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Wallace Edward Bunker
Kansas City Royals
Pitcher
Born: January 25, 1945, Seattle, WA
Signed: Signed by the Baltimore Orioles as an amateur free agent before 1963 season
Major League Teams: Baltimore Orioles 1963-1968; Kansas City Royals 1969-1971
World Series Appearances: Baltimore Orioles 1966
Wally Bunker made his debut as an 18-year-old in 1963 and a year later he'd be a 19-game winner and Topps All-Star Rookie. Bunker's career year in 1964 saw him compile a 19-5 record with a 2.69 ERA, 12 complete games and a shutout. He finished as runner-up in the Rookie of the Year voting behind the Twins' Tony Oliva (#600). Bunker's arm betrayed him following that year and frequent injuries meant he never repeated the success of his rookie season. In 1966 he went 10-6 with a 4.29 ERA for the pennant-winning Orioles, and recaptured some of his rookie glory with a complete game shutout against the Dodgers in Game 3 of the World Series. Baltimore would sweep Los Angeles in four games.
He pitched sparingly over the next few seasons, and was left unprotected by the Orioles in the 1968 expansion draft. Bunker was chosen as the 25th pick overall by the Royals, and he was the franchise's first ever starting pitcher on opening day 1969. Bunker led that inaugural Royals club with 31 games started, going 12-11 with a 3.23 ERA in 222 2/3 innings pitched. Limited to just 21 more starts in 1970 and 1971, his arm injuries finally proved to be too difficult to overcome and Bunker retired in 1971 at the age of 26. He was 60-52 lifetime in 206 games, with a 3.51 ERA, 34 complete games, five shutouts and 569 strikeouts.
Wally Bunker made his debut as an 18-year-old in 1963 and a year later he'd be a 19-game winner and Topps All-Star Rookie. Bunker's career year in 1964 saw him compile a 19-5 record with a 2.69 ERA, 12 complete games and a shutout. He finished as runner-up in the Rookie of the Year voting behind the Twins' Tony Oliva (#600). Bunker's arm betrayed him following that year and frequent injuries meant he never repeated the success of his rookie season. In 1966 he went 10-6 with a 4.29 ERA for the pennant-winning Orioles, and recaptured some of his rookie glory with a complete game shutout against the Dodgers in Game 3 of the World Series. Baltimore would sweep Los Angeles in four games.
He pitched sparingly over the next few seasons, and was left unprotected by the Orioles in the 1968 expansion draft. Bunker was chosen as the 25th pick overall by the Royals, and he was the franchise's first ever starting pitcher on opening day 1969. Bunker led that inaugural Royals club with 31 games started, going 12-11 with a 3.23 ERA in 222 2/3 innings pitched. Limited to just 21 more starts in 1970 and 1971, his arm injuries finally proved to be too difficult to overcome and Bunker retired in 1971 at the age of 26. He was 60-52 lifetime in 206 games, with a 3.51 ERA, 34 complete games, five shutouts and 569 strikeouts.
Some text for this post originally appeared on my 1965 Topps blog.
Building the Set / Card #171
March 12, 2023 from The Philly Show (Uncle Dick's Cards)
The Card / Royals Team Set / Accuracy Index -8
1969 Season
As mentioned above, this was one of Bunker's best seasons and he was arguably the MVP of the inaugural Royals team. He tied Dick Drago (#662) for the team-lead in complete games with 10, and he was second on the team with 130 strikeouts to the 156 recorded by lefty Bill Butler (#619). If not for a lack of run support, he would have won many more games than the 12 he recorded.
Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card: 1964 Topps #201
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (8): 1964-1971
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 1981 TCMA The 1960s II #408
Total Non-Parallel Baseball Cards: 58 in the Beckett online database as of 11/13/23.
Sources:
Baseball Reference / SABR / Wikipedia
March 12, 2023 from The Philly Show (Uncle Dick's Cards)
In mid-March, Doug and I attended the Philadelphia Sports Collectors Show, held within the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, Pennsylvania. My main focus for this show was accumulating as many 1969 Topps commons as possible, which I did by adding a grand total of 193 cards to our set. That's almost 30% of the entire set added in one enjoyable afternoon. I wrote a full summary of the show in a post over at The Phillies Room, found here.
This is the 94th of the 193 commons and semi-stars purchased, pulled and stacked from the first two neon green binders housing 1969 Topps cards at the multi-table spread of Uncle Dick's Cards from Babylon, New York. My method was simple - I pulled up a chair, found a card I needed, picked the best of the group from the binder page and set it aside. After each 100 cards, I'd ask the dealer to tell me how much damage I had done so far. With a budget in mind, I kept going twice, continuing after card #100 and card #200, and stopping at card #298. The final amount due was 17% off the sticker price for the pile of 193 cards, with this card costing less than a dollar.
The Card / Royals Team Set / Accuracy Index -8
Bunker is clearly wearing an Orioles jersey and hat here, and Topps could have cropped the photo a little closer to cover up the top of the Orioles word mark on his jersey. The photo likely dates back to 1965 and is from the same session as the photo used for his 1966 Topps card. The back of the card covers Bunker's career highlights to date, including his two one-hitters in 1964, his 8-1 record in 1968 and his World Series victory in 1966.
Accuracy Index: The Orioles jersey (-5) and blacked out hat (-3) drop Bunker's card to a -8.
1969 Season
As mentioned above, this was one of Bunker's best seasons and he was arguably the MVP of the inaugural Royals team. He tied Dick Drago (#662) for the team-lead in complete games with 10, and he was second on the team with 130 strikeouts to the 156 recorded by lefty Bill Butler (#619). If not for a lack of run support, he would have won many more games than the 12 he recorded.
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First Mainstream Card: 1964 Topps #201
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (8): 1964-1971
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 1981 TCMA The 1960s II #408
Total Non-Parallel Baseball Cards: 58 in the Beckett online database as of 11/13/23.
Sources:
Baseball Reference / SABR / Wikipedia
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