and Houston Astros, Lemaster made his final 13 big league appearances with the Expos in 1972. 

“I held my own pretty good,” Lemaster said in a 1987 interview. “It was a great honour to play that long . . . I don’t have any bitter things to say about baseball. Baseball was always good to me.” 

Born February 25, 1939, in Corona, Calif., Lemaster threw rocks at fence posts in his yard to build his arm strength. 

He developed into a dominant pitcher at Oxnard High School, throwing seven no-hitters and a perfect game. He posted a 0.14 ERA in his senior season. 

His performance sparked a bidding war among big league clubs for his services, one that was won by the Milwaukee Braves when they offered him an $80,000 signing bonus.  

Lemaster officially signed with the Braves on June 16, 1958, and reported to their class-C Northern League affiliate in Eau Claire where he went 4-2 with a 2.82 ERA in eight games (seven starts) to begin his pro career. 

From there, he commenced his ascent up the Braves’ minor league ranks. Armed with a mid-90s fastball and an outstanding curveball, he was labeled the Braves’ next Warren Spahn. 

One of Lemaster’s final minor league stops was with the Braves’ triple-A Pacific Coast League Vancouver Mounties, in 1961. On Canada’s West Coast, he would struggle for the first time in his pro career, going 2-6 with a 5.09 ERA in 14 appearances (nine starts). 

Lemaster went 10-4 with a 2.40 ERA in 18 games (16 starts) with the triple-A Louisville Colonels the ensuing season before he was called up by the Braves. On July 15, 1962, in his major league debut, he tossed a complete game, allowing just three runs on six hits, while striking out seven, against the Cincinnati Reds. But he was saddled with the loss in the Reds’ 3-2 victory. 

In 1963, his first full major league season, he posted an 11-14 record and a 3.04 ERA in 46 appearances (31 starts), spanning 237 innings. He followed that up with a career-high 17 wins in 1964. 

But he made his most famous start on August 9, 1966, against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Facing off against Sandy Koufax, Lemaster took a no-hitter into the eighth inning, but settled for a three-hitter in a 2-1 win in front of 52,270 fans at Atlanta Stadium. At the time, that was an attendance record for the stadium.

In 1967, he was selected to his first – and only – MLB All-Star Game when he posted a 3.34 ERA and tossed eight complete games in 31 starts. 

In October of that year, he was dealt to the Houston Astros where he had two strong seasons as a starter, recording a career-best 2.81 ERA in 1968 and throwing a career-high 244 2/3 innings in 1969.  

By 1971, however, the Astros had converted him into a full-time reliever, and he finished that season with 3.45 ERA in 42 appearances out of the bullpen. 

That October, Lemaster’s contract was sold to the Expos. Expos GM Jim Fanning and president John McHale, who had both come from the Braves’ organization, were familiar with Lemaster. 

“We feel Lemaster can help us as a starter and for relief work,” Fanning told the Montreal Gazette. 

Expos manager Gene Mauch was also looking forward to having Lemaster on his staff. 

“Gene has a lot of confidence we can make him go again and so do I,” Fanning told the Montreal Star. “He had a 17-win year and another when he won 13. When we had him, we thought his performances warranted, say, 20 wins the year he got the 17.” 

For his part, Lemaster welcomed the opportunity to start again. 

“That would thrill me to death,” Lemaster told the Gazette for their October 16, 1971 edition, while also declaring his arm completely healthy. 

In 1972, Lemaster enjoyed a strong spring, but Mauch said the lefty would begin the season in the bullpen. 

“He is at the stage of his career where he will have to accept a new role, that of a moment’s-notice, left-handed specialist,” Mauch wrote in a guest column in the Gazette. “I have confidence that he can do it and make the adjustment. It is a psychological thing.” 

And in his first regular season appearance with the Expos, Lemaster seemed to have made that adjustment. On April 22, he entered the game against the St. Louis Cardinals in the seventh inning and tossed 3 2/3 scoreless innings to earn the win in the Expos’ 6-5, 10-inning victory. It was his first major league win since 1970. 

“I know Gene is going to give me the chance [to pitch a lot],” said Lemaster after the game, “and that’s all I want.” 

And in the early part of the 1972 season, Mauch did give Lemaster that chance. The veteran left-hander was summoned out of the bullpen again on April 23, but this time the Cardinals rocked him for four runs in 1/3 of an inning. 

By the end of April, Lemaster’s ERA was 12.27, and by mid-May, Mauch had lost confidence in Lemaster. 

“I can’t use Denny on consecutive days,” Mauch told the Gazette for their May 19, 1972 edition. “It’s finally sunk into my thick noggin that if I use him one day, I shouldn’t call him on the next.” 

By that time, the 33-year-old southpaw had been relegated to a mop-up role before he was placed on waivers on June 25. 

“This could be a big break for him,” Mauch told the Montreal Star of Lemaster being on waivers. “I know he was disappointed in not getting more chances to pitch. And there should be a few clubs, especially in the American League, who are in a position to pick him up and pitch him more than we did . . . I would have liked to use Denny more, but I found he didn’t have good stuff when I brought him back two days in a row. He’s been a starter all his life, and it’s not an easy transition to get your arm conditioned to throwing every day.” 

But there would be no “big break” for Lemaster after he was released by the Expos. He would never pitch in the big leagues again. 

He finished his MLB career with a 90-105 record with a respectable 3.58 ERA in 357 major league appearances in parts of 11 seasons. 

In his post-playing career, he worked as a custom home builder and became an acclaimed duck decoy carver and painter. He lived comfortably near Atlanta, Ga. 

Lemaster is survived by his second wife, Bunny, four children, three stepchildren, 14 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. 

A funeral service was held for him on August 2 in Loganville, Ga. You can leave online condolences for his family here. 

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