[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 120 (Thursday, September 5, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1519]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 IN HONOR OF REPRESENTATIVE JIM BUNNING

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                            HON. FRANK WOLF

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, September 4, 1996

  Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to rise in support of our 
colleague, Representative Jim Bunning, who was recently inducted into 
the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.
  Jim has earned the respect and admiration of many across the country 
through his hard work and dedication to excellence. These trials have 
not only helped Jim during his tenure in the House, but throughout his 
long and distinguished major league baseball career. In the House, Jim 
has been a leader in preserving Social Security, and his fair-minded 
style as chairman of the Social Security Subcommittee of the House Ways 
and Means Committee has earned him deserved praise from both sides of 
the aisle. His determination and diligence is admired by all.
  Of course, his legacy to the sport of baseball is well know. As a 
pitcher with the Philadelphia Phillies, he was a fan favorite. The 
Phillies recently celebrated his accomplishments with a Jim Bunning Day 
at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Jim won 224 games throughout his 
big league career and tossed two nohitters as well. He has never backed 
down from a challenge, whether from an opposing hitter or an opponent 
in Congress, and I know we are all proud of Jim upon his induction to 
the hall of fame.
  I wanted to submit for the Record a copy of an outstanding editorial 
which recently appeared in the Winchester (Virginia) Star in my 
congressional district. This editorial, written by Adrian O'Connor, 
does a wonderful job of summing up how much Jim Bunning has meant to 
the game of baseball and, more importantly, to our great Nation.

        A Pitcher Speaks, Bunning Expounds on Baseball, and Life

       Cooperstown, NY.--He is, frankly, of another time, when 
     Jesuits were Jesuits and still Soldiers of Jesus, and major 
     league ball players were grown men still enthralled with a 
     little boy's game. But, much like another Republican of some 
     renown, Patrick J. Buchanan, Jim Bunning refuses to merely 
     wax nostalgic about the past, his Age of Innocence; he years 
     to re-create it on a modern stage.
       Which, in our mind, especially with regard to baseball, 
     would not be all that bad a thing.
       In a riveting, albeit lengthy, speech upon his induction 
     here Sunday to baseball's Hall of Fame, Mr. Bunning, the 
     flinty hurler turned politician, leveled his rhetorical 
     sights on all hands involved in what he deems the shameful 
     sullying of our National Pastime. To quote John Adams from 
     the hit musical ``1776,'' he ``has such a desire to knock 
     heads together.'' And for good reason. In his view, both 
     owners and players are doing their darndest to destroy a 
     timeless game.
       Thus, to the owners, Mr. Bunning said, ``Get your house in 
     order. Figure out how you want to share your revenue without 
     going to the players and asking them to foot the bill.''
       To the players, he added, ``Look beyond your contractual 
     obligations. Conduct yourselves as gentlemen. No one player 
     is bigger than the game. Treat the fans with dignity and 
     respect.''
       And, finally, to both the owners and players, he stated, 
     ``Get a commissioner, a real commissioner with restored 
     powers of the commissioner's office prior to 1950 . . . For 
     over four years, baseball has been rudderless. For God's 
     sake, and for the game's sake, find a rudder.''
       Fans and media alike here last weekend could be forgiven 
     for assuming that Mr. Bunning would not object if he were 
     suddenly cast in the role of ``rudder.'' After all, he has 
     witnessed the game from a variety of perspectives--as hard-
     nosed Hall of Fame Pitcher, as player representative for a 
     dozen years, and, after his retirement, as a player agent. 
     However, he maintains he has no desire to play powerless wet 
     nurse to the owners, to ``28 bosses with such egos.'' 
     However, if the hue and cry became such, as it did in 1920 
     when Kenesaw Mountain Landis was extended the task of 
     cleaning up the game, that the office of commissioner was 
     reconstituted (with teeth), then who knows? Perhaps Jim 
     Bunning might be interested.
       Until then, he can serve as an advocate for the game--and, 
     by example, for a way of life lost in the modern shuffle. 
     Educated by Jesuits in the pre-Vatican II days, Mr. Bunning, 
     the father of nine, is unabashedly Catholic and conservative, 
     and unabashedly blunt about his beliefs. He is, he says, a 
     product of his father's public-spiritedness--`` `Get 
     involved,' he always told me''--the uncompromising moral 
     approach of the Jesuits, and his wife Mary's prayers and 
     dedication to the homeplace.
       But yet, the Kentucky congressman is also a product of that 
     little boy's game he played so superbly. ``My life in 
     baseball prepared me well,'' he told the Induction Day crowd. 
     ``I learned that if you set goals high enough, keep trying to 
     achieve them, and work hard, you can do anything you want to 
     do . . . You can overcome your shortcomings with hard work 
     and perseverance.''
       Advice tendered in Cooperstown, yet well worth hearing in 
     most every city and town the nation over.

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