James Paul David Bunning (October 23, 1931 – May 26, 2017) was an American professional baseball pitcher and politician from Kentucky who served in both chambers of the United States Congress, a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1987 to 1999 and a member of the United States Senate from 1999 to 2011. He is the only Major League Baseball athlete to have been elected to both the United States Senate and the National Baseball Hall of Fame to date.
Bunning pitched from 1955 to 1971 for the Detroit Tigers, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Los Angeles Dodgers. When Bunning retired, he had the second-highest total career strikeouts in Major League history; he currently ranks 22nd. As a member of the Phillies, Bunning pitched the seventh perfect game in Major League Baseball history on June 21, 1964, the first game of a Father's Day doubleheader at Shea Stadium, against the New York Mets. It was the first perfect game in the National League since 1880. Bunning was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in 1996 after election by the Hall's Veterans Committee.
After retiring from baseball, Bunning returned to his native northern Kentucky and was elected to the Fort Thomas city council, then the Kentucky Senate, in which he served as minority leader. In 1983, Bunning was the Republican nominee for governor of Kentucky. In 1986, Bunning was elected to the House of Representatives from Kentucky's 4th congressional district, and served in the House from 1987 to 1999. He was elected to the Senate from Kentucky in 1998, and served two terms as the Republican junior U.S. senator. In July 2009, he announced that he would not run for re-election the following year. Bunning gave his farewell speech to the Senate on December 9, 2010, and was succeeded by fellow Republican Rand Paul on January 3, 2011.
Bunning was born in Southgate, Kentucky, the son of Gladys (née Best) and Louis Aloysius Bunning. He graduated from St. Xavier High School in Cincinnati in 1949 and received a bachelor's degree in economics from Xavier University in 1953. Like a large percentage of residents in the Northern Kentucky region, the Bunning family was Roman Catholic.
In 1952, Bunning married Mary Catherine Theis. They had five daughters and four sons. One of Bunning's sons, David Bunning, is a federal judge for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, who presided over the Kim Davis case, Miller v. Davis. Jim and Mary Catherine also have 35 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren, as of 2013. One of those grandchildren is Patrick Towles, a former starting quarterback for the University of Kentucky football team.
After pitching for the Xavier Musketeers as a freshman, Bunning signed a professional contract with the Detroit Tigers, though he continued to attend classes at Xavier. Bunning played in Minor League Baseball from 1950 through 1954 and part of the 1955 season, when the Tigers club described him as having "an excellent curve ball, a confusing delivery and a sneaky fast ball". His first game in the major leagues was on July 20, 1955, with the Detroit Tigers. He had his breakout season in 1957, when he led the American League in wins (20) and innings pitched (267+1⁄3), and was the starting pitcher for the AL in the All-Star Game. Bunning pitched his first no-hitter on July 20, 1958, for the Tigers against the Boston Red Sox. On August 2, 1959, Bunning struck out three batters on nine pitches in the ninth inning of a 5–4 loss to the Boston Red Sox. Bunning became the fifth American League pitcher and the 10th pitcher in Major League history to accomplish an immaculate inning.
Bunning pitched for the Detroit Tigers through 1963. During the 1963 Winter Meetings, the Tigers traded Bunning and Gus Triandos to the Philadelphia Phillies for Don Demeter and Jack Hamilton. In his first season with the Phillies, Bunning entered play on June 21 with a 6–2 record on the season. He was opposed on the mound by Tracy Stallard in the first game of a doubleheader. Through the first four innings, Bunning totaled four strikeouts through 12 batters. In the fifth inning, Phillies second baseman Tony Taylor preserved the perfect game with his strong defensive play. A diving catch and a throw from the knees kept Mets catcher Jesse Gonder off the bases. Bunning also had a good day at the plate, hitting a double and driving in two runs in the sixth inning. By the end of the game, even the Mets fans were cheering Bunning's effort; he had reached a three-ball count on only two batters, and retired shortstop Charley Smith on a pop-out, and pinch-hitters George Altman and John Stephenson on strikeouts, to complete the perfect game.
Bunning, who at the time had seven children, said that his game, pitched on Father's Day (although Father's Day did not officially become a holiday until 1972), could not have come at a more appropriate time. He remarked that his slider was his best pitch, "'just like the no-hitter I pitched for Detroit six years ago'". Bunning posted the first regular-season perfect game since Charlie Robertson in 1922 (Don Larsen's perfect game was in the 1956 World Series). The Phillies also won the second game of the doubleheader, 8–2, behind Rick Wise, who earned his first major league victory in his first start.
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.
Bunning is remembered for his role in the pennant race of 1964, in which the Phillies held a commanding lead in the National League for most of the season, eventually losing the title to the St. Louis Cardinals. Manager Gene Mauch used Bunning and fellow hurler Chris Short heavily down the stretch, and the two became visibly fatigued as September wore on. With a 6+1⁄2-game lead as late as September 21, they lost 10 straight games to finish tied for second place.
Bunning pitched for Philadelphia through 1967, when the Phillies began to rebuild. The Phillies traded him to the Pittsburgh Pirates before the 1968 season for four players, including Woodie Fryman and Don Money. He pitched for Pittsburgh into the 1969 season, and finished the 1969 season with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Bunning then returned to the Phillies in 1970 and retired in 1971.
Bunning's 2,855 career strikeouts put him in second place on the all-time list at the time of his retirement, behind only Walter Johnson. His mark was later surpassed by other pitchers, and he is currently 22nd all-time. Despite year in and year out putting up excellent numbers, Bunning rarely led the league in any pitching categories. He never led the league in ERA; the only year he led the league in wins (20, in 1957, with the Detroit Tigers) was the only year he ever won 20 or more games; he did, however, lead the league in strikeouts three times (with 201 in 1959 and 1960, and 253 in 1967). He never won a Cy Young Award; the closest he would come was in 1967, his best year, when at age 35, he came in second behind Mike McCormick. He finished with a middling 17–15 record, but posted a career-best ERA (2.29), and led the league in shutouts (6), games started and innings pitched (40/302.1), and strikeouts (253). It was the only year in his career he earned any Cy Young Award votes. He did, however, win the NL Player of the Month Award in June 1964, the month of his perfect game (3–0, 2.20 ERA, 42 SO).