Park bench has Major League link

Coeur d’Alene’s McEuen Park sports a new feature: a bench near the dog park. This is no ordinary bench. Well, maybe it is. But the story behind it isn’t. It was donated by Wally Bunker and his family after one of them read a letter to the Coeur d’Alene Press editor about the lack of benches in the new and improved park. Wally Bunker? In the 1966 World Series, Bunker pitched and won the third game – 1-0, over Claude Osteen – in the Baltimore Orioles’ sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Two years earlier, as a 19-year-old rookie, Bunker was the ace of the Orioles’ staff with a record of 19-5, a winning percentage that tied him for Major League Baseball best that year with future Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax. Wally, now 70, lives in Coeur d’Alene. He and his wife, Kathy, produce illustrated children’s books about a fun-loving bird named Wal-De-Mar Wiggins from the salt marsh of South Carolina’s Lowcountry. Once a bird fan, always a bird fan/ D.F. Oliveria , SR. More here.

Question: Have you met a Major League Baseball player?