Johnny Bench Article - SI.com

[Stewy]

(07-14-2018, 12:56 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Greatest catcher of all time.

Little known facts about Johnny Bench other than his hitting ability

He played 111 games in the outfield, 146 games at 1B, and 195 games at 3B including 107 in 1981 when he was the Reds regular starting 3rd baseman.

In 1975 and 1976 he stole 24 bases and was only caught twice,

In an era when the stolen base was a big part of a teams offense Bench shut it down.  He led the league in caught stealing percentage 3 times and finished in the top 5 for ELEVEN straight years ('68-'78).  He caught every inning of all 23 World Series games and only allowed ONE stolen base.  He won 10 straight gold gloves ('68-'77)

He was absolutely a force behind the plate.  Offense is what gets all the kudos, which is why anyone can even come up with a debate for others, but Bench was absolutely the best at throwing out runners.  And from early on he knew how to call and control a game from the pitching perspective, just check out Tom Seaver's comments from that article.

He was the complete package and the best there ever was.