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1958 • Baseball Clip • Jim Bunning Interview - Radio · Retro Sports Radio: Classic Games from History

• 0:00
  This is RetroSports Radio. Visit RetroSeasons.com for more sports history.
• 0:07
  This is Jim Bunning of the Detroit Tigers. In a few moments I'll tell you about my greatest sports thrill.
• 0:13
  This is Harry Wismar. What you're about to hear is a transcribed story of one of baseball's outstanding pitchers.
• 0:31
  And in the event, our special guest, Jim Bunning, considers his greatest sports thrill.
• 0:37
  And Jim himself is here to tell us all about it. But first, here is Bill Reddick with a message of interest from your United States Air Force.
• 0:45
  Any great baseball star has years of practice and training behind him. Specialized training can pay off for you too.
• 0:53
  Perhaps you're wondering where you can get the finest training leading to a bright career in the age of space.
• 0:59
  The answer is in the United States Air Force.
• 1:03
  It's true, the Air Force has the broadest and most complete range of space age training available.
• 1:09
  That's because the Air Force is in charge of thousands of jets, rockets and missiles.
• 1:14
  In the years to come, Air Force participation in space projects will grow, and so will the number of career fields.
• 1:21
  So be wise, join the Air Force for valuable training and bright career opportunities.
• 1:27
  In addition, you will have a chance for foreign travel, receive 30-day annual paid vacations and other extras.
• 1:34
  Get the full story on the Air Force career tailored to your abilities. See your local Air Force recruiter soon.
• 1:42
  Now, back to Harry Wismer.
• 1:45
  At the 1957 All-Star Game in Bush Stadium, St. Louis, a tall, bony, right-handed pitcher named Jim Bunning of Detroit,
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  took the mound for the American League. Bunning was a surprise starter in many ways.
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  It had been expected that the American League manager, Casey Stangle, would hand the ball to a more experienced hurler,
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  early win, then to the Cleveland Indians, or Billy Pierce, the dapper little Chicago White Sox left-hander.
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  But Stangle was known to bring in left-handed pitchers to face strong right-handed batters and get away with it had other ideas.
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  What's the devil, Casey told the newspaper men when he announced Jim Bunning was a starting pitcher?
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  The fellow beats us good, which is good enough for me.
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  Not only was it enough for the Yankee manager, it was more than enough for the National League, which went into the game of decided favorite.
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  During his three innings stint, Jim Bunning, a 25-year-old Kentuckian, gave the other league nothing, not a hit, not a walk,
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  not even a batter reached first base. Nine up, nine down.
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  It was not as dramatic an All-Star performance as Carl Hubble's five consecutive strikeouts in the 1934 Dream Game,
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  but in some ways it was more clean cut.
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  In his three innings, Hubble did walk two men and gave up two base hits,
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  but he also struck out Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmy Fox, Al Simmons, and Joe Cronin in succession.
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  The very fact that Jim Bunning was pitching in the All-Star game came as a distinct surprise to him.
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  In fact, at the beginning of the 1957 baseball season,
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  Bunning would not have bet a dime that he would remain with the Detroit club.
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  Yet, when all these statistics were in at the end of the 1957 season, Jim Bunning was the best right-hander in the American League,
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  and with a remarkable 28-1 lost record was one of the circuit's two 20-game winners.
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  Bunning also was the league workhorse pitching in 267 innings and with 182 strikeouts,
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  trailed only early win who had 184 whiffs,
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  and his earned run average was 2.69, third best in the American League,
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  behind the Yankees Bobby Chance and Tom Sturderman.
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  The oddest part of Jim Bunning's success story is that as late as mid-May of 1957,
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  he was classified as a relief man.
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  Bunning made 11 straight relief appearances, and in nine of them, he didn't give up a run.
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  On May 16th, after he had spent a month banning the aces of the Tiger staff out of trouble,
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  Jim Bunning started a ball game against the Boston Red Sox up in Fenway Park
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  and pitched his first complete game in the majors, winning 2-1.
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  He kept his performance by fanning Ted Williams a third time.
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  Moved into regular starting rotation, Jim Bunning responded by reeling off six straight victories,
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  including a tense two-hitter against the Yankees and a 16 inning marathon against the Baltimore Orioles.
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  By mid-season, he was in the first rank of the American League's pitchers.
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  It was this crescendo of triumphs that caused Casey Stengel to let Jim Bunning start against the National League All-Stars.
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  Jim Bunning was born in Southgate, Kentucky, just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati.
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  Tall but thin, Bunning played football, basketball, and baseball in high school
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  and went to Xavier University on a basketball scholarship.
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  Basketball wasn't to be his game, however.
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  After his freshman season, Jim Bunning was invited to Briggs Stadium for a tryout
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  by a Tiger talent scout in the Cincinnati area.
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  This was the spring of 1950, and out of the group of prospects eyed by the Detroit brass,
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  the Tigers picked Bunning and Billy Heft and assigned them to their Richmond, Indiana farm club.
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  In 1953, when the Tigers gave him his first look-see, Jim Bunning began to hit the upgrade.
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  He spent two seasons with Little Rock at the Southern Association, then advanced to Buffalo of the International League.
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  He went up to Detroit, back to Charleston, West Virginia, in the American Association, and finally back again to the Tigers during the next two years.
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  Before Jim Bunning firmly established himself as a regular on the Tiger staff.
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  On July 20, 1958, Jim Bunning entered that elite circle of pitchers who have hurled no-hit-no-run games.
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  He was against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park and was the first by a Tiger pitcher since 1952.
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  By the ninth inning, every one of the 9,500 thrill fans were pulling for Jim Bunning on every pitch.
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  A great roar went up when he slipped a third strike past Gene Stevens on a 2-2 pitch.
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  Then Ted Lebsiol took a vicious swing and another 2-2 offering for Bunning's 12th strikeout of the game.
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  But now Ted Williams was coming up to the plate for the dramatic climax to Jim Bunning's thrilling no-hit-no-run ball game.
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  Let's go back to that day.
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  Ted Williams is coming to bat.
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  The tension is now mounting on every pitch and fans, there's no hesitancy on my part in letting you know that Jim Bunning is working on a no-hitter.
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  Nothing I can say in this broadcasting booth can possibly have any effect on the way Bunning throws that ball or whether or not Williams hits it.
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  Tiger's lead 3-0 in the last of the ninth and Jim Bunning is only one out away from entering baseball's exclusive club of no-hit pitchers.
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  Nobody on base.
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  The Tiger outfield for Williams is around towards right and very deep.
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  Bunning ready now.
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  The crowd very quiet.
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  He has his sign.
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  Here's the wind-up.
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  The pitch.
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  High and outside for ball one.
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  Williams just did manage to get out of the way of that one.
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  Bunning goes to the rosin bag taking a lot of time.
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  Now he turns his back on Williams and looks at his outfield while he rubs up the ball.
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  Williams now steps out of the batter's box.
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  Now Bunning is ready, looks in for his sign.
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  This is a big out and he knows it.
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  Crowd is very quiet.
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  Williams waves that bat back and forth.
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  Bunning fires.
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  Williams swings and they have a high five ball going deep out to right field.
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  K-line moving back.
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  He's got the range waiting and he's got it.
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  He's got it for the straight out.
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  The ball game is over.
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  Williams flies out to right and Jim Bunning has his no-hitter.
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  The Tigers along with a lot of Red Sox fans have come out on the field.
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  They're congratulating Bunning, pounding him on the back as he makes his way to the Tiger dugout and the dressing room.
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  What a day this is for Jim Bunning.
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  Listen to that crowd.
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  And now before you meet our special guest Jim Bunning in person in an interview from Briggs Stadium in Detroit
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  and hear about his greatest sports thrill, here is a message of interest to all young men with an eye to the future.
• 8:55
  Hi school graduates. Have you ever met your local Air Force recruiter?
• 8:59
  If not, you'll be favorably impressed when you do.
• 9:02
  First of all, your local recruiter has all the facts and figures about the new age of space and the many interesting job openings in the Air Force.
• 9:11
  Your recruiter will point out the fine technical training available in over 40 career fields
• 9:16
  and he'll give you the full story on the many space age advances being developed by the Air Force.
• 9:22
  For example, the radical new jet bombers and fighters, the X-15 space plane, the Titan intercontinental missile.
• 9:30
  The Air Force space age picture is an exciting one and it can also be especially rewarding for you.
• 9:37
  After seeing your local recruiter, you decide to join. You will serve with a fine group of men.
• 9:42
  So see your local recruiter today and find out about your place in the expanding space age of tomorrow in the U.S. Air Force.
• 9:52
  And now back to Harry Wismar.
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  Jim Bunning, what was your greatest sports thrill?
• 9:59
  Well, Harry, it happened in 1958 against the Red Sox in Boston. I was fortunate enough to pitch a no-hit, no-run game against them on July 20th, I believe it was.
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  Everything went right. All the stuff was working right. Slider was good. Fastball was good.
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  And they had murdered our pitching staff for two straight days previous to that.
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  And I wasn't too keen on starting the game on a Sunday afternoon and it was the first game of a double header.
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  And everything went right that day.
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  I believe the first inning was the toughest inning in the ball game.
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  The first man was Gene Stevens and he hit a long fly to right field, which I didn't know whether it was going to be caught or if it was going to make the fence or not.
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  And K-Line backed up against the fence and caught the ball.
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  The second man, Ronald, topped the ball down the third base line.
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  And he was thrown out on one of those real close plays at first base.
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  And that was the closest they came to a hit, I believe, all day.
• 10:59
  Oh yes, I believe that every pitcher is aware of the fact, after five innings anyway, when the game is an official ball game, that he has no hit, no run ball game going.
• 11:10
  And I was aware of it from that inning on.
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  Jim, when you pitched your no-hitter against Boston in 1958, did anyone mention no-hitter in the dugout?
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  Well, Harry, they don't mention it on the bench. I was the only one talking about it.
• 11:24
  I was kidding Tommy Henrik about the seventh inning when I come in.
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  I said, I need about six more outs.
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  And he said, yeah, we'll get you six more runs to complete this thing up and have an easy time.
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  But no one would talk about it except me.
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  It was very quiet on our bench the last two innings, blame me.
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  Who was the last out in that no-hit, no-run game against the Red Sox?
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  Well, you can just about guess it was Ted Williams of all guys.
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  And I figured it out about the seventh inning. As I was telling you, I talked to Tommy Henrik on the bench
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  and I said, I need six more outs and the last guy coming up will probably be that so-and-so Ted Williams.
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  And that's what happened.
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  And he obligingly hit a nice fly ball to Al K. Linen right field for me.
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  Would you say the pressure is felt as much by your teammates when their hurler has a no-hitter going for him?
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  Yes, I believe so.
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  I think that they pulled the fellas after the no-hit ball game and they were probably more nervous than I was.
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  I was more nervous after the game was over.
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  Jim Hawken and experienced catcher helped a young pitcher.
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  An experienced catcher knowing the hitters in the league, like Jim Hegan was with our ball club in 1958.
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  And him knowing the hitters of having caught against them for about 14 or 15 years is bound to help a young pitcher.
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  It's trying to have confidence in your catcher and your catcher having confidence in you, I think, is one of the big secrets of pitching Major League Baseball.
• 12:49
  You think too much pus is being made over the use of the brushback pitch?
• 12:54
  Yes, I don't believe they're brushing back any more hitters than they used to.
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  I think there are more pitchers, I believe, right now than the throw-harder that actually used that pitch more effectively than they passed 10 years.
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  And now, since Doran over at New York uses that pitch quite frequently, not to hit someone with it, but just to moving back from the plate to set up your other pitches,
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  your slider and your curveball, I don't believe that they're using the pitch any more than they used to.
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  What is the funniest thing that ever happened to you on a ball field?
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  That happened one year when we went to Barnstorm and I forget it was either 57 or 58.
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  We went to Tampico, Mexico and the center field, there is a railroad track that runs right through center field, right from left to center to right.
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  And about the fourth inning, they opened up the left field gate out there and here comes the railroad train, right through the...
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  stopped the ball game, stopped everything else, let the train pass and we went right ahead and continued the game.
• 13:56
  Thank you very much, Jim Bonning of the Detroit Tigers, one of baseball's outstanding pitchers.