Tom Hume’s career was more than just a fantasy | St. Petersburg

For over 30 years, Tom Hume has been a participant in the Cincinnati Reds fantasy baseball camp. The former Cincy hurler and coach, a graduate of Northeast High School in St. Petersburg, was proud to announce that in early January “our team won” this year’s Fantasy Camp championship.

“Next year they won’t like us,” laughed Hume. “There’s a lot of bantering and competitiveness during the week. It’s all in fun although a few guys sometimes get intense and fired up during the games.”

Numerous former Reds players are involved with the camp each year, hosting and coaching dozens of Cincinnati baseball fans ranging in age from 30 to sometimes as old as in their 80s, taking their crack at being a “big leaguer” during a week that includes games and other activities.

“It’s a good time,” said Hume, who has lived in Palmetto for almost 53 years after marrying his wife, Susan. “It’s a fun way to get together for us, and the wives to see each other, too.” Hume particularly enjoys hanging with another former Reds pitcher, Jim Maloney, “such a great guy.”

The Reds fantasy camp started when the team spring trained in Tampa, and then in Arizona, where Cincinnati now goes in the spring. For the past several years, former infielder Doug Flynn has run the show.

Of course, Hume’s baseball career is much more than a fantasy. In his senior year at Northeast in 1971, the righthander went 10-3 with an ERA of 1.41, striking out 138 in 89 1/3 innings. That effort seemed to catch the attention of the Dodgers, who drafted him in a late round. For some reason, though, they never got around to offering Hume a deal.

“They didn’t sign me,” said Hume, still puzzled. “They didn’t even offer me a contract. I still don’t know why.”

Turning pro wasn’t necessarily on his mind at the time and he quickly accepted a scholarship to play ball in the fall at Manatee Junior College.

“I wasn’t really sure that going professionally was something I had to do,” he said. “It wasn’t like it was live or die to me to be drafted. I never really thought about that.”

He didn’t have to think long after a semester of fall ball at Manatee. In the January 1972 secondary draft Hume was picked in the first round (16th overall) by his favorite team growing up, the Reds. Hume got an offer and signed on. “The Manatee coach wasn’t very happy with me,” he said, “but it was exciting.”

Yes, Hume was happily taken by surprise, and by his original hometown team, too! Hume, who was born in Cincinnati, moved to St. Petersburg with his family when he was 8 when his father got a job transfer. “I had no idea I’d be picked,” he said. “As a kid I wore a Reds shirt and Red patches” and now he was one of them.

The 6-foot-1 Hume had a pretty good spring as a starting pitcher for the Tampa Tarpons. That summer was a good one in another way. He met his wife on a blind date at a wedding on July 1, got engaged that Christmas and tied the knot in April of 1973. They are still married with two grown children and seven grandchildren.

Hume worked his way up through the system, also playing in the off-season in Mexico and the Dominican Republic, and finally got the call to join the major league club in late May of 1977.

“I was in awe of the guys I would be playing with,” he remembered. “Rose, Concepion, Morgan, Driessen, Foster, Bench and the others.”

His first outing, against the San Francisco Giants, was memorable, for the wrong reasons.

“It was not good,” said Hume, who admitted he was extra nervous. “I had an upset stomach. I pitched 1/3 of an inning and gave up five runs. The only one I got out was Willie McCovey. At least he was somebody good.”

Hume went 0-3 initially. He would get a personal boost a little later in the season when the Reds landed Tom Seaver in a blockbuster trade at the end of June and eventually a friendly relationship between the two formed.

“Those days you didn’t talk to the veterans but I got really close with Seaver,” said Hume, who turns 73 in March. “He helped me tremendously. I learned a lot from him. He would talk to me about the little things like how to watch what a hitter was doing. Bench also helped me a lot. One time I was struggling and I just gripped the ball differently. The pitch hit Bench in the chest. He asked me what I just threw. I said I didn’t know. He said well keep throwing it. That was a sinker and from then on I got a lot of ground balls rather than trying to strike everybody out. Changed my whole pitching plan.”

After going 0-3 in his early stint in his first season, Hume went 3-0 with a 3.20 ERA after being recalled in September. He remembers that first W like it was yesterday.

“I got my first win after pitching seven innings in relief against the Dodgers,” he said. “That was especially nice beating the Dodgers and in L.A. where it was a sellout.”

Hume worked as a starter and out of the bullpen in 1978. And then in 1979, after Sparky Anderson was fired, in came John McNamara as the new manager.

“He was my favorite manager, just tremendous with me,” said Hume.

McNamara told Hume that what the Reds needed at the time was bullpen help and so Hume became predominately a reliever. Before the season was over, he racked up 17 saves. He also made his lone post-season appearance that year, losing to the Pittsburgh Pirates. In 1980 Hume pitched in a career-high 62 games and went 9-10 with 25 saves and a 2.56 ERA, coming up a few innings short of the league’s ERA title, and was named the Fireman of the Year by The Sporting News. A year later, he was 9-4 with 13 saves. He got off to a great start in 1982, earned the save in his one and only All-Star game (“very proud that Tommy LaSorda picked me”) getting Buddy Bell to fly out to end the game, and claiming 17 saves before a knee injury sidelined him.

Although Hume continued to pitch for another five seasons, an injury to his right knee put a damper on things moving forward.

“I tried to do too much too early,” said Hume. “It got in my head.”

It looked like Hume had turned the corner in 1986 after being traded to the Phillies. He jumped out to a 4-1 start with his new team, notching an ERA of 2.77 and four saves. Then the other knee took a hit in one of those how did it happen kind of ways.

“I got off the couch and I heard a pop in my left knee,” he said with a cringe. “It was an ACL tear.”

Philadelphia eventually sent Hume back to the Reds the next season. By then the writing was on the wall. He finished his playing career with a record of 57-71 with 92 saves and an ERA of 3.85. Hume would later become Cincinnati’s bullpen coach in 1996, a post he held for 11 years.

He had also worked one year doing broadcasting for Reds games with Bench, and then a few years as a volunteer assistant coach at Palmetto High School, and was there in 1994 when Palmetto won a state championship.

“That was one of the most fun years in baseball for me,” said Hume, whose son Bradley was the first baseman on that team. “We had only 12 or 13 kids on the team. They were all good kids. We got a lot of breaks and we beat Key West in the finals.”

Hume is still doing some volunteer coaching work at Palmetto High School, where grandsons Holden (varsity) and Reid (JV) currently play. Another grandson, Holland, is on the varsity team at Bradenton Christian High School.

In some ways, Hume counts his lucky stars. He grew up with asthma, survived, along with his wife, the November 1980 MGM fire in Las Vegas that killed 85 people, and escaped the wrath of Hurricane Olivia in 2018.

“I am blessed every day,” said Hume. “I am glad that I had the ability to do what I did.”