Ferd Lewis: Mike Lum goes from star at Roosevelt to 57 years in baseball

A cornerstone of Mike Lum’s philosophy in athletics was “never to look too far ahead or behind and just (concentrate) on where my feet were at the time.”

A good thing, too, because when he signed a free-agent pro baseball contract with the then-Milwaukee Braves just days after his 1963 graduation from Roosevelt High, who could have gazed so far over the horizon to imagine a 57-year career in the sport?

“Not me,” said Lum, who turns 75 later this month. “I couldn’t have dreamed any of that.”

Yet, his retirement this week from the Pittsburgh Pirates, where he spent a decade as a senior adviser on player development, marks the apparent end of that remarkable saga.

One that put him in the fringes of the spotlight of Hank Aaron tying Babe Ruth’s career home run record in 1974 and later made him a member of Cincinnati’s vaunted “Big Red Machine.”

Originally, Lum, who was the 1962 Interscholastic League of Honolulu back of the year as a quarterback, had a choice of sports to pursue and was recruited to play football and baseball for Brigham Young University.

Football seemed to be so much in his future that Lum said his high school coach, Ticky Vasconcellos, tried to shoo away a baseball scout. But the Braves ultimately got him to sign for an $8,000 bonus — “I was asking for $10,000,” Lum said, and he reached the majors at age 21, going on to amass a career average of .247 with 90 home runs. His best season came in 1973 when he hit .294 with 16 homers and 82 runs batted in.

In 1973, Cincinnati manager Spark Anderson called Lum, “The most underrated player in the National League.”

Though rarely a regular starter, the knowledge of hitting that he painstakingly accumulated over 3,554 major league at-bats, allowed him to stay in the bigs for 15 seasons as an outfielder and first baseman and appear in more than 1,500 games before opening the doors for four decades as an instructor and advisor.

When Lum retired as a player after playing a season in Japan, Aaron insisted the Braves bring him back to coach and teach. When the Chicago White Sox sought to help Michael Jordan achieve the goal of playing in the big leagues, they entrusted Lum with the task.

In all, his work was spread across the Braves, White Sox, Royals, Brewers, Giants and Pirates.

And when word started to leak out about Lum’s retirement Friday, his phone began to ring with thanks from an array of past students, including current Pirates Josh Bell and Cole Tucker.

It is telling that for all his personal achievements — including a three-home run game against the Padres in 1970, a bases-loaded double pinch-hitting for Aaron or being on base when Aaron slugged home run No. 714 in 1974— Lum counts his work tutoring hitters as a career highlight.

“Seeing how excited the young players you work with are to get better is my highlight,” Lum said. “I wanted to be a giver and a helper for players who wanted to reach their best. It is not an easy road to get to the major leagues and helping them try to create a situation where they can get there is something that I have enjoyed for 40 years.”

For the last several years he has told his daughter, Ginger, “Maybe one more year.” He said, “She’d tell me, ‘you say that every year.’ But, now, Lum said, “I think it is about time. I’ve had a great career. It is time. I’m going to try and get my golf game back in shape again.”

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@straradvertiser.com or 529-4820.