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100 Chapter 21. Johnny Bench Mark Armour A generation after Johnny Bench’s last game, he remains the gold standard for baseball catchers of any era. By the age of twenty he had redefined how to play the position, and by twenty-two he was the biggest star, at any position, in all of baseball. Catching eventually took its toll, moving him to the infield by his early thirties and to retirement by age thirty-five, but his first decade with the Cincinnati Reds was enough to make him most experts’ choice as the greatest catcher who ever played the game. Ten Gold Gloves, two Most Valuable Player Awards, and his central role in two world championships made him an easy choice for the Baseball Hall of Fame at the early age of forty-one. Johnny Lee Bench was born on December 7, 1947, in Oklahoma City, the son of Ted, a truck driver, and Katy Bench. The family moved a few times in the area but eventually settled in Binger, about sixty miles west of Oklahoma City, when Johnny was about five. He had two older brothers, Teddy and William, and a younger sister, Marilyn. It was in Binger that Johnny remembered first playing ball, using, as many kids from his generation recall, balls and bats kept together with electrical tape. Ted had been a ballplayer, playing in high school and in the U.S. Army, but by the time World War II ended he was too old. Instead, he poured his dreams into his three boys, all of whom played organized ball in the area. Ted started a boys’ team when Johnny was six, buying the uniforms and driving the team to games in his truck. Johnny played catcher right away. “My father said catching was the quickest way to the big leagues, because that’s what they wanted ,” Bench recalled.1 Bench remembered being inspired watching fellow Oklahoman Mickey Mantle on television as a kid. Mantle was from Commerce, nearly three hundred miles away, but his rise to stardom helped plant a seed of possibility in the youngster’s head. By the second grade Bench was telling his teacher that he was going to be a Major League ballplayer , and within a few years he was practicing his autograph to prepare for his future. He played catcher and pitcher throughout his youth in organized leagues, from Little League through American Legion. While starring in both basketball and baseball at Binger High School (he was All-State age g ab r h 2b 3b hr tb rbi bb so bav obp slg sb gdp hbp 27 142 530 83 150 39 1 28 275 110 65 108 .283 .359 .519 11 12 2 Johnny Bench might have been the most famous star in the game in 1975, in the middle of his great career. johnny bench 101 in each sport) and excelling academically (valedictorian in his class of twenty-one), he did a lot of hunting and worked hard—picking cotton, working in the peanut fields, and mowing lawns. His high school years were also marred by a tragic accident —a bus carrying his baseball team lost its brakes and rolled down a fifty-foot ravine, killing two of Bench’s friends and teammates. Bench was knocked unconscious but otherwise escaped physical harm. The details of the event remained with him for many years, however.2 In June 1965, in baseball’s first free-agent draft for amateurs, the Cincinnati Reds selected Bench in the second round, the thirty-sixth overall pick. Bench briefly considered attending college on a baseball /basketball scholarship but instead signed with Cincinnati scout Tony Robello for $6,000 plus college tuition. Bench was assigned to Tampa of the Florida State League, where he played with Bernie Carbo and Hal McRae. He hit .248 with two home runs but drew good reviews for his defense. The next spring he trained with the Reds, also in Tampa , and the eighteen-year-old was confident. “To tell the truth,” he recalled, “I wasn’t overwhelmed.”3 While some youngsters take years to feel comfortable with their Major League teammates, Bench immediately felt, and acted, like a leader. Reds manager Don Heffner considered keeping the eighteen-year-old Bench in 1966 but instead sent him to Hampton, Virginia, to play for the Peninsula Grays in the Single-A Carolina League. All he did there was win the league Player of the Year Award...

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