Tom Hume

It was the spring of 1975, and Pete Rose was befuddled as he stood in the batting cage. A young, bespectacled right-hander named Tommy Hume, the Cincinnati Reds’ first-round choice in the January 1972 secondary phase of the amateur draft, was buzzing fastballs by the World Series MVP-to-be in batting practice. “The kid had Rose mumbling to himself … which doesn’t happen too often,” manager Sparky Anderson confessed to a reporter.1 But it was a slow road for Hume in becoming the highest-paid Reds pitcher the city had seen and one of the best stoppers in the game, success that was due in part to mentorship from pitching great Tom Seaver.

Thomas Hubert Hume Jr. was born in Cincinnati on March 29, 1953, the first of three sons for Thomas Sr., a draftsman and Masonic Softball League slugger, and wife Margaret (née Dennison) Hume, who worked as a file clerk when they married in 1950.2 The family lived in West Price Hill and moved around Cincinnati before settling in St. Petersburg, Florida, where the warmth did wonders for eight-year-old Tom’s asthma.3 Known as “T.J.” for Tom Jr., he shared a birthday with Cy Young and played in the local Meadowlawn Little League. His youngest brother, Tim, was born in 1962; as an infielder, he would make it as far as the Reds’ Class-A affiliate in Tampa.

In his senior year, Tom was nicknamed Iron Arm after pitching complete games on back-to-back days in Northeast High School’s district tournament, allowing a combined four hits and striking out 31.4 Hume finished the season 10-3 with a 1.41 ERA in 89 1/3 innings and struck out 138.5 In June 1971 the Los Angeles Dodgers drafted Hume in the 35th round but didn’t sign him. Instead, Hume went to Manatee Junior College on a baseball scholarship and after playing only in the fall season was signed by his hometown Reds on January 21, 1972. The following year he married Susan Louise Holland, the daughter of the mayor of Palmetto, Florida, where the couple would live and raise their son and daughter.

Hume bounced around the minors for five years. Coaches were impressed with his arm, but he lacked control and consistency and posted mostly losing records. After a disappointing spring in 1977, Anderson’s patience had run out. For two years he had tried not to bruise the confidence of Hume and fellow right-hander Larry Payne, but on a Friday in late March in Tampa, he chewed them out.6 He told them there was a time when he suspected their poor statistics at Indianapolis could be chalked up to woeful defense and run support—but now, he was convinced they were to blame.7 With that, they were reassigned. “I’ll be back,” Hume quietly vowed after Anderson had already stormed out of the room.8 Told later of what Hume had said, the manager admired his resolve.

The 6-foot-1, 185-pound Hume was brought up to the majors on May 21, 1977, replacing the recently traded Santo Alcalá as the Reds’ fifth starter. On May 25, he made his first big-league appearance against the Giants. “He had gotten called up from Triple A and we were in San Francisco,” recalled Jack Billingham, Hume’s roommate – who, at 34, was a veteran starter in his final season with the Reds.9 “I remember that he flew his mother up there and his brother up there,” said Billingham, but Hume’s day was over before he recorded the second out. In one-third of an inning, he gave up four hits, a walk, and five runs. His only out was Willie McCovey, the fifth batter he faced, who hit a fly ball to center fielder George Foster. The Reds lost the game 6–5.

The real damage came from a three-run home run hit by Gary Thomasson off Hume’s slider. Reds pitching coach Larry Shepard suggested afterward that Hume retire the pitch from his repertoire, which also included a curveball, changeup, and his fastball. Hume found his sinker by accident when, during an outing in Cincinnati, he clenched the ball differently than his usual four-seam grip and threw it to Johnny Bench. The catcher wondered, what did he just throw?10 Bench called for time and walked to the mound. Hume stammered as he explained that it wasn’t thrown with any deliberation; he was only extemporaneously adjusting to a two-seam grip. But to Bench, it was effective. “We’d better start throwing it more often,” he urged Hume.11

On June 15, in only his fifth appearance, the right-handed-batting Hume hit his lone major-league home run, a shot to center field at Riverfront Stadium off the Phillies’ Randy Lerch. As it turned out, the Reds won the game by one run. Afterward, Anderson announced Hume’s move to the bullpen to offset the trade of right-handed reliever Rawly Eastwick to the St. Louis Cardinals. But after giving up nine runs over his next three appearances, Hume was sent back down to Indianapolis, where injuries and call-ups necessitated him starting.

He was recalled by the Reds on September 2, and on September 11 inherited an early-inning, bases-loaded, no-outs jam against the Dodgers. After lifting his starter, Billingham, Anderson said to Bench as they awaited Hume, “We gotta find out right now if this kid can pitch.”12 Hume rose to the occasion, allowing five hits and no runs over seven innings en route to his first win. In his last six games of the 1977 season, he posted a 3-0 record and 3.24 ERA.

As the 1978 season drew near, Hume was again named to the Reds’ rotation. He nailed down victories in his first two games but then went winless until July 9, piling up nine losses and a 5.55 ERA in that stretch. Then came a transformation—from “Tom Not-So-Terrific,” as one Dayton sportswriter tagged him, to a pitcher with improved location and a deceptive changeup.13 Hume recorded a 2.67 ERA over his last 24 outings of the season and pitched three complete games. He then went 5-0 on the Reds’ 17-game tour of Japan in November.

“I do not believe he can be in your rotation day after day,” said Anderson toward the conclusion of the Japanese trip.14 The manager saw two sides of Hume: the pitcher that could be his next Clay Carroll, but with even better stuff; and one whose nerves got the best of him the moment he stepped across the foul line to take the mound.15 When Hume was moved out of the rotation in August to help a beleaguered bullpen, Anderson thought the reassignment would be good for Hume’s psyche, one that might stave off the jitters he often got the night before a start. With the unpredictability of getting loose at a moment’s notice, “he don’t have time to worry,” Anderson deduced.16

What’s more, Hume had found a mentor in Tom Seaver. In 1977 the exiled New York Met had brought to Cincinnati the kind of mastery that left the Reds’ coaching staff and impressionable young pitchers awestruck. When the deal was first made for Seaver, Anderson couldn’t help but gloat when imagining the reaction of the division-rival Dodgers.17 Billingham recalled the special treatment the three-time Cy Young Award winner was given. “Our pitching coach had a [conditioning] program for everybody—all the pitchers—but when Seaver came over, he let him do his own thing,” Billingham said.18 “[Shepard] wasn’t gonna change anything in Tom Seaver, and I doubt if Seaver would have let him change anything.” Seaver taught Hume that his walk to the mound should be a time to settle on a first pitch and what to throw when ahead or behind in the count.19 He even introduced Hume to the arts in their visits to museums between away games.20

Anderson was fired on November 28, 1978. New Reds manager John McNamara moved Hume to the bullpen at the halfway point in the 1979 season to compensate for the trade of right-handed reliever Pedro Borbón. Between July 26 and August 28, Hume was charged with one earned run in 28 2/3 innings and held hitters to a .178 average. He finished with a NL-best adjusted ERA+ of 137, and his duel with Houston’s J.R. Richard for the league’s ERA title came down to the final week of the season; Richard turned in a pair of scoreless starts on September 25 and 29 to edge Hume by five hundredths of a point.21

Hume’s only taste of the postseason came in the 1979 National League Championship Series against the Pittsburgh Pirates. He was cruising along in Game One, having thrown two scoreless innings. But then, in the 11th, the first two batters singled and Willie Stargell blasted a three-run home run on the first pitch of the at-bat to break a 2–2 tie. McNamara had left Hume in to bat for himself with two outs in the deadlocked Reds’ tenth and left him in again an inning later when Stargell came to the plate. “They don’t take Rollie Fingers out against a left-handed hitter, do they?” said McNamara afterward.22 It was high praise for Hume and a remark that typified the chasm between the manager and his predecessor, nicknamed Captain Hook after the Reds’ long stretch without a complete game in 1975.23

Stargell had entered play 1-for-7 lifetime off Hume, but the postseason homer seemed to change everything. In Stargell’s retirement year he went 3-for-4 against Hume and smashed the last two home runs of his career off him. “Willie was a guy that just hit Hume well … saw him real well and, of course, was a great power hitter in his own right,” recalled Kent Tekulve, the former Pirates closer with the submarine arm motion.24

The Pirates swept the Reds in three games for the pennant, but for Hume, 1979 marked a breakout season. Seaver’s advice—“To heck with the hitter; you’re the boss”—had made Hume a more aggressive pitcher.25 But his newfound attitude and fame didn’t change the man behind the large-framed eyeglasses who reminded Foster of Clark Kent, more of a studious type than the “animal” Seaver encouraged him to be when toeing the rubber.26 Hume stayed grounded by remembering the bicycles he assembled for a couple dollars an hour as a side job while scraping by in the minors.27 He continued to drive his modest Oldsmobile and didn’t like talking about himself.28 His biggest concern in becoming Reds closer was that it might damage his friendship with Doug Bair, the man he replaced.29 Bill Fischer, McNamara’s pitching coach, wasn’t convinced that Hume was even aware of how exceptional he was—success that carried into 1980.30

“An unenviable task confronting the ace of the Cincinnati bullpen,” Reds play-by-play man Marty Brennaman announced from the radio booth at Dodger Stadium on September 21, 1980.31 Hume had come into a 2–2 ballgame in the bottom of the ninth with a runner at third and nobody out and had intentionally walked Ron Cey and old nemesis Gary Thomasson to load the bases. Lifted starter Mario Soto decided he couldn’t watch and headed back into the clubhouse, but Hume would retire the next three batters to end the threat.32 Later, in the bottom of the 10th after getting Davey Lopes to ground out, Hume gave up consecutive singles and a walk to again load the bases. He then retired Cey on a pop foul to the catcher and struck out Thomasson looking.

Hume considered the tightrope act one of the greatest thrills of his career.33 The Reds went on to score five runs in the 11th—a Ken Griffey hit drove in two, including Hume—and they won the game 7–2. It was one of a league-high 62 games Hume finished that season. His 25 saves and nine relief wins gave him 34 points in scoring for The Sporting News’s Fireman of the Year Award to tie San Diego’s Fingers, the first such NL outcome in the 20 years that the publication had bestowed the honor.

There was a certain irony in Hume’s winning top fireman just weeks before he and his wife needed to be rescued from a smoke-filled Las Vegas hotel. A fire that broke out on the ground floor of the MGM Grand on November 21 engulfed the 57,000-square-foot main casino in less than 20 seconds, melting slot machines and plastic trim and producing toxic fumes that pervaded the 26-floor hotel as many guests slept.34 The Humes were staying on the 24th floor. Across the hall from them were friends Bill Bonham, a Reds starter who had pitched his final major-league game in July, and wife Dona. Hume was awakened shortly after 7:00 a.m. by a man outside his door shouting to alert guests to the fire. Investigators would discover no evidence that a fire evacuation alarm sounded in the hotel tower.35

Although baseball had a way of testing Hume’s nerves, the ordeal in Las Vegas left him unflappable, even as he and Susan pounded on the Bonhams’ door. “Billy, hurry up—it’s coming this way!” Susan implored as smoke billowed down the hall toward them.36 “I just thought that God was watching over me,” Tom would later tell a reporter.37 “I just felt I was going to get out.” (Hume attended the in-season Baseball Chapel services, organized by Foster, and would cochair the group with Dave Concepción when Foster left for the Mets in 1982.) The two couples tried to escape down a stairwell, but by the time they descended eight floors the smoke was too much, forcing them to ascend to the roof.38

It was there that three helicopters airlifted stranded guests to safety—first the wives, then the pitchers. Ray Poss, who flew a Bell JetRanger that seated five, was one of the pilots. “It was quite a difficult rescue because the smoke was highly toxic,” he recalled.39 “We would hold our breath, fly through the smoke and land, hold our breath, take off, fly through the smoke and go down to the ground, let them out, then right back up to the top again. And this went on for hours.” In addition to Poss’s helicopter, a police chopper and medevac performed rescues—between them, over 300 people in all. The fire contributed to the deaths of 87 people, most of whom died of smoke inhalation. Ten people were found dead on the Humes’ floor, all but one discovered in hallways.40

The strike-shortened 1981 baseball season opened with Hume blowing a save at home against Philadelphia, and yet he picked up the win when the Reds rallied late. Bench was behind the plate but would catch Hume in only two innings in 1981 because of a self-imposed limit of two games per week in this, his 15th season as backstop. The remainder of the catching duties were split between Joe Nolan and Mike O’Berry, each of whom outshone the other in some ability; Nolan was the better hitter, while O’Berry was more adept at throwing out would-be base stealers. Acquired from the Chicago Cubs, O’Berry palled around with Hume and caught him in workouts during the seven-week-long work stoppage. “During that season, especially during the strike, he was probably my best friend,” O’Berry recalled in 2025.41

O’Berry was catching toward the end of the season when Hume induced Houston’s César Cedeño to ground into a double play and Art Howe to ground out to short. By doing so, Hume recorded his 13th save and extended his streak to seven straight appearances without allowing a hit, a career high. “He wasn’t an overpowering guy. He wasn’t the guy that threw 95, but he could get it up there,” said O’Berry, Hume’s batterymate in 29 games in 1981.42 “His movement was his big thing. He’d get people to swing early in the count, get ground balls.”

In 1982 Hume collected 16 first-half saves, posted a 0.59 ERA over 11 games in May, and recorded the save for the National League in his only All-Star Game appearance. On July 30 he underwent surgery on his right knee—the result of an injury suffered May 28 in Montreal as he shagged fly balls in batting practice—and missed the remainder of the season. He was rehabbing at home as the Reds traded his mentor Seaver back to the Mets on December 16. A week later, Hume agreed to a four-year contract worth $3.2 million, then a record amount for a Cincinnati pitcher.

But with the peaks in Hume’s career came the valleys. He was among the 30 highest-paid players in the game, but living up to the contract would be impeded over the next two seasons by mounting losses and a ballooning ERA.43 He was sidelined for a month in 1983 with swelling above his right elbow, the result of a gingerly post-surgery delivery that had put too much stress on his arm. By mid-1984 the boos that greeted Hume as he entered ballgames in Cincinnati had eroded his confidence, and the Reds were ready to try him again as a starter with hopes that he could straighten himself out in the four-day gaps between outings.44 He was the losing pitcher in five of those eight starts. “He’s been a starter, a long reliever, and a short man. He doesn’t know what his role is,” said Pete Rose near the start of his first full season as Reds player-manager, the team’s fourth skipper in three years.45 “He’s confused. Most people would be.”

Pledging that his problems with self-doubt were behind him, Hume, at 32, was the eldest member of the Reds pitching staff at the start of the 1985 season and had shown shades of his former self that spring.46 He finished the regular season with a 3.26 ERA over 80 innings.

On December 11, Hume was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies, included in a deal for John Denny so that the Reds could free up payroll for the 1983 Cy Young Award winner.47 Shedding Hume’s $800,000 salary helped the Reds offset the $1.1 million Denny was owed for the 1986 season.

The addition of Hume increased the number of bespectacled hurlers in the Philadelphia bullpen to two; there was also Kent Tekulve, traded from Pittsburgh the previous season to an aging Phillies ball club that only slightly resembled the 1980 World Series champions. “That group—what was left of it—was getting old, and the young guys that were coming behind it couldn’t carry the weight,” Tekulve said.48 “Steve Jeltz was not Larry Bowa. Rick Schu was not Mike Schmidt when Schmidt went over to first base.”

Following surgery in January to remove loose bodies in his sprained left knee, Hume’s Phillies debut was delayed until May 14, the first of two home games against, who else, the Reds. Hume pitched 2 2/3 innings against his former club, allowing two hits and no runs. On August 16 he made his first start in more than two years to cover for a Phillies pitching staff inundated by back-to-back doubleheaders, taking a no-hit bid into the sixth until the Pirates’ Rafael Belliard singled to left field. Hume and Tekulve combined for a one-hitter in the 6–0 Phillies victory, a highlight of Hume’s outstanding second half.

Hume’s role, however, would be as a reliever in all but seven of his 86 appearances over two seasons in Philadelphia. “We had both gotten past the closer stage in our careers and we were pitching in setup roles,” said Tekulve, who remembered their conversations praising the setup men from their bygone closing days.49 “So, it was actually kind of neat to have somebody you’re working alongside that understood this reduced role.”

Hume re-signed with the Phillies for one year, at almost half what his previous contract paid, on December 7, 1986. “We always seemed to connect when he was out there,” recalled Lance Parrish on his and Hume’s communication as a battery.50 Parrish caught Hume in 29 games in 1987, and their commonality was a yearning to rediscover their former glory. Hume had been at the top of the relief ranks at the start of the decade; and Parrish had been a prolific home-run hitter for the Detroit Tigers, piling up 212 of them until a broken pedicle in his spine sidelined him in 1986.

But Hume’s 1987 season was marked by wildness, and Parrish couldn’t overcome his back miseries.51 In August the Phillies placed Hume on waivers one day after he loaded the bases and walked in the go-ahead run against the Cardinals in a game Philadelphia won. In the span of four months, Hume’s hotel room had been burglarized and his wife’s anniversary presents stolen; he was dogged by persistent trade rumors; a report surfaced that in the throes of a loss, Phillies manager Lee Elia had shoved him in the dugout; and the curtain finally fell on Hume’s second act in Philadelphia.52 “Unfortunately,” Parrish said, “he wasn’t able to have the year that he wanted to have when I caught him, but he had his moments where he was effective.”53

Rose thought so too, and the Reds emerged as potential suitors for Hume. A deal was signed on August 17. “I had some rough years with the fans, but it seems like this is home,” said Hume, who signed for the league-minimum $62,500 so that the Reds, tied for first place in the Western Division, could boost their middle-relief squad.54 He wore 41, Seaver’s old number, appearing in 11 games for Cincinnati. But the Reds’ seven-game losing streak in late August dropped them to third place and distance grew between them and other postseason hopefuls. Hume was released on November 2.55 He posted a 57-71 record, a 3.85 ERA, and 92 saves over 11 major-league seasons.

After retiring as a player Hume co-owned a farm supply store in Palmetto. He broke into television in 1990, partnering with play-by-play man Johnny Bench as a color analyst for Reds broadcasts on Cincinnati’s Channel 5, which carried 47 games. Reviews were unkind to the shy Hume, who had endeared himself to Parrish as a “quiet, unassuming guy” in Philadelphia. “He had a dry sense of humor—would always throw a couple zingers in there in conversation that kind of busted everybody up,” said Parrish of their playing days.56 Bench and Hume’s practiced chemistry carried over to telecasts, but critics considered Hume ill-suited for the job.57 He did not return to the booth in 1991.

Hume became the Reds’ bullpen coach in January 1996, a job he held for 11 seasons. Under Hume the Reds recorded a 3.36 bullpen ERA and collected 55 saves in 1999, leading the majors in both categories. Hume served as the Reds’ interim pitching coach for one season while Vern Ruhle battled bone marrow cancer. Following the 2007 season in which the Reds ranked 27th in bullpen ERA and piled up the fifth-most relief losses, new manager Dusty Baker opted not to retain Hume as a member of the coaching staff.

Finding contentment in life after baseball, Hume turned down offers to coach the Cubs’ Triple-A pitching staff and the Colorado Rockies’ and Milwaukee Brewers’ bullpens.58 He and wife Susan split their time between homes in Florida and Colorado.

As of 2025, Hume’s mark of 88 Reds saves tied Rob Dibble for seventh most all-time in Cincinnati.

Last revised: July 8, 2025

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to thank Jack Billingham, Mike O’Berry, Lance Parrish, Ray Poss, and Kent Tekulve for their participation in this story. Thanks also to Tom Gage, Gary Gillette, Steve Headley of the Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library, Glenn Hubbard, and Asia Ryan of the St. Petersburg Library System for their assistance.

This biography was reviewed by Rory Costello and David Bilmes and checked for accuracy by members of SABR’s fact-checking team.

Photo credit: Tom Hume, Trading Card Database.

Sources

The author relied on Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs.com for statistics; and obtained Hume’s player file from the Giamatti Research Center at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. All other sources are shown in the Notes.

Notes

1 Earl Lawson, “Howsam Hopes Hume Flunks ’76 Test,” The Sporting News, January 10, 1976: 33.

2 Williams’ Cincinnati City Directory 1952 (Cincinnati: Williams Directory Co., 1953), 560; also, “Courts,” Clermont Sun, June 15, 1950: 2.

3 Bob Hertzel, “Reds’ Signing Irks Hume’s Coach,” Cincinnati Enquirer, January 22, 1972: 26.

4 Thomas H. Hume Jr., ballplayer questionnaire, May 12, 1972, William J. Weiss Collection. Society for American Baseball Research, San Diego; also, “Valiant Hume’s 11th Hour Is Error,” St. Petersburg Times, April 18, 1971: 8C.

5 Phil Gulick, “Champion Marauders Top All-County Baseball,” St. Petersburg Times, May 16, 1971: 5C.

6 Once considered by Reds scouts to have a better curveball than Don Gullett, Payne had the distinction of being selected by the Reds in the first round of the 1972 amateur draft and was the seventh pick overall. He owned a 12-4 record and 0.28 ERA his senior year at Huntsville High School in Bedias, Texas. But after spending one more season at Indianapolis, during which he went 0-1 with a 7.88 ERA over 24 innings, Payne gave up on baseball and became a dentist. (Lonnie Wheeler, “Reds Draft Texas Hurler,” Cincinnati Enquirer, June 7, 1972: 23; also, Elizabeth Wyman, “From Bush Leagues to Molars: DeKalb Dentist Found Calling After Pro Baseball Fizzled Out,” [Fort Wayne] Journal Gazette, March 24, 2019: 7B.)

7 Hal McCoy, “Reds Bring Up Hume; Alcala Goes to Expos,” Dayton Daily News, May 22, 1977: 2D.

8 McCoy, “Reds Bring Up Hume; Alcala Goes to Expos.”

9 Billingham, interview with author, April 15, 2025.

10 Hume, interview by Rex Naylor and Steve Schaaf, “Back When There Was Baseball,” PennSports.Live, January 1, 2025, https://pennsports.live/podcast/back-when-there-was-baseball-tom-hume.

11 “Hume Among League’s Bullpen Elite,” Cincinnati Reds 1981 Scorebook (New York: Professional Sports Publications, n.d.), 26.

12 Hal McCoy, “Turned Around Hume Put Damper on Dodgers,” Dayton Daily News, September 12, 1977: 6.

13 Paul Rolfes pinned the unflattering name on Hume in “They’re Called Runs: Reds Finally Give Tom Hume a Working Margin in 9–2 Victory,” Dayton Daily News, July 17, 1978: 8.

14 Anderson, interview by Si Burick, typewritten transcript, Si Burick Papers, University of Dayton Archives, 1978.

15 Earl Lawson, “Hume in Relief Helps Reds Win,” Cincinnati Post, August 19, 1978: 9; and “Hume’s Night Spoiled Early: ‘Tense’ Tom Loses 6th to Cards 4–1,” Cincinnati Post, June 7, 1978: 19.

16 Bob Hertzel, “Reds’ New Order Flattens Cubs, to Tom’s Relief,” Cincinnati Enquirer, August 19, 1978: B1.

17 Earl Lawson, “Two Big Trades for Reds: Seaver Comes, Nolan Goes,” Cincinnati Post, June 16, 1977: 1.

18 Billingham interview.

19 Frank Deford, “Behind the Fence,” Sports Illustrated, July 27, 1981: 56.

20 Bill Madden, Tom Seaver: A Terrific Life (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2020), 211.

21 Richard recorded a 2.71 ERA over 292 1/3 innings; Hume’s 2.76 ERA covered 163 innings.

22 McNamara was quoted in Lawson’s “Glum Reds Make No Alibis,” Cincinnati Post, October 3, 1979: 25. Hume has said that McNamara was his favorite manager.

23 McNamara’s and Anderson’s divergent managing styles were found in Tom Shatel’s “Confidence Is Key to Reds’ Pitching,” Cincinnati Enquirer, July 19, 1979: C1; also, John Erardi, “Captain Hook’s Style Caught On,” Cincinnati Enquirer, July 20, 2000: B1.

24 Tekulve, interview with author, May 3, 2025. Mike Schmidt also hit Hume extraordinarily well, posting a .417 average against him in 36 career at-bats. Dale Murphy faced Hume in 66 plate appearances, more than anyone else, and was the hitter Hume struck out the most: 12 times in 59 at-bats. Murphy’s teammate Glenn Hubbard hit just .159 off Hume, the lowest average of any hitter with 40 or more at-bats against him.

25 Hal McCoy, “Reds’ Tom-Toms Beat on Expos,” Dayton Daily News, August 22, 1979: 22.

26 Hal McCoy, “No Gimmicks; Hume Just Throws the Ball Hard,” Dayton Daily News, August 17, 1980: 3C; also, E. M. Swift, “Say Hi to the Little Red Machine,” Sports Illustrated, September 3, 1979: 28.

27 Tom Tryon, “Cincinnati’s Tom Hume Emerges Quietly,” (University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point) Pointer, April 17, 1980: 15.

28 Mark Purdy, “As Car Seller, Reds’ Hume Is Some Pitcher,” Cincinnati Enquirer, March 7, 1980: C1; also, Peter King, “Alias Clark Kent, He’s Super Hume,” Cincinnati Enquirer, June 17, 1982: D1.

29 Hal McCoy, “Silent Hume Salvages 13th for Reds, 7–3,” Dayton Daily News, June 17, 1982: 32.

30 Purdy, “As Car Seller, Reds’ Hume Is Some Pitcher.”

31 Cincinnati Reds Radio broadcast, September 21, 1980, https://youtu.be/cdRc982kOqY.

32 Earl Lawson, “Unflappable Hume Takes Soto Off Hook,” Cincinnati Post, September 22, 1980: 1D.

33 Thomas H. Hume Jr., revised Weiss questionnaire, February 14, 1981.

34 Glenn Puit, “MGM Grand Fire: The Deadliest Day,” Las Vegas Review-Journal, November 19, 2000, NewsBank: Access World News database.

35 “Analysis: Summary and Major Contributing Factors,” Investigation Report on the MGM Grand Hotel Fire (Boston: National Fire Protection Association, revised January 15, 1982), 50.

36 Lisa Cardillo Rose, “Reds’ Pitcher Sure of Escape from Hotel Fire,” Cincinnati Post, November 24, 1980: 1B.

37 Rose, “Reds’ Pitcher Sure of Escape from Hotel Fire.”

38 Al Andry, “Two Reds Pitchers Rescued,” Cincinnati Post, November 22, 1980: 2A.

39 Poss, interview with author, April 22, 2025.

40 “Fire Incident: Casualties,” Investigation Report on the MGM Grand Hotel Fire, 31.

41 O’Berry, interview with author, April 24, 2025.

42 O’Berry interview.

43 Earl Lawson, “Reds Treading Same Dismal Path Again,” Cincinnati Post, June 4, 1983: 1B. The article placed Hume’s contract among the then top 30 most lucrative in baseball.

44 “[Hume] was especially ineffective at home when the crowd was on him,” said Pete Rose to McCoy in “Catching Is Reds’ Big Question Mark,” The Sporting News, March 4, 1985: 20. Hume’s switch to the rotation and the reasoning behind it was covered in Lawson’s “Reds Are Glad They Didn’t Deal Cedeño,” The Sporting News, June 4, 1984: 18.

45 Greg Hoard, “New Relief Ace Is Familiar Face: Former All-Star Tom Hume Is Flashing Form of Old,” Cincinnati Enquirer, March 21, 1985: D4.

46 Greg Hoard, “Hume Regaining Lost Status As Bullpen Stopper,” Cincinnati Enquirer, April 2, 1985: B1.

47 Peter Pascarelli, “Phils Deal Denny to Reds for Outfielder Redus, Hume,” Philadelphia Inquirer, December 12, 1985: 1D, 8D.

48 Tekulve interview.

49 Tekulve interview.

50 Parrish, interview with author, May 2, 2025.

51 Hume struggled to locate his pitches in April, and in August walked 16 batters in his last four appearances for the Phillies over 9 1/3 innings. Parrish, meanwhile, hit .245 and .215 in his two seasons with the Phillies while playing through his back pain. “Obviously, I wanted to make a good impression and pick up where I left off in Detroit, and I just was never really able to shake that for the entire time that I was there,” he said (Parrish interview).

52 Frank Dolson, “A Little Bit of Everything, and a Loss for the Phils,” Philadelphia Inquirer, April 10, 1987: 3D; Peter Pascarelli, “A Deal with Detroit Is Dead,” Philadelphia Inquirer, May 6, 1987: 3C, and “Phils Add Aguayo and Calhoun,” Philadelphia Inquirer, June 16, 1987: 4D; and Paul Hagen, “Lately, Cracks Are Showing in Bedrock,” Philadelphia Daily News, August 13, 1987: 94.

53 Parrish interview. One bright spot was a July 20 start against the Reds in which Hume allowed four hits and two runs and struck out eight—thrice fanning Eric Davis in the slugger’s banner year—over 6 1/3 innings.

54 Hume was quoted in “On Deck,” Cincinnati Post, August 18, 1987: 2C.

55 Greg Hoard, “Hume, Scherrer Released,” Cincinnati Enquirer, November 3, 1987: C4.

56 Parrish interview.

57 Mike Bass, “Reds’ TV Team Misses Strike Zone,” Cincinnati Post, May 24, 1990: 1B; also, Zan Hale, “Hume’s Delivery Needs Some Work,” Columbus Dispatch, April 20, 1990: 3B.

58 Hume, interview with Naylor and Schaaf.