Jim Bunning's Perfect Game

Father’s Day

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This Sunday is Father’s Day.   And, as has been true for many of these (alternative fact) holidays, I’ll be spending it with my kids.  At the Phillies stadium.

And, I’ve held off reporting about the death of Jim Bunning until today.  Sure, he died on the 26th of May.   But, in my mind, he will always be associated with Father’s Day.

Way back when I was 12, I took my dad and brother to a new baseball stadium (Shea) on 21 June .  To see a doubleheader.  (Note:  That’s when there were two games played on a single day.  And, back then, ONLY one ticket was needed for both games.  Nowadays, you must buy tickets for both- and they are not contiguous in time, either.)

Why did I buy those tickets?  Because a pitcher from the Detroit Tigers (the team I followed when the Brooklyn Dodgers abandoned Ebbets Field) was going to pitch for the Philadelphia Phillies.

It was a most interesting game.  For me, not for those rooting for the Mets.  Because on that day, 27 Mets batters appeared at the plate- and every single one of them went back to the dugout.  Never reaching as far as first base.  No hits.  No walks.  A Perfect Game.

The first perfect game pitched in the National League in 84 years.   The first for a Philly.  (Roy Halladay achieved the second one some 4 decades later.)

Not since Cy Young did a pitcher win 100 games, strike out 1000 batters, and throw no-hitters in both leagues.  Until Jim Bunning.

Now, you should know that he was a pretty cantankerous pitcher.  (Check out his deliberate hitting of Ron Hunt of the Expos- twice in one game, as but one example.)

Jim went on to be a State Senator (from Kentucky).  Then, a pretty atrocious US Congressman.  To be elevated to an abysmal US Senator.  (If Senator William Scott never served from Virginia, Jim might have been the worst modern US Senator.)

But, a baseball pitcher?  He was among my favorites.    But, I’m glad he is no longer a Congressman or Senator.

May he rest in peace.Roy A. Ackerman, Ph.D., E.A.

 

 

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