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Great Seasons You May Have Forgotten – 19 year-old Wally Bunker


Teflon

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After making his debut as an 18 year-old for the Baltimore Orioles in the final game of 1963, right-handed pitcher Wally Bunker earned a spot in the Orioles starting rotation in May of 1964 and pitched a 1-hitter in his first start of the season. The teenager from San Bruno, California surrendered no earned runs in his next start and a single run in the next (all complete games) eventually extending his winning streak to six consecutive starts before losing to Camilo Pasqual and the Twins on June 7th.

 

Blessed with outstanding run support on the season, (The O’s scored 5.11 per game in Bunker’s starts, 3.99 in all others), Bunker’s tidy 2.69 ERA translated to 19 wins and only 6 losses in 29 starts, pacing the American League in win percentage. While not an overpowering thrower, (4.0 K’s per 9) Bunker still limited opponents to only 161 hits over 214 innings in 1964, translating to a .207 batting average against.

 

Unfortunately for Bunker, the Twins' Tony Oliva was also a rookie in 1964 and Wally finished a distant second in Rookie of the Year voting to Oliva, the American League batting champion that year.

 

Bunker also received votes in the MVP balloting, finishing 12th behind teammate Brooks Robinson. Bunker became (and remains) the youngest player to ever receive MVP votes.

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Excellent little piece, chock-loaded with neat factoids. Blows my mind Wally World was doing this stuff as a teen! I'm reminded of that fine, little book that came out a couple years back on the Dodgers-Oriole World Series of '66 (name?), a blurb about Wally chain smoking to calm his nerves before his shut out win in that series... here's a link from my blog to a piece on those old Orioles, about today's date (May 9) in Twins history. 

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Did this guy pitch with Jim Palmer and the pennant winning teams a few years later?

 

Here is Bunker's page at Baseball Reference:

 

Wally Bunker

 

He pitched regularly in the Oriole's rotation through 1966 and part-time in 1967 and 1968 as recurring arm troubles cost him regular starts.

 

The Orioles won the American League pennant in 1966 and played the Dodgers in the World Series, led by a surprisingly young rotation comprised of 20 year-old Jim Palmer (15-10), 23 year-old Dave McNally (13-6), 21 year-old Wally Bunker (10-6) and 28 year-old Steve Barber. (10-5) 

 

Bunker started game 3 in the World Series tossing a 6-hit shutout in Baltimore. In the top of the 8th, with the only scoring up to that point being a 5th inning solo home run by the Orioles' Paul Blair,  the Dodgers got the tying run in scoring position when pinch hitter Tommy Davis singled for the pitcher Claude Osteen and Maury Wills sacrificed him to second. Bunker got Wes Parker to pop out to shortstop Luis Aparico and Willie Davis to ground out to second baseman Davey Johnson to end the threat in the 8th, however, and then set down the Dodgers' 4-5-6 hitters in the 9th for a complete game 1-0 win.

 

When the Orioles returned to the postseason in 1969, Bunker was not a member of the team. He had been claimed in the expansion draft by the Kansas City Royals and actually threw the first pitch in that team's history. (April 8th, 1969) Wally pitched well -if under the radar - that year going 12-11 for a team that only won 69 games. He led the Royals in starts, innings pitched and even managed to save two games in relief, despite the arm ailments that had limited his starts the two seasons prior.

 

He was not so resilient in 1970, making only 15 starts and suffering through a miserable 2-11 season. He tried to pitch again for the Royals in 1971 but only threw 32 innings before his season (and career) came to a close at the age of 26.

 

In Googling Bunker, I discovered that he and his wife write children's books and are artists in residence at a Nature Resort in South Carolina - which sounds like a satisfying second career after baseball.

 

 

 

 

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