Hampton Bunker
by Ray Fleetwood
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Hampton Bunker was born on his family farm outside of Dyer, Tennessee on October 12, 1888. Dyer was then a small town of less than 600 people. He only received a basic education—readin’, ritin’ and numbers—at the town’s one room school house. At age ten his father took him out of school to work full time on the farm. While not afraid of a hard day’s work, Ham would often sneak off to go fishing, hunting, or play ball with his former classmates.
By age 15, Ham knew that farming was not the life he wanted to lead. He made it known to his parents that he wanted to be a ballplayer. His father would not hear of it. Every year the amateur team in nearby Jackson would hold tryouts. Every year his parents would forbid him from going. Finally at 17, Ham defied his parents and attended the tryouts anyway. He made the team as a pitcher, beginning an amateur and professional career that spanned almost three decades.
At Jackson, the team paid room and board, and they found players part-time jobs to pay other expenses. Ham’s season was successful enough that at the end of the year a D-League team from Clarksville offered him a contract for the 1907 season. With next season’s employment guaranteed, he was able to return home to work the farm in the offseason.
In Clarksville, Ham learned one of his two most effective pitches: the dropball, known today as the forkball or the splitter. Armed with the new pitch he set the Kentucky-Illinois-Tennessee League on fire. As a bright light on an otherwise lackluster team he was offered a contract at the end of the season by the Class A Memphis Egyptians. Ham found the transition from difficult at first: these hitters could easily handle his average fastball and sat on the dropball in crucial situations. The Memphis pitching coach was experimenting with a new pitch and began to teach it to Ham. He called it the flutterball, and it was similar to today’s knuckle-curve. While it took most of two years to master, the flutterball would become Ham’s second go-to pitch.
Ham was one of the most eligible bachelors in Memphis, and he became known for having a different girl on his arm each night. He started seeing more and more of a local girl, Rona Warrick. Over the 1910 season, he and Rona were an exclusive couple. At the end of the season, Ham was named the Southern Association Pitcher of the Year, and the big leagues came calling. Ham chose to sign with the team closest to home, St. Louis, but he wanted to bring Rona with him. Before signing the contract, Ham proposed. Rona accepted, and the two tied the knot a month later.
When Ham arrived in St. Louis in 1911, the Explorers were a mediocre team who had never finished higher than third and who had not posted a winning record in 15 years. Joining a rotation of Orlando Nolan and Warley Krueger, Ham started a league-leading 48 games, winning 23 and losing 22. St. Louis only finished fourth, but they won precisely half of their games. Ham continued to be a workhorse, starting at least 48 games and pitching at least 400 innings in each of the next three seasons. In 1912, he led the league with five shutouts. In 1913, he led the league with 29 wins and 424.1 innings pitched.
In those three seasons, St. Louis only finished third or fourth, but they were slowly building a powerhouse. Joining the team the same year as Ham were center fielder Miles “Truck Stop” Langston and shortstop Jake Tripp. In 1912, St. Louis signed third baseman Ervin Terry and second baseman Francis Presley. Left fielder Sidney Tallman joined the team in 1913, and 1914 saw the debuts of catcher Morris Close, reliever Christopher Lenard, and future Hall of Fame pitcher Edgar Bath. The final pieces to the puzzle came in place in 1915 with the off-season signing of first baseman Ebenezer O’Conner and an early-season trade with New York for right fielder Taylor Byers.
In 1915, St. Louis improved by 21 games, going from 80-78 to 101-57. For the first time ever, they won their division, and the margin by which they won was also 21 games. Ham went 27-16 with a 2.17 ERA and a league-low 1.05 WHIP. The World Championship Series saw St. Louis face the New York Knickerbockers. In Game One, Ham went up against Knicks ace Edgar Blaney. Both pitchers went all the way. Ham out-dueled Blaney, and St. Louis won, 4-3. Blaney won their rematch in Game Four, 1-0, but St. Louis won the next two games to take home their first World Championship.
Ham only started 15 games in 1916. Enamored with rookie southpaw Pinkney Quinlan, who went 18-14 with a 2.75 ERA, St. Louis put Ham in the bullpen. Appearing in 57 games, he won 10 games and saved 14. The team switched to a four-man rotation in 1917, and Ham rejoined the starting corps.
Bunker, Bath, Krueger, and Quinlan became the St. Louis staff for the next six years. In that time St. Louis won the Western Division three times. The Explorers lost to Philadelphia in seven games in both 1918 and 1919. In 1921, Ham had the best postseason of his career. He gave up just two earned runs in 17 innings of work and twice out-dueled Brooklyn’s Hermann Logan, including in the decisive Game Six. St. Louis won their second Championship.
In 1922, St. Louis and Cincinnati battled the whole season. Both teams finished with identical 93-65 records. St. Louis hosted the playoff game, and Ham was matched against Packer ace Boyle Slocum. St. Louis touched Slocum for a run each in the first two innings. Ham was not his sharpest, but he stranded seven Cincinnati runners in the first five innings. In the sixth, with one out, Packers Darren Hersey and Rick Bolt reached on a single and a walk. Ervin Terry doubled, scoring Hersey and moving Bolt to third. After getting pitcher Slocum to ground out to short, Ham gave up a two-run single to Wilber Coon to put Cincinnati up, 3-2. Slocum and Bunker battled the rest of the way until Ham was lifted with one out in the ninth. Slocum finished the game only allowing five hits, never more than one per inning, in the last seven innings.
After the season, St. Louis made the best trade in baseball history and acquired future Hall of Famer Brock Rutherford. In spring training, there was a competition to land a spot in the rotation. At the end of March, Quinlan was traded away. Rutherford, Bunker, Bath, and Krueger formed the starting rotation for the next three years. The trio of Hall of Famers—Rutherford, Bunker, and Bath—all won 20 games in both 1924 and 1925. In 1924, St. Louis pitchers had a collective 2.49 ERA, over one run better than the league’s second best staff. The Explorers won the World Series in 1923 (beating Brooklyn in seven games), lost it in 1924 (losing to New York in six), and won again in 1925 (beating New York in seven).
In 1926, Boyle Slocum joined the Explorers, Phil King became the fifth member of a five-man rotation, and Krueger moved to the bullpen. Ham won 19 games. He also pitched 268.1 innings without giving up a single home run. St. Louis lost the Championship Series to the Knicks, four games to two, with Ham losing both games he pitched.
Age started to catch up with Ham in 1927 as he finished 17-16 with a 3.76 ERA—below average numbers by St. Louis standards. The Explorers again faced the Knicks in the Championship. Again they lost, four games to two. Again Ham lost both games he pitched. After the series, St. Louis acquired Hermann Logan from Chicago, and they traded Ham to the Knicks.
In New York in 1928, Ham started 24 games going 11-6 as the Knicks went 103-55 winning the East. Ham did not pitch in the Championship, which was contested by the Knicks and Explorers for their fifth straight year. New York won their third straight Championship, beating St. Louis four games to three. Rona did not like life in the Big Apple and moved back to their home in St. Louis mid-season.
In 1929 at the age of 40, Ham moved to the bullpen. He collected 14 saves. Rona asked Ham to retire in the offseason, but he returned to New York in 1930. And in 1931. And in 1932. And in 1933. In those four seasons, he saw only spot appearances out of the bullpen. He finally gave in to Rona’s demands and retired at the age of 44.
Ham and Rona continue to live in the Castle Point neighborhood of St. Louis and are frequently seen behind home plate at Explorers’ games.
In a 23-year career, Hampton Bunker had a 354-275 record with a 2.95 ERA, striking out 2,260 batters in 5,766 innings. He led the league in wins (1913), innings pitched (1913). He won Player of the Week four times and Pitcher of the Month three times. He was a member of five Championship teams (1915, 1921, 1923, 1925, 1928).
The St. Louis Explorers retired Hampton Bunker's No. 81 in 1918. In 1961, Bunker was inducted into the Hall of Fame.