Bunker pitched for the Capuchino High School varsity baseball team in San Bruno, California in 1962 and 1963, as the team won the Mid-Peninsula League championships. He also played on the varsity basketball team.[verification needed] The Baltimore Orioles had ranked him and Dave Boswell as the two best pitching prospects in the country. Not able to afford giving each of them huge bonuses, the ballclub only signed Bunker after being disappointed by Boswell\'s performance in his senior year of high school.\n', '

As a 19-year-old in 1964, Bunker won his first six starts of the season, the first of which was a 2-1 one-hitter over the Washington Senators. He became the ace of a staff that also featured Milt Pappas and Robin Roberts. Bunker finished the season 19-5 (to date, the 19 wins are an Oriole rookie single-season record) with a 2.69 earned-run average and won The Sporting News American League Rookie pitcher of the Year Award. He also received the only first-place vote not won by Tony Oliva for the Rookie of the Year honors. That year, the Orioles fell short of the American League pennant, finishing in third place; the New York Yankees won their fifth consecutive pennant, finishing one game ahead of the Chicago White Sox and two games ahead of the Orioles.\n', '

So popular had Bunker become in his rookie season that Baltimore mayor Theodore McKeldin, prior to a June 17 game at Memorial Stadium, proclaimed the mound "Baltimore\'s Bunker Hill"—even christening it with a handful of earth from the actual Bunker Hill. Bunker then defeated the then-first place White Sox 6-1, the victory putting the Orioles in first place. Sixteen days later, he pitched his second one-hitter of the season, defeating the Kansas City Athletics 4-0, the lone hit being Rocky Colavito\'s fourth-inning double.\n', '

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