Jim Bunning Still Beaning Opponents

According to various media reports on Tuesday, a Hall of Fame pitcher was a "heartless SOB," a "jackass" and a lot worse.

According to other reports, he was a Constitutional hero who was just trying to stop the fiscal insanity in Washington.

Speaking of nuts ...

"Who is that crazy obstructionist?" Jon Stewart screamed on the Daily Show.

He's Jim Bunning, baseball legend, U.S. Senator, world-class crank and America's No. 1 lightning rod. Democrats reviled him. Republicans averted their eyes. The Tea Party threw a rally for him.

I hate to mix sports and politics, since the only thing that deranges people more than sports is politics. So I won't comment on Sen. Bunning (R-Pluto) single-handedly stopping a bill that would extend unemployment benefits to thousands of Americans.

A lot of Jon Stewarts out there were acting shocked, however. I'd advise them to contact the nearest baseball historian. They'll say nobody should have been surprised. The 78-year-old Bunning was as ornery on the mound as he was on the Senate floor the past few days. But back then he was just throwing at batters, not Harry Reid.

"Beanball Bunning."

That's courtesy of a video produced Tuesday by the left-leaning Americans United for Change. It calls Bunning the "meanest, dirtiest pitcher in Major League Baseball in the 1960s. He hit more batters than any pitcher of the era -- more than [Don] Drysdale or [Bob] Gibson, or even Roger Clemens or Nolan Ryan."

Of course, Ryan didn't start pitching until 1966 and Clemens was seven years old when the decade ended. But all's fair in war and political demagoguery.

"50 years later, 'Beanball Bunning' is back -- headhunting out-of-work Kentuckians."

Just to be sure you get the point, the video superimposed an arrow titled "Bunning" and pointed it at series of pitchers who conked batters -- "Unemployed Kentuckians" -- in their noggins.

Bunning was a pretty nasty headhunter. He was also a great pitcher, winning 224 games between 1955 and 1971. That included a no-hitter and a Father's Day perfect game. A lot of fans will remember him most for his part in the epic Phillies collapse of '64.

Philadelphia lost 10 in a row in late September as manager Gene Mauch kept pitching Bunning on two days' rest. Bunning continually irritated Mauch by shaking off the pitches he was signaling to the catcher.

If Beanball didn't mind infuriating his manager, he sure didn't care about the opposition. In Ball Four, Jim Bouton wrote how Ted Williams would psyche himself up in batting practice.

"Jesus H. Christ wouldn't get me out," he'd scream as he whacked a line drive.

Then came the next pitch.

"Here comes Jim Bunning. Jim [bleeping] Bunning and that little [bleep] slider of his."

Line drive.

"He doesn't really think he's going to get me out with that [bleep]."

Yes he did, Mr. Ballgame. Now it's Mr. Reid, Mrs. Pelosi, the Huffington Post and anybody else who gets in his way. That included an ABC crew that dogged Bunning as he got on an elevator Monday night.

"This is a Senators-only elevator!" Bunning yelled.

Yes, and people are seriously wondering if his goes all the way to the top. Approximately 99 of 100 senators were in favor of a $10 billion spending bill, but arcane rules allowed one senator to hold up legislation.

Bunning exasperated his own party. He joked how all the roll-calling caused him to miss the Kentucky-South Carolina basketball game. When another senator asked him to stop the one-man filibuster, Bunning replied "Tough [bleep]."

That's the kind of diplomacy you get from a guy who hit 160 batters. This is the senator who said his 2004 campaign opponent looked like "one of Saddam Hussein's sons."

Last year he predicted Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg would be dead of pancreatic cancer in nine months. Bunning later apologized in a statement to "Justice Ginsberg."

I'd like to balance this out with stories and facts detailing Bunning's sterling legislative accomplishments, but I haven't been able to locate any. So I'll offer one political opinion.

As spiteful as he was, the old cuss had a point. Bunning wasn't against unemployment benefits, Medicare payments and all the other programs he'd held hostage. He just wanted them paid for out of unspent stimulus money.

Democrats recoiled at that idea, since most of those billions have been earmarked for projects like the Nancy Pelosi Botox Institute. But Congress' credit-card mentality has to stop at some point.

That said, this wasn't the point. Not if you were counting on an unemployment check next week. Early Tuesday night, Sen. Filibuster agreed to a compromise.

He'd made his stand, and Americans who'd never heard of Jim Bunning now know who he is.

They also know how Ted Williams felt.

To which Beanball Bunning would undoubtedly have one response: Tough Bleep.