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http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/40377.html

Jim Bunning brushes back Stephen Strasburg

Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Bunning mocked the manhood of rookie Washington Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg after the 22-year-old phenom was scratched from his scheduled start Tuesday night because of shoulder soreness.

“Five-hundred twenty starts, I never refused the ball,” Bunning, a Kentucky senator who hurled a perfect game in 1964 and struck out 2,855 batters in his Major League career, told POLITICO. “What a joke!”

Bunning had taken an interest in Strasburg, who like the Kentucky senator is a fire-ball hurling right-hander. The senator has seen the Nationals ace four times and was at the ballpark Tuesday night, he said.

But he clearly didn’t like what he saw – or rather didn’t see – when the youngster didn’t take the mound.

“My arm!” Bunning sarcastically cried as he pretended to clutch his shoulder in the Capitol’s Statuary Hall.

He said Strasburg's fallen greatly in his estimation.

“He was in the top one percentile,” Bunning said, pinching his thumb and forefinger together. Now, Bunning said, he’s closer to the 50th percentile.

In baseball and in politics, Bunning’s been known as a tough guy with a mile-wide mean streak.

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, his Kentucky colleague and fellow baseball fan, recently told a reporter he’d take Strasburg over Bunning if given the choice.

For the record, Bunning started 519 games in his career, according to baseballreference.com.


Eric D. Schwerin
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eschwerin@rosemontseneca.com
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