Jim Bunning - # 159

Jim Bunning, Hall Of Fame Pitcher And Former U.S. Senator, Dies At 85

He was number 159 on the list.

Jim Bunning, an imposing Hall of Fame pitcher and a resolutely conservative U.S. Senator from Kentucky, died Friday at age 85.

The New York Times reports that he had a stroke last October. The AP confirmed the death with Bunning's former chief of staff, Jon Deuser.

Bunning served six terms in the House and two in the Senate. As a major league pitcher from 1955 to 1971, he played for the Detroit Tigers, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates and Los Angeles Dodgers. He was the only Hall of Fame baseball player to have served in Congress, according to the AP.

The six-foot-three ballplayer had a reputation as intimidating. As the Louisville Courier-Journal writes:

"In his 15-year career in the big leagues, Bunning developed a reputation for throwing the ball close to batters, trying to back them off the plate. 'If he had to brush back his mother, I think he'd do it to win,' former Detroit Tigers second baseman Frank Bolling said of his one-time teammate.

In his second career, instead of baseballs, Bunning went after opponents and issues with strong rhetoric and an intense certainty in the correctness of his own views.

 

That was especially true with abortion. A Roman Catholic with nine children, Bunning voted consistently to limit abortion as an option for women and had contempt for colleagues who softened their position on the highly emotional issue."

 

In 1964, Bunning pitched a perfect game, one of just 23 in the modern era. It was the first perfect game pitched in the National League since 1880. In addition to throwing no-hitters in both the American and National Leagues, he was also the second pitcher after Cy Young to win 100 games and pitch 1,000 strikeouts in both leagues, according to the Hall of Fame. Bunning was inducted into the Hall in Cooperstown, NY., in 1996.

 

On June 21, 1964, Bunning pitched a perfect game, the ninth in major league history.

 

Bunning's perfect game was the first thrown by a National League pitcher since 1880. It was also the first no-hitter by a Phillies pitcher since Johnny Lush no-hit the Brooklyn Superbas on May 1, 1906. He is one of only seven pitchers to have thrown both a perfect game and an additional no-hitter, the others being Randy Johnson, Sandy Koufax, Addie Joss, Cy Young, Mark Buehrle, and fellow Phillie Roy Halladay, whose additional no-hitter came in Game 1 of the 2010 National League Division Series. He is one of five players to have thrown a no-hitter in both leagues, the others being Young, Johnson, Nolan Ryan, and Hideo Nomo. Bunning was the first pitcher to pitch a no-hitter, win 100 games, and record 1,000 strikeouts in both leagues.

 

After retiring as a player, Bunning began managing in the minor leagues for the Phillies organization. He managed the Reading Phillies, Eugene Emeralds, Toledo Mud Hens, and Oklahoma City 89ers from 1972 through 1976.

 

In 1968 he led Athletes for Richard Nixon, according to the Courier-Journal; Bunning first entered politics in 1977, winning a seat on Fort Thomas, Ky., city council. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1986 and to the Senate in 1998.

The Courier-Journal reports that in his 1998 Senate race, Bunning tried to look more moderate, "talking about the need to clean up the environment and educate children, endeavors that he had not emphasized previously. In fact, in the House he voted to cut the Environmental Protection Agency budget and kill the U.S. Department of Education," it says.

"Bunning was best known for his efforts to safeguard Social Security benefits, sponsoring, among other things, legislation that made the Social Security Administration a separate agency," writes Politico. "He also supported legislation to aid adoptive parents and was known for actively working on local Kentucky issues and, whenever they came before Congress, baseball-related issues."

As a politician, he was known as "blunt and abrasive," according to the publication. "In 1993, for instance, he referred to President Bill Clinton as 'the most corrupt, the most amoral, the most despicable person I've ever seen in the presidency.' In 2009, he made headlines by predicting Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg would be dead of cancer within nine months."

In 2009, he said he would not seek another term in the Senate; his fellow Kentuckian, then-Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, "all but pushed Bunning into retirement," NPR's David Welna reported at the time. McConnell's hand-picked choice to succeed Bunning lost in the primary to Tea Party candidate Rand Paul, whom Bunning endorsed.

 

 Some of his former teammates, managers, club owners, coaches and commentators were: Bucky Harris, Schoolboy Rowe, Al Kaline, Ray Boone, Harvey Kuenn, Frank House, Frank Lary, Billy Hoeft, Walter Briggs, Jr., Dizzy Trout, Muddy Ruel, Charlie Maxwell, Paul Foytack, Mel Ott, Fred Knorr, John Fetzer, Jack Tighe, Billy Martin, Tito Francona, John McHale, Bill Norman, Jimmy Dykes, Don Mossi, Larry Doby, Eddie Yost, George Kell, Van Patrick, Joe Gordon, Billy Hitchcock, Norm Cash, Rocky Colavito, Luke Appling, R. R. M. Carpenter Jr., Gene Mauch, Richie Ashburn, Dick Allen, Johnny Callison, Cookie Rojas, Chris Short, Dallas Green, Jack Baldschun, Dennis Bennett, Dick Stuart, Ferguson Jenkins, Ray Culp, By Saam, John J. Quinn, Larry Jackson, Bob Uecker, Bill White,
Larry Shepard, Maury Wills, Matty Alou,Willie Stargell, Al Oliver, Bill Mazeroski, Roberto Clemente,
Donn Clendenon, Steve Blass, Alex Grammas, Bob Moose, Richie Hebner, Nellie King, Al Campanis, Don Sutton, Don Drysdale, Steve Garvey, Bill Russell, Bill Buckner, Bobby Valentine, Andy Kosco,
Jim Lefebvre, Bill Singer, Claude Osteen, Jim Brewer, Wes Parker, Ted Sizemore, Frank Lucchesi, Oscar Gamble, Larry Bowa, John Vukovich and Doc Edwards.