Major League Baseball Career
Bunning's first game as a major league pitcher was on July 20, 1955, with the Detroit Tigers, after having toiled in the minor leagues 1950–1954 and part of the 1955 season, when the Tigers club described him as having "an excellent curve ball, a confusing delivery and a sneaky fast ball". Bunning pitched for the Detroit Tigers (1955–63). He then went to the Philadelphia Phillies (1964–67), the Pittsburgh Pirates (1968 to mid-1969), and finished the 1969 season with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Bunning then returned to the Phillies in 1970 and retired in 1971. He wore uniform number 15 on the 1955 Tigers, and then switched to 14 in 1956 for the rest of his time with Detroit. He stayed with number 14 on his jersey with the Phillies and Pirates. When he was traded to the Dodgers in 1969 he wore number 17. The Phillies retired his number 14 jersey in 2001 after his election to the Hall of Fame in 1996.
Bunning is remembered for his role in the pennant race of 1964, in which the Phillies held a commanding lead in the National League for most of the season, eventually losing the title to the St. Louis Cardinals. Manager Gene Mauch used Bunning and fellow hurler Chris Short heavily down the stretch, and the two became visibly fatigued as September wore on. The collapse of the 1964 Phillies remains one of the most infamous in baseball history. With a six and a half game lead as late as September 21, they lost 10 games in a row to finish tied for second place.
Bunning would routinely shake off catchers' pitch signs that he knew to be signaled into the game from the dugout by Mauch. This would have the effect of irritating Mauch, who broadly applied the practice of signalling pitches from the dugout to his catchers at a time when this was not typically done.
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