Sixty years in the past, Wally Bunker burst onto the baseball scene, an 18-year-old phenom who pitched for his highschool crew sooner or later and for the Orioles the subsequent. Or so it appeared. In June 1963 — two days after highschool commencement — Bunker signed with Baltimore. Three months later, on Sept. 29, the child from San Bruno, California, strode to the mound at Memorial Stadium to face the Detroit Tigers.
Bunker misplaced the sport, 7-3. But he roared again in 1964 to go 19-5, with a successful share (.792) that tied him with Los Angeles Dodgers ace Sandy Koufax for greatest within the main leagues. That season, Bunker pitched two one-hitters and completed runner-up for American League Rookie of the Year honors behind Minnesota Twins outfielder (and Hall of Famer) Tony Oliva. Bunker additionally drew votes in balloting for the league’s Most Valuable Player, an award gained in a landslide by the Orioles’ Brooks Robinson.
“He’s too young to pitch,” Harry Brecheen, Baltimore’s pitching coach, stated of Bunker, who had an excellent fastball and a fair higher sinker. “He should be enjoying ice cream and hot dogs like the other kids.”
Agog, Bunker was not. The younger right-hander took success in stride, successful his first six selections and permitting two earned runs in his first 27 innings. He didn’t lose a house recreation till late August.
“He has no fear of anything or anybody,” Orioles tremendous scout Jim Russo stated. “[New York Yankees slugger Mickey] Mantle and a kid playing Class D ball look alike to him.”
In hindsight, Bunker stated, a deep-seated confidence begat his poise on the mound.
“I’d always been the best, and I never thought I wasn’t,” stated Bunker, now 78. “Luckily, the first game I pitched that year was a one-hitter [against the Washington Senators], so I thought, ‘OK, this game is fun.’ Then I won the next five and thought, ‘This is just what I did in high school.’ I figured I’d always been really good and that I’d keep on being good. If a player doesn’t think that, he might as well go work at a Boeing plant.”
That first victory, 2-1 over Washington, was hard-earned; the guests rode him mercilessly from the bench.
“Moose Skowron, the first baseman, made a big deal of my being a rookie and tried hard to rattle me,” Bunker stated. “Around the sixth inning, he stopped yelling and instructed one in every of our coaches, ‘Tell the kid he’s OK.’
Orioles followers rallied behind him. In June, earlier than a house recreation, Baltimore Mayor Theodore McKeldin proclaimed the mound “Baltimore’s Bunker Hill” and, accompanied by a fife-and-drum corps sporting Revolutionary War garb, christened it with a bucket of grime from the actual website in Boston.
“That was kind of embarrassing,” Bunker recalled. That night time, he defeated the Chicago White Sox, 6-1.
Bunker’s glory was short-lived. That September, he suffered a torn rotator cuff in his proper shoulder and misplaced his zip. He gained 10 video games in every of the subsequent two years, enjoying a pivotal function within the 1966 World Series by pitching a 1-0 complete-game victory over the Dodgers in Game 3 of a four-game sweep. He stays the third-youngest pitcher to hurl a shutout in World Series historical past (teammate Jim Palmer is No. 2, having achieved it two days earlier than).
“That was the highlight of my baseball life,” stated Bunker, whose shoulder was in fixed ache. “Between innings, the trainer wrapped hot pads around my arm, which almost blistered; I didn’t care.”
Orioles catcher Andy Etchebarren known as the efficiency “one of the most courageous acts I have seen in sports.”
Bunker held on for 5 extra years and retired in 1971 at age 26. Misfortune by no means gnawed at him.
“Whatever happens, happens,” he stated from his dwelling in Bluffton, South Carolina. “Who is aware of? If I hadn’t been damage [pitching], I might need been in a automotive wreck and misplaced an arm or one thing.
“I got out of the game when I was still young enough to find a job and not be behind in the count.”
Life after baseball has been an eclectic mixture of livelihoods. Married 59 years, Bunker and his spouse, Kathy, have reworked homes, made pottery, owned a number of pastime outlets and manufactured fridge magnets. Bunker himself is an achieved painter, creator of youngsters’s books and pianist.
Does he know “Take Me Out to the Ball Game?”
“I can knock that sucker off,” he stated.
He holds no grudge towards the sport.
“Bitter? How can I be bitter that I played in the major leagues?” he stated. “How spoiled can you be?”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com