Mike Lum Breaks Lefty's Streak

[JimSlade]

Like the first baseball game I attended that's burned deep into my brain, the second one was also from 1972 and also resulted in a Phillies loss. It was a loss that capped off Steve Carlton's 15-game winning streak in his first year with the Phillies. It may have been my first extra-innings game, but I can't remember what happened in the possibly 5 or 6 games between my first game, the aforementioned Chris Speier game, and this one.
Yes, I went to a lot of games in 1972. As I mentioned in my first game write up, both my uncle and my grandfather were lefthanded, like me. As I've always seen it, part of my baseball education was an education in being lefthanded. When we went to games, they always got seats along first base, where I could study the first baseman, one of the likely positions available to me, and where I could best watch the parts of the game that favored lefthanders, such as those extra steps we get from the batter's box to first base and the advantage a lefthanded pitcher has in holding a runner on first. It's not like I'm highly disadvantaged as a lefthanded person, but it's fun to keep track of the benefits we get being "opposite."

So this new ace we got in a spring training swap of aces with the Cardinals was a lefthander. Carlton was a quality pitcher, but he had not yet established himself as an ace. I mean, who could being in a rotation with Bob Gibson? In return for Carlton, the Cardinals received the popular Rick Wise, who had just a season or two ago thrown a no-hitter in which he also hit 2 home runs. (Take that, Shohei Ohtani!) Carlton's nickname was the ever-creative Lefty. He was what would be called a "stylish" pitcher, with a high leg kick, high velocity, and a killer slider that Willie Stargell said trying to hit was like eating soup with a fork. Or something like that. Lefty got off to a good start with his new team, our last-place Phillies.

He got off to such a good start, that my Uncle Joe decided I had to see Carlton in person as often as possible. He got on a run of winning starts. I can't recall how long into the run it was, but my uncle started taking me to every home start he pitched. We'd get box seats along first base, and he'd provide a running commentary on how good this guy was - and how nicely he maximized being lefthanded.

Uncle Joe would get me after school and we'd head down to the Vet to watch Carlton win another consecutive start. This went on all summer. I don't know how many home starts he made during his winning streak, but we may have seen 5 or 6 winning home starts. This was a Phillies team that rarely won games, so a Lefty home start became a Thing for Phillies fans.

Lefty's streak reached 15 consecutive wins! This guy was schooling me in what it meant to be an Ace, a lefthanded one no less. My uncle picked me up for what could be his 16th consecutive win. The Phillies were playing the Atlanta Braves, who featured Hank Aaron and Earl Williams, that young catcher who "stole" the 1971 Rookie of the Year award from my hero Willie Montanez. The Braves also featured Ralph Garr, a high-average, line-drive hitter who my uncle would tell me could "wake up at 3 o'clock in the morning and hit ropes." My life-long goal of waking up at 3:00 am and hitting ropes, literally and figuratively, was established that night.

Pitching for the Braves that night was their ace, knuckleballer Phil Niekro. Now, if watching Lefty try to win his 16th consecutive start, seeing how Montanez would fare against Williams, and getting the chance to see what my uncle meant by Ralph Garr and these 3:00 am ropes was all about wasn't enough, I was going to get to see the game's greatest knuckleballer! I'd probably seen Phil Niekro or his brother Joe throw a knuckleball on a televised game, but this was probably the first time I'd see a knuckleball thrown in person, from a nice seat my uncle scored along the first base line.

I don't remember many details about the game other than it was a pitchers' duel. Back then, a pitchers' duel meant that the starting pitchers were going at it deep into the 8th inning. Or the 9th. Or beyond. This one went to 11!

Niekro and Carlton each pitched all 11 innings, which if that ever happened in today's game would launch a congressional hearing. At the risk of sounding like a total Boomer..."it's rare to see both starting pitchers total 11 innings in today's soft game!"

There was no "ghost runner" in extra innings games in 1972. I forget who it was, but I think the Braves got a runner on second in the top of the 11th. Mike Lum stepped to the plate for the Braves. Here's where I'll get to see how sharp my memory for this night is. I believe Lum was brought in as a pinch hitter. Lum was a 1B/corner OF type, if memory serves, a solid lefthanded bat off the bench. There are 2 things that will forever come to mind when I think of Mike Lum: 1) what was about to happen and 2) Lum was born in Hawaii, as it said on the back of one of his baseball cards, probably the 1972 one included here.

Lum, if memory serves, hit a double. The runner, who somehow earned his way on base, scored. The Phils did not score in the bottom half of the inning. Lefty's streak was over. He and Niekro threw all 11 innings. It was epic. I was sad that Lefty's streak ended, but somehow the ending of the streak made the 15-game winning streak itself even more legendary. I mean, if something good keeps going forever, do we even notice it?

OK, I've now looked up the game: https://www.baseball-reference.com/.../ ... 8210.shtml

It took place August 21, 1972. The final score was 2-1. Both starters went the distance. Ralph Garr was only 1-5. Mike Lum was indeed from Hawaii and he entered the game as a pinch hitter for Rico Carty, but his game-winning hit was his second at-bat, so he entered earlier in the game. Carlton gave up 7 hits in his 11 innings, including 2 doubles each to Felix Milan and Dusty Baker. They each scored a run, so it's likely one of them had doubled before Lum's game-winning hit. (The middling Braves teams of my youth, by the way, had a lot of likeable players!) Niekro scattered 9 hits, including 3 by leadoff man (?!?!) Denny Doyle. Montanez was 1-3 with 2 walks. Greg Luzinski had 2 hits. Larry Bowa had 1.

John Bateman caught that game for the Phillies. This may have been before the Phils acquired Lefty's old Cardinals buddy Tim McCarver, who would become his "personal catcher." I remember thinking Bateman was blah. If we were going to have a weak catcher, couldn't we at least have one like the Montreal Expos' John Boccabella, who's name oozed off PA announcer Dan Baker's tongue like honey?

Also in the lineup that day was rightfielder Bill Robinson. I didn't realize he was with the 1972 Phillies; I thought he came a year later. I don't recall if he was already part of Carlton's highly focused warm-up routine or not - Lefty regularly spoke to the media in 1972; I can't recall how many quirks he had at that point. Maybe it was 1972 or the next year, but I was at games where I got to see the cool role Robinson served for Carlton. The ace worked hard at blocking out all distractions and visualizing successful outcomes. (I first heard the term visualizing thanks to Carlton.) Before a start, he used to warm up along the first base line, in front of the Phillies' dugout. He'd fire the ball into his catcher's mitt while Bill Robinson stood at the "plate," holding a bat. Carlton's goal, was to NOT see the batter standing there. Robinson was his "invisible" batter. How cool and crazy was all that?