Topic: Jim Bunning

James Paul David "Jim" Bunning (born October 23, 1931) is a American former Major League Baseball pitcher and current politician.

During a 17-year baseball career, he pitched from 1955-1971, most notably with the Detroit Tigers and the Philadelphia Phillies. When he retired, he had the second-highest total of career strikeouts in Major League history; he is currently 17th. Bunning pitched the seventh perfect game in baseball history on June 21, 1964 against the New York Mets, a feat that has currently been accomplished only twenty times in baseball history. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1996.

After retiring from baseball, Bunning returned to his native northern Kentucky and was subsequently elected to the city council, and then the state senate, in which he served as minority leader. In 1986, Bunning was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Kentucky's 4th congressional district, and served in the House from 1987 to 1999. He was elected to the United States Senate from Kentucky in 1998 and has served there since 1999 as the Republican junior U.S. Senator. Bunning is currently the fifth oldest U.S. Senator and the oldest Republican in the Senate. In July 2009, he announced that he would not run for re-election in 2010, citing difficulty in raising campaign funds.