Bengals Board Fantasy Baseball (The Show)

[kevin]

(03-01-2025, 11:33 AM)coachmcneil71 Wrote: They have several guys that can play many different positions this season for sure. Both Lux and McClain can play 2nd,3rd, or OF. Elly is sort of pigeonholed at SS or #3rd, at least for now. So yeah, I absolutely agree with you, and I really like Francona.

Side Note:  I witnessed Francona with the Montreal Expos, rip a HR to right against Cincy at Riverfront. It was Johnny Bench's last season. So many greats on the field in that game. Bench had a double, but the Reds lost either 2-1 or 2-0, I can't exactly remember the score. I'm thinking it ended up 2-0 Expos. Great memory though! Was sometime in the early 80s and my Uncle took me to see the other JB! Lol

Great memory game for you.  Here is one. 1983 Farmers Night in Cincinnati. Phillies had Perez, Morgan and Rose.  I think Perez only got to pinch it. Morgan played.  Pete Rose got on 1st and stole 2nd, then stole 3rd, and then a play where he got credit for stealing home.  Fans had to applaud.  Rose for Phillies in same at bat stole 2nd, 3rd and home.  Also all game Bench was playing 1st Base.  He made some of the best defensive plays I've ever seen a 1st basemen make.  Well, he was a Gold Glove catcher and he wore more of a 1st base mitt than the old catchers mitt, and he had those fast cat like reactions behind home plate. Johnny Bench showed me he should have been at 1st as his body hurt from too many games catching.  Best defensive 1st baseman that I ever saw was Johnny Bench that game.  So Perez, Morgan and Rose stealing 2nd, 3rd and home.  As if to say, OK, watch this, Johnny Bench hit a gapper to left center banging off the wall, as Reds scored on his walk off gapper RBI's......For a fan of all four, to see them once again in 1983, that was a game I remember.  It was like all the focus was on the Reds with Philly, but at end of game Johnny Bench was like, I'm still with Reds, and I'm going to win this game.  

Here's a Johnny Bench story. In 1971 and 1972, WLW TV had this Johnny Bench MVP Show.  He would have on guests and talk, athletes, actors.  Bench was good friends with Bobby Goldsboro and Bench would sing every show and he really thought he had a singing career going.  Reds announcer Al Michaels was on a show as a guest, and Bench sang.  Back at the talk show chairs, Bench asked real proud, " How did you like that song. That was pretty good ".  Al Michaels said, " All I can say Johnny is after hearing you sing, I hope you have a good and long baseball career ". 

Now that was Cincinnati WLW TV.   Later Bench had that National TV Saturday Morning TV Kids Show, The Baseball Bunch.  Bench getting kids to pretend playing guitar with ball bat was every show. I think the San Diego Chicken was on it also. So I imagine a lot of kids grew up knowing Johnny Bench from that Saturday Morning Kids Fun TV Show. It was Nation Wide show.  Also Bench did the Bob Hope Christmas in Vietnam Shows for The Troops.  Bench got to play golf with Bob Hope and USA Presidents. I'm sure he was at Pebble Beach and Desert Classic with Bing and Bob and Clint Eastwood, Jack Lemmon and stars and Palmer and Nicklaus. Bench and Goldsboro were good friends with Lee Trevino.  It is said Bench was almost good enough to be a Pro Golfer in the PGA.  He mixed in some pretty elite company is what I'm trying to say.  To play golf with Bob Hope and Presidents is something most Reds would never get to do.  Also Ted Williams asked Johnny Bench for his autograph, and that blew Johnny Bench away.  Also Bench had that cancer surgery around 1974, and he later said he never used it as an excuse, but he said he was never as good after that surgery, before it he was having those 40 plus home run seasons to go with his Gold Glove Defense at catcher.  

You know Coach McNeil, I think I'm ready for Baseball....We are getting close....I saw League Of Their Own, and The Natural on TV in last week.  Those are well acted and fun movies.  Tom Hanks has the classic line " There is no crying in baseball ". ....The 1919 Reds get a raw deal.  They beat John McGraw Giants and all other National League Teams.  The idea that they were not good enough to beat The White Sox is nonsense, The Reds had a great team.  They said the White Sox were unbeatable, but back then they said The Titanic was unsinkable. In 1990 the A's were suppose to sweep the Reds.   The 1919 Reds were a darn good team, because they won a very good National League.  White Sox Chicotte was having arm problems late in season, and the #2 pitcher might have been over rated.  The Reds who won National League were a good team.  The movies acting like Reds could not have won is nonsense.  If Reds could beat John McGraw NY Giants, they could beat White Sox.  Oh Yes.  Before 1919, Reds had great pitcher Christy Mathewson as Manager. He had to quit because he got mustard gassed during World War 1, and it was killing him. But Hod Eller and the 1919 Reds could Pitch, and I bet Christy Mathewson had helped on showing them how to pitch before he had to quit....There is a Red who doesn't get remembered, Reds had Christy Mathewson as Manager before his World War 1 poison gas made him retire and die, but the Hall Of Fame Pitcher must have taught the Reds how too Pitch, because Hod Eller and others won the very tough National League and yes, The World Series.