On this day in 1927, the McKinley baseball team had every indication that it would have an easy time in the upcoming baseball season.
Yim Lum was the star on the mound as the Tigers beat visiting Hilo 11-1 after beating the Vikings 8-3 the day before. Lum, a football star who also played basketball and ran track, allowed only four hits in the victory.
Prior to the season, Lum was seen as only a hitter. By the end of the season he was called ‘the best sticker in the league’ with a .391 average.
Lum finally got a day off before the teams traveled back to Hilo for three more games, and the Vikings won 10-7. McKinley took the first game in the rainy city 9-5, but Hilo won the next two 5-4 and 3-1 to settle the series all square.
The exhibition didn’t help the Tigers, who finished second in the ILH to Saint Louis, which won its fifth straight. Lum returned in 1928, though, and the Tigers won the first of two titles under new coach Neil Blaisdell.
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