Larry Bowa pays tribute to Jim Bunning

PHILADELPHIA >> If it seems like a long time ago for him, that’s only because it was. When Larry Bowa arrived on the major league baseball scene for a team that was barely playing like one, however, he was to quickly experience something that has never quite left him.

The guiding fist of Jim Bunning.

“He said, ‘You’ve got to be accountable in this game, no one gives you anything in this game,’” Bowa said of his longago Phillies teammate. “I never had a pitcher mentor me like he did in one year. In spring training he told me, ‘Keep your mouth shut and your eyes and ears open.’ It was that simple. I said, ‘Yes sir.’”

James Paul David Bunning, most famous Father’s Day pitcher in Phillies history, Hall of Famer, hard-line U.S. Senator, passed away Saturday at the age of 85. The Phillies, in deference to one of their most famous players of another era, quickly made their bench coach available to tap into his prodigious baseball memory.

Bowa was a 24-year-old brash, unlikely big-league rookie

in 1970, arriving in Clearwater in time to witness the Philadelphia return of Bunning, who had thrown a perfect game in a Philadelphia uniform just six years earlier and at age 38 had already logged more that 200 victories and solidified his Cooperstown credentials.

But he still had some

baseball left in him, and more than enough advice to dole out to a young guy eager to learn.

“Tremendous, tremendous person who taught me a lot about the game in one year,” Bowa said. “I remember him coming up and saying, ‘Don’t ever, ever lose your energy.’ Or, ‘I don’t want to turn around and see your head dropping, because you’re 0-for-3 . ... I don’t ever want to see that.’ He said, ‘You’ve got to be accountable. You’ve got to play with energy. You’ve got to play every inning of every game.’

“I made an error one day and he turned around — I didn’t ever want to make an error behind him — he was giving me good advice.”

Bunning, all 6-foot-3 of him, was known as intimidating on a mound and all business on and off it. He would give batters a high kick and pour every ounce of energy into a pitch, often spilling off the mound while doing so.

He would also never waver in his convictions. He stopped and started with Detroit for the 1955 and ‘56 seasons, but in his first full year as a Tigers starter in ‘57 would win 20 games.

He would never do that again, but in four consecutive seasons (196467) with a Phillies team that would be broken by a late-season meltdown in ‘64, Bunning would somehow win 19, 19, 19 and 17 games. He would go on to play in Pittsburgh and Los Angeles over two more seasons before that 1970 return to Philadelphia, and along the way would open a lot of wide-eyed rookies with his talent and wisdom, and highand-hard way he brought it all.

That straightforward approach would serve him well for decades to come while representing his home state of Kentucky in both Congress and the Senate. Bunning held true to himself, as conservative and tough as there was among his fellow Republicans.

To Bowa, Bunning’s political approach mirrored his baseball career.

“He was as good of a competitor ... and I saw him at the end of his career,” Bowa said. “I don’t even want to think about what he was like in his prime. He was mean.

“I remember he hit Ron Hunt one day, a slow breaking ball. Hunt sort of (turned into it). He went down and said, ‘Ron, if you want to get hit, I’ll hit you next time and it won’t be a breaking ball.’ And he drilled him right in the ribs. That’s what kind of competitor he was. Because Hunt didn’t want to get out of the way of a breaking ball. He turned into it. He told him, ‘I’ll oblige you if you want to get hit, trust me.’

“Next time up, he drilled him.”

His finished his career after the 1971 season with a 224-184 record, a 3.27 ERA and 2,855 strikeouts, 17th all-time. He was inducted into the Phillies Wall of Fame in 1984 and finally into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1996 by vote of the Veterans Committee.

“He was all for energy and never quitting,” Bowa said of Bunning. “He said, ‘I’ve been out there, where I’ve given up six runs and I don’t quit. I don’t ever want to see you quit. Because you bring a lot to the table with your energy and desire to play.’

“I got along with pitchers, but they never took the time to say something to me, and that was my first year. All that stuff stayed with me.”

“He was all for energy and never quitting. He said, ‘I’ve been out there, where I’ve given up six runs and I don’t quit. I don’t ever want to see you quit. Because you bring a lot to the table with your energy and desire to play. I got along with pitchers, but they never took the time to say something to me, and that was my first year. All that stuff stayed with me.” — Phillies coach Larry Bowa on Hall of Famer Jim Bunning