CNN's Dana Bash noted "there was an obscene finger gesture" when asking Sen. Bunning a question

[usregimechange]

Just a few seconds ago on CNN...

Is this man psychologically stable?

[Enrique]

1. the senator flipped her off?

:crazy:

[Cirque du So-What]

2. It's time to stop pussyfooting around with Bunning

He needs to be yanked off the Senate floor and committed to a mental hospital for 72 hours in order to find out WTF is wrong with him. If he's got Alzheimer's or some other organic brain disorder, then he needs to be retired for his own good and that of the country.

[CherokeeDem]

5. He exhibited very bizarre behavior during his last campaign...

I was living in Miami at the time but my parents were in Lexington and said that they were very surprised he won. He was incoherent, didn't show up for events, yet he won. Not KY's finest hour.

[Jennicut]

3. Nope, he has never really be psychologically stable.

Most of the Repubs aren't....I mean Grassley? Is he stable?
Bunning is being even more rude the most Repubs right now, however.

[Cronus Protagonist]

4. "obscene finger gesture" - there is no such thing

"Obscene mental interpretation inside my own head" would be more accurate.

[tkmorris]

9. While technically true...

I have to wonder what your motivation is for making such an obscure point.

[Cronus Protagonist]

18. My motivation is *almost* always humor

I'm amused by people's lack of contact with reality sometimes, and other times I need to take one hand off my penis in order to type a lengthier response, but in either case, I'm always looking for pithy humor, or just some quirky observations where some people live in unreality.

See my sig line? It's for people like you.

[Winterblues]

13. You could say the same thing about words in general.

They form mental interpretations in your head..

[AlinPA]

6. He's mentally unstable. That being said, I often wish I were in a position to show Dana Bash

and most of those CNN "journalists" an obscene finger gesture.

[Journeyman]

7. He was hit by a pitch 160 times in a 17 year career. . .

that may explain a lot, even so many years since. . .

[Bluzmann57]

8. Where did you get that info?

See Bunning was a pitcher and even though pitchers batted in his day, that number seems awfully high. 160 times?

[MyNameGoesHere]

10. Yeah but he was prbably an asshole then too.

So I would try to bean his noggin.

[Bluzmann57]

12. Be that as it may

I would still like to know where the poster got that info. 160 times? That's a lot.

[Journeyman]

14. BaseballReference.com . . .

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/bunniji01.shtml

The column about half the way over, headed "HBP" (hit by pitch).

There was a successive 4 year period where he lead the league's pitchers in getting hit the most times while at bat. There were another four years where he was 2nd, once where he was 3rd and once 4th. For his career, he's the 13th most hit pitcher in the history of the national league.

Edit to add: this category is in the middle of his pitching statistics, so it may be a count of how many batters he hit. I don't know baseball statistics well enough to verify this. Perhaps you can shed light on it.

[Bluzmann57]

15. Ok. Thanks

That number just seemed kind of high to me. Yes, 17 years is a long time to play ball, and yes pitchers not only batted back in his day but often went nine innings thereby getting more at bats, but that number just seemed a bit high. Once again, thank you.

[Journeyman]

17. Do you think though the stat may be for those *he* hit? . . .

I agree: It seems like a lot.

You know, it has to be how many Bunning hit. I just looked up Bobby Bonds. He was hit a lot during his career but he only had 53 in his 14 seasons in the big leagues.

On edit: Wrong guy. I should have looked up Don Baylor. He was hit 267 times in his career.

[Bluzmann57]

19. Yeah that's probably right.

Bunning was a known head hunter. I guess once an asshole, always an asshole...

[Journeyman]

20. Okay, here's a lot of info, some from Wikipedia (quick source) others from BaseballReference.com...

It is the stat for how many players Bunning hit while pitching.

From Wikipedia:

The all-time record for a player being hit by a pitch is held by Hughie Jennings, who was hit by 287 pitches between 1891 and 1903. The modern-day record is held by Craig Biggio of the Houston Astros, who had 285 as of the end of the 2007 season when he retired. Prior to Biggio, the modern-day record belonged to Don Baylor, who was hit 267 times.

The all-time single-season record also belongs to Jennings, who was hit 51 times during the 1896 season. Ron Hunt of the 1971 Montreal Expos was hit 50 times during that year. The single-game record is three, held by Rey Ordóñez.<7>
The career pitching record for most hit batsmen is 205 by Hall-of-Famer Walter Johnson. The season record is 54 by Phil Knell in 1891, and the game record is six, held by Ed Knouff and John Grimes.<8>

On May 1, 1974, Pittsburgh pitcher Dock Ellis, believing that his team needed motivation, decided to hit every batter in the Cincinnati Reds lineup. Ellis hit Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, and Dan Driessen, tried to hit Tony Perez but ended up walking him, and threw two pitches at Johnny Bench's head before he was removed from the game.<9>

From BaseballReference.com. . .

Career Leaders & Records for Hit by Pitch

The site won't let me copy the list, but it starts with Hughie Jennings getting hit 287 times and works down through 15 more players, to Fernando Vino at 157 times. So Bunning isn't in it; he just threw at others, same as he continues to do today.

Sorry for the confusion. It happens whenever I try to post things too quickly.

[Bluzmann57]

21. No sweat.

I should have also realized that the number was how many guys Bunning hit. And like I said about him, once an asshole, always an asshole.

[onenote]

22. not in any way to defend bunning, but he was only hit by a pitch once in 17 years

as a pitcher, he hit batters 160 times. As a batter, he was hit only once.

[Journeyman]

23. Thanks. . .

As I corrected elsewhere in the thread, I should have realized that was a stat for the number of people Bunning hit. After all, unless he was a determined baserunner like Don Baylor, who sometimes seemed to try to to get hit, I imagine most pitchers do their best to not hit an opposing pitcher, since retaliation in that sort of game could come swift and seriously hurt your own teammates.

[onenote]

24. the main reason not to hit a pitcher is that they are pretty likely to get out

why give up a nearly sure out to put a runner on base with a good hitter coming up? Bunning hit .167 for his career -- only 213 hits in over 1200 at-bats. In fact he struck out more often than he got on base.

[formercia]

11. Assholes are fair game.

I bet most were intentional.

[pkz]

16. vid over @huffpo n/t