Hall of Famer spent years in politics

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Jim Bunning, the only person elected both to baseball’s Hall of Fame and the U.S. Senate and a central figure in the best and worst moments of the Phillies’ historic 1964 season, died late Friday night.

Bunning, who had suffered a stroke in October, was 85.

The first pitcher to throw no-hitters in both the American and National leagues, the wiry sidearmer won 224 games in 17 big-league seasons. Eighty-nine of those victories came during six years with the Phillies, and Bunning’s “14” is one of just five numbers retired by the club.

When he retired in 1971, Bunning’s 2,855 strikeouts ranked second on the all-time list behind Walter Johnson.

On the Hall of Fame ballot for 15 years beginning in 1977, Bunning never garnered the necessary 75 percent of the writers’ votes, his best showing (65.6 percent) coming in 1986. But in 1996, the Veterans Committee finally voted him in.

“I was convinced I was never going to get in,” he said.

Ambitious beyond baseball, Bunning also was an outspoken players union leader, a minorleague manager and an agent before leaving the game for his insurance business and eventually a lengthy political career in his native Kentucky and Washington.

Capitalizing on his name and reputation, Bunning was elected to the Fort Thomas City Council and state senate before entering Congress.

A conservative Republican despite his union past, he won the first of six consecutive terms as a Congressman from Kentucky’s Fourth District in 1986. Elected twice to the U.S. Senate, he served there from 1998 to 2010.

Bunning had nine children with his wife, Mary Catherine. 1946: The Washington Senators beat the Yankees 2-1 in the first night game at Yankee Stadium. The first ball was thrown out by General Electric president Charles E. Wilson. 1956: The Pirates’ Dale Long hit a home run in his eighth consecutive game, a major league record. Long connected off the Brooklyn Dodgers’ Carl Erskine at Forbes Field. 2006: Barry Bonds hit his 715th home run during the Giants’ 6-3 loss to the Rockies to slip past Babe Ruth and pull in right behind Hank Aaron, whose long-standing record of 755. OAKLAND R.Davis cf a-Joyce ph-rf Canha rf-cf Lowrie 2b Axford p K.Davis lf Healy 1b Plouffe 3b Pinder dh-2b Phegley c Rosales ss TOTALS NEW YORK Gardner lf Sanchez c Holliday dh Castro 2b Judge rf Gregorius ss Hicks cf Carter 1b Torreyes 3b TOTALS 33 24 2 3 7 2 2 3 .206 .191 .250 .303

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