Wally Bunker
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Wally Bunker (born Wallace Edward Bunker on January 25, 1945, in Seattle, Washington) is a former Major League Baseball pitcher.
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[edit] Biography
Bunker pitched for the Capuchino High School varsity baseball team in San Bruno, California in 1962 and 1963, as the team won the Mid-Peninsula League championships. He also played on the varsity basketball team.[1] While still a student at Capuchino, Bunker was recruited by the Baltimore Orioles and joined their organization after graduating from Capuchino.[2]
In eight-plus major league seasons, Bunker pitched for the Baltimore Orioles (1963-1968) and Kansas City Royals (1969-1971).
As a 19-year old in 1964, Bunker won his first six starts of the season and pitched a one-hit shutout in another game. He became the ace of a staff that also consisted of Milt Pappas and Robin Roberts. He finished the season 19-5 with a 2.69 earned-run average and won The Sporting News American League Rookie pitcher of the Year (and finished runner-up to Tony Oliva for Rookie of the Year) as Baltimore fell short of the American League pennant, finishing in third place, two games behind the New York Yankees and one behind the second-place Chicago White Sox.
Impressive as his rookie season was, however, arm ailments — most likely torn tendons or ligaments of some kind, which often went undiagnosed in Bunker's era — prevented him from duplicating or bettering 1964. A "sore arm" during the 1965 season reduced him to a part-time starter afterwards. He posted a 10-8 record that year and a 10-6 record in 1966, as the Orioles won the World Series. In Game 3 of that Series, which the Orioles swept over the Los Angeles Dodgers, Bunker pitched a six-hit, 1-0 shutout (offsetting Claude Osteen's three-hit pitching), which was sandwiched in between shutouts by Jim Palmer and Dave McNally as the Orioles set a Series record by not allowing a run for 33 1/3 consecutive innings. Following that triumph, Bunker was honored by the San Bruno City Council and served as honorary mayor at a council meeting.[3]
In 1968 the Kansas City Royals selected Bunker in the expansion draft, and he was their winningest pitcher in 1969 with a 12-11 record. Once again, however, the arm troubles that limited him to a part-time starter shortened his career. Bunker pitched his final major-league game at just 26 years of age.
In his career, which many people feel ended too soon for someone who had such promise (as Detroit right-hander Mark Fidrych's would a decade later), Bunker won 60 games against 52 losses and posted a 3.51 earned-run average in 1,085 1/3 innings pitched. He was also a weak hitter in those days prior to the designated hitter, with only 31 hits in 331 at-bats for a .094 batting average.
Bunker's sinker was his most effective pitch in his short career. Yankees slugger Mickey Mantle once referred to Bunker's sinker as the type of pitch "you could break your back on."
[edit] Trivia
- On April 8, 1969, Bunker threw the very first pitch in Kansas City Royals history. The Royals defeated the Minnesota Twins 4-3 in 12 innings, with another 1966 World Series pitching star, Moe Drabowsky, gaining the victory in relief.
