In 1980, his first season exclusively as a reliever, the mild-looking, bespectacled Hume was named co-winner (with Rollie Fingers) of the NL Fireman of the Year Award (9-10, 2.56, 78 games, 25 saves). That off-season, he and Reds teammate Bill Bonham and their wives were trapped in a Las Vegas hotel fire and had to be rescued from the roof.
Hume’s nine relief wins in 1981 led the NL. Forced out for two months of the 1982 season after he injured his knee by catching his foot in a turf seam in Montreal, he never again recorded more than nine saves in a season, and was generally reduced to the role of set-up man. Hume’s first ML hit was a home run. In 183 more at-bats, he never hit another.
