Johnny Bench Biography - Growing Up, Drives The "big Red Machine", Chronology, Matures As Player, Awards And Accomplishments - CONTACT INFORMATION
1947-
American baseball player
The name Johnny Bench is synonymous with baseball catcher. When Bench came on the Major League Baseball scene in 1968 with the Cincinnati Reds, he became
Johnny Bench
the first catcher ever to win the National League Rookie of the Year award by showing fans what a good catcher can be both behind the plate and at bat. With his keen eyesight, strong throwing arm, great agility, and savvy working relationship with pitchers, Bench was a defensive force who set records for playing a hundred or more games in thirteen consecutive seasons. Although he developed new catching and throwing postures that made him very effective and helped prevent injury, he still played with injuries to his feet, hands, and back. On the other side of the plate, cleanup hitter Bench could muscle the ball into the outfield and over the fence. Bench finished his career with a then record (for a catcher) 389 home runs. All told, Bench was a pivotal cog in the workings of what became known as Cincinnati's Big Red Machine.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Address: Johnny Bench, P.O. Box 5377, Cincinnati, OH 45201.
Sketch by Jeanne Lesinski
Additional Topics
Johnny Lee Bench was born on December 7, 1947, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and raised nearby in the small town of Binger. With his father, a truck driver and one-time semiprofessional baseball player, homemaker mother, two older brothers and a younger sister, Bench formed a close-knit family. Like many boys around Binger, he picked cotton, delivered newspapers, and played sandlot baseball. Unlike …
During the 1970s the Cincinnati Reds were one of the dominant teams in baseball, reaching the postseason six times and ending their seasons in second place three other years. Bench was an important gear in that machine. Behind the plate, he took charge of the game. Bench made it a point to know well the ability of his pitchers and the favored pitches of the opposing batters. As Bench noted in his …
Bench and the entire team suffered from a slump in 1971, dropping to fourth place in their only losing season of the 1970s. Like all professional athletes, baseball players have to deal with injuries, particularly muscle pulls, strains, and tears from quick sprints, awkward slides, collisions, and getting hit by the ball. Catchers get often get nicked by foul tips and block pitches and throws with…
Strength alone is no real indicator of anything. You must have the reflexes, the agility, the coordination to go along with it. The Reds were once tested on reflex action and I scored the highest on every exercise. That and the size of my hands have helped me a lot. My strength came, I think, from some of the work I did back in Oklahoma. I still remember throwing 100-pound sacks of peanuts onto th…
During the 1973 and 1974 seasons, the Reds worked their way to the top. In 1973 they overtook the front-running Los Angeles Dodgers in September but lost the Pennant to the New York Mets, 3 to 2. In 1974 they ended the season in second place behind the Dodgers. Then years 1975 and 1976 were stellar for the Reds as they won back-to-back world titles. However, Bench suffered a shoulder injury in mid…
Of all the positions in baseball, the catcher's is the most physically demanding, so their longevity is limited. Bench suffered from various injuries throughout his career. "I had 15, 16 broken bones and seven broken cups," he once told a Houston Chronicle reporter. In 1978 Bench suffered another back injury at home plate and a few days later broke a bone in his foot. For seve…
Although Bench retired from Major League baseball, the sport has continued to be an important part of his life. Over the years he has appeared on numerous television programs for the ESPN and Fox Sports networks. For nine years he worked for CBS Radio, broadcasting the National Game of the Week, the All-Star Game, and the League Championship Series. He has also served as a consultant to the Reds, …
From Behind the Plate, Prentice-Hall, 1972. Catching and Power Hitting, Viking, 1975. (With William Brashler) Catch You Later: The Autobiography of Johnny Bench, Harper, 1979. (With Larry Burke) The Complete Idiot's Guide to Baseball, Alpha Books, 1999. Johnny Bench lives in Anderson Township, near Cincinnati, Ohio. He is a radio broadcaster, motivational public speaker, and spokesman for a…
Anderson, Sparky, with Dan Ewald. Sparky! New York: Prentice-Hall, 1990. Bench, Johnny, and William Brashler. Catch You Later: The Autobiography of Johnny Bench. New York: Harper, 1979. Owens, Thomas S. Great Catchers. New York: Metro Books, 1997. Rhodes, Greg, and John Erardi. Big Red Dynasty. Cincinnati: Road West Publishing, 1997. Vancil, Mark, and Peter Hirdt, editors. The All-Century Team. Ch…
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