HERTFORD, N.C. -- The Rev. Keith Vaughan has done a lot funerals, and he normally keeps his emotions in check. But this time was different. This time, Vaughan was helping bury his friend and idol -- Jim "Catfish" Hunter.
"In all of my ministry, this is perhaps the toughest day I have ever had because all of my life Catfish Hunter was my hero," Vaughan told more than 1,000 family, friends and former teammates who gathered for the funeral of the pitcher who won five World Series titles with the Oakland Athletics and New York Yankees.Hunter was buried Sunday near the high school field where he began a baseball career that sent him to the Hall of Fame.
The 53-year-old Hunter died Thursday, one year after learning he had Lou Gehrig's disease.
Vaughan eulogized Hunter as a common man who cared deeply for others.
"Whether you knew him as Jim, or Jimmy, or Catfish, or a host of other things I have heard, we are talking about the same man," Vaughan said. "Jimmy was a man of character. He was a man of integrity. He just loved people."
Former teammate and Seattle manager Lou Piniella missed his team's game in Baltimore to attend the service at Cedarwood Cemetery.
"I was looking forward to spending time with Catfish after the season. It didn't quite get to that," said Piniella, his eyes teary. "My wife and I and my young son are here to pay tribute to him. He was a great guy."
Other former teammates in attendance included A's Joe Rudi, Vida Blue, Gene Tenace and "Blue Moon" Odom, and Yankees Ron Guidry and Reggie Jackson.
The Yankees sent general manager Brian Cashman and former manager and scout Gene Michael as their representatives.
A 15-year-old Hertford boy stood outside the cemetery gate wearing a Yankees hat as the hearse carrying Hunter drove by. Players placed flowers on Hunter's casket as they filed out of the cemetery.
The most striking floral arrangement at Hertford Baptist Church came from Hunter's three children and grandchild. It was a huge baseball arrangement with white mums and roses as the seams of the ball.
Another arrangement at the church came from the family of late A's owner Charlie O. Finley, who signed Hunter and brought him straight from high school to the majors.
As the centerpiece of pitching staffs, first with the Athletics and then with the Yankees, Hunter won 224 games, produced five straight 20-victory seasons, a perfect game and a Cy Young Award. Despite being baseball's first big free agent, he always returned to this small eastern North Carolina town to live, and eventually retire.
Longtime friend and local pharmacist Charles Woodard said many in the small farming town just stared into space following Hunter's death. Some still had a tough time coming to grips with it at Sunday's service.
"It's tough," Woodard said. "The whole town has just been kind of numb."
One store displayed a baseball autographed by Hunter, but a sticker on the plastic case read: "Ball not for sale."
Bill Crawford drove about 70 miles from Virginia Beach, Va., to stop by the cemetery and walk past Hunter's marble shrine on the town's main street.
"I'm not much into baseball. I just know the man and I understand he was a great guy," Crawford said. "I heard he was just a straight and honest man, and had one hellacious career as a pitcher. I just thought I would come down to see where he lived."
Hunter was unconscious for several days last month after falling and hitting his head on concrete steps at his home. He improved enough to be released last Saturday and returned to his Perquimans County farm, where he died.
Hunter was the second Yankees Hall of Famer to die this year. Joe DiMaggio died March 8 at 84.