Jim Bunning

James Paul David Bunning won 224 games, struck out 2,855 batters (second only to Walter Johnson at the time of his retirement), threw a no-hitter in each league, pitched a perfect game on Father's Day 1964 as the father of seven children, and then left baseball to serve 12 years in the United States Congress and 12 more in the United States Senate, the only major leaguer to reach both Cooperstown and Capitol Hill. Bunning pitched with a sidearm delivery that crossed the plate at uncomfortable angles and with a temperament that crossed teammates at uncomfortable moments. "I am most proud of the fact I went through nearly 11 years without missing a start," he said. "They wrote my name down, and I went to the post." The Veterans Committee elected him to the Hall of Fame in 1996.

Southgate

Bunning was born on October 23, 1931, in Covington, Kentucky, and grew up in Southgate, where his father Louis owned a ladder-manufacturing factory. He married his childhood sweetheart Mary Catherine Theis in January 1952, and together they raised nine children, and 35 grandchildren. Their son David became a federal judge. Bunning attended Xavier University in Cincinnati, earned his economics degree in three and a half years, and signed with the Detroit Tigers.

Bunning debuted on July 20, 1955, and spent nine seasons in Detroit, going 20-8 in 1957 to lead the American League in wins and throwing a no-hitter against the Red Sox on July 20, 1958. He started the 1957 All-Star Game and retired all nine batters he faced. His sidearm delivery was punishing on right-handed hitters, and he led the league in strikeouts three times, posting 201 in both 1959 and 1960. Bunning pitched nearly 11 consecutive years without missing a start, a durability record he considered his proudest achievement. The Tigers traded him to the Phillies before the 1964 season, and what followed was the afternoon that defined his career.

Father's Day

On June 21, 1964, the first game of a doubleheader at Shea Stadium, Bunning threw a perfect game against the New York Mets, the first in the National League since 1880 and the first regular-season perfecto since Charlie Robertson's in 1922. He threw 90 pitches and struck out 10, including six of the last nine batters he faced. Tony Taylor saved it with a diving stop in the fifth inning on a Jesse Gonder liner, throwing from his knees for the out. With one out remaining, Bunning called catcher Gus Triandos to the mound and asked him to tell a joke to keep him loose. Triandos couldn't think of one, laughed at the absurdity of the request, and went back behind the plate. Bunning struck out John Stephenson swinging on a curve for the 27th consecutive out. The Mets players applauded from their dugout.

Bunning defied the superstition of silence between innings, talking openly about the perfect game as it unfolded. "Sure I talked about it," he said. "That way you're not disappointed." Manager Gene Mauch thought the talking was deliberate strategy. "I think he did it as much to relax his teammates as himself."

The 1964 season ended in agony. The Phillies carried a six-and-a-half-game lead with 12 games remaining and lost 10 straight, missing the pennant by one game. Bunning took three of those losses. He refused to single out any individual and said the blame belonged "on the team as a whole, including himself."

Kentucky

Bunning became the second pitcher after Cy Young to win 100 games and record 1,000 strikeouts in both leagues, and alongside Robin Roberts he recruited economist Marvin Miller in 1965 as the players' union's first executive director, a hire that transformed the economics of baseball within a decade. After retiring in 1971, Bunning served on the Fort Thomas city council, won a seat in the Kentucky State Senate, ran for governor in 1983, and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1986, serving six terms before winning a Senate seat in 1998 by half a percentage point. He served two Senate terms, retiring in 2011.

Bunning suffered a stroke in October 2016 and died on May 26, 2017, at St. Elizabeth Hospice in Edgewood, Kentucky, at 85. He is buried at St. Stephen Cemetery in Campbell County, a few miles from the house in Southgate where the nine children grew up.