6 seconds ago 2009-11-27T19:48:22-08:00
Senator and Hall of Fame baseball pitcher Jim Bunning, who spent the first seven years of his baseball career in Detroit (five of them as an all star), was uninvited to a scheduled stint signing autographs in Michigan this weekend after the Kentucky Republican voted against a bailout for the auto industry, the Detroit Free Press reports.
Bunning had been scheduled to sign baseballs at the Gibraltar Trade Center in Taylor, Mich. on Sunday at $35 apiece, but hours after the Senate derailed the auto bailout plan, "the trade center posted a terse notice" saying that Bunning's appearance had been canceled, the paper reports.
The center's president, Jim Koester said in a statement that he had scheduled Bunning's visit "well in advance of the auto vote," but that he decided to cancel the arrangement after learning that Bunning voted against the bailout.
"Being a business owner in Michigan for over 30 years, I simply cannot support anyone who, in my opinion, votes against the economic well-being of our great state," the paper quoted Koester saying in a statement.
-- Carol Lee
