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From Player to Politician (Part 4)

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From Player to Politician (Part 4)

This is a continuation of the previous parts of this article, discussing sportsman who went from great players to politicians.
James Paul David Bunning, more commonly known as Jim Bunning, is a United States Senator from Kentucky. Before becoming a Senator, Bunning was a Republican House of Representatives member from Kentucky’s 4th district. He served in the House from
1987 to 1999, after which he ran for U.S. Senate. He defeated his competitor by about half a percent, and assumed the position of Senator on January 3rd, 1999. In 2009, he announced that he would not run for re-election in 2010, due to insufficient funding.
But most people don’t know that before becoming a House or Senate member, Bunning was one of the greatest MLB pitchers that the world ever saw. His first major league game was on July 20, 1955, while playing for the Detroit Tigers. He played with them for
eight years, and then moved to the Philadelphia Phillies in 1964. On July 20, 1958, Bunning pitched his first no hitter, and his second on June 21, 1964. His perfect game was the first of the league in 84 years, and is one of only six pitchers to pitch a perfect
game and also a no-hitter, the latest being Roy Halladay. He pitched in seven all star games, four of which were in a row, from 1961 to 1964. When he retired in 1971, he was second on the list of all time career strikeouts, with 2,855, and is now at number
17. In 1996, he was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
When David “Dave” Bing was a young boy being raised in Washington, D.C., he had no idea what he would go on to accomplish. Even though he had fuzzy vision in one eye, after  accidentally poking his eye on a nail, Bing would go on to become one of the greatest
basketball players of all time, and then Mayor of Detroit, Michigan. Standing at 6 feet, 5 inches, Bing’s style was a bit odd at the time. When he started as shooting guard for the Detroit Pistons, he would distribute the ball, as a shooting guard does, but
he also shot and scored a lot more than a typical guard would. He joined the Pistons as the second pick in the first round, and was named Rookie of the Year after scoring 1,601 points. In his second year, he scored the most points in the NBA, with 2,142. While
playing for the Pistons, Bing played in seven All-Star Games, and won the 1976 NBA All-Star Game MVP Award. He was also named to the All-NBA first team two times, and averaged 22.6 points in his ten seasons in Detroit. He was elected to the Basketball Hall
of Fame in 1990, and was named as one of the NBA’s 50 Greatest Players in 1996.
In 2008, Bing announced his decision to run for the mayor’s office, and, after winning, was sworn in on May 6, 2009. In November of the same year, he was re-elected to serve a full term. He was honored mostly by the NBA, with the Pistons retiring his jersey
number, 21, and awarding him the J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award, as well as the National Civil Rights Museum Sports Legacy Award. He is 66 years old.
Last, but certainly not least, on our list of players turned politicians is the Philippines’’ House of Representatives member, Manny Pacquiao. Does the name sound familiar? Well, before being elected to the House on June 30, 2010, Pacquiao was known as the
first boxer in history to win nine world championships in seven different weight divisions. He was known as “the man who beat the man” after winning four lineal championships, meaning that he was the best boxer in the world in four different weight divisions.
He was named “Fighter of the Decade” by the Boxing Writers Association of America, and as the world’s best pound-for-pound boxer by
The Ring, Sports Illustrated, About.com, Yahoo! Sports, and NBC Sports. Now, he is known as the first active boxer to become a member of the House in the Philippines. “The Fighting Congressman” even got his face on a postage stamp!
Pacquiao concludes our list of the most well known sportsman who went on to lead lives in politics. Although all of these players were excellent in their respective sports, they decided that the public need was greater than theirs and started to serve the
people, becoming everything from the Mayor of Detroit to the President of the United States.

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