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Former Kentucky senator and hall-0f-fame MLB player died in his hospital bed late Friday night. On the baseball diamond, Jim Bunning was a force to see, as he was very famous for his “no-hitters” during his time as a pitcher. In 1998, Bunning ran as a republican for the senate of Kentucky and he won.
Jim played for a number of different teams in the MLB: Detroit Tigers (1955-1963), Philadelphia Phillies (1964-1967, 1970-1971), Pittsburgh Pirates (1968-1969), and Los Angeles Dodgers (1969). In 1984, Bunning was inducted into the Philadelphia Baseball Hall of Fame. In 2001, the Phillies decided to permanently retire his #14, which means he’ll be the only player from the team to have this number.
He was a elected to the the U.S. House of Representatives from Kentucky’s 4th congressional district in 1986 and remained in that position until 1999. In 1998, Jim was elected to the United States Senate, serving as Kentucky’s junior senator for two terms. Bunning has been ranked by National Journal as the second most conservative senator in the United States, in their March 2007 issue. One of the bills he sponsored was the Bunning-Bereuter-Blumenauer Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2004. He remained with his role as senator until the 2010 Senatorial Race.
Jim dropped out of the race for senator in 2010, blaming his fellow Republicans for “everything in their power to dry up my fundraising.”
On Friday, May 26th, 2017, Bunning died at the age of 85. His death is contributed to a stroke he suffered in October 2016.
Look below to view a classic pitch from the late great Jim Bunning:
