Johnny Bench Article - SI.com

[Stewy]

This is an excellent Bench read. Kind of a where are they now, but does share some of him impact on the game, which we probably mostly know, but it's good to be reminded.

https://www.si.com/mlb/2018/07/05/johnny-bench-cincinnati-reds

[fredtoast]

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)

[McC]

(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)

And capped it all off by hitting a HR on Johnny Bench night.

[grampahol]

My grandfather was a catcher who never got past amature status because of his family as a young player. He was drafted when he was underage, but they wouldn't let him sign to actually play out of town so he ended up playing amature ball in Dayton and never got any further. Amateur ball was still pretty big back then though ,but it wasn't the big leagues  .. Anyway, I was just a little kid when Bench came up to the Reds and my grandfather was a die hard Reds fan..Whenever Bench came up to bat there had to be absolute silence in the house.. lol
He would go on and on about Bench's game as a catcher as if no other Reds player even existed..  
Man, my grandfather had LOTS of stories about baseball and back when he still played and coached big league players often played with Amateur teams between games for the extra money so he got to play with some big time names even as an amateur . 
The stories told by family and friends of my grandparents my grandfather was a great ball player . Too bad his parents owned a candy store in Dayton and made my grandfather little more than a paid slave (if he was ever even paid.. I'm not sure he ever was.) I never heard anything good about my great grandparents . There was one old uncle who was well liked but from everything else I heard the rest of the family was extremely envious of my grandfather's talents so they thwarted him every chance they got . 

I still remember the game my folks took my brother and myself to. Reds were losing in the 8th and they wanted to leave early to beat the traffic home, but  my brother and myself talked them into staying. They loaded the bases and Johnny Bench hit a grand slam to win the game. Naturally my dad had to listen to me go on and on the whole way back to Dayton asking, "Aren't you glad we stayed? Aren't you glad we stayed? Aren't you glad we stayed? "  I'm pretty sure the answer went something like YES, now shut the hell up!   LOL

To this day my dad denies that ever happened and would never leave early to beat traffic despite the fact that he gets antsy just waiting for a short red light in traffic..lol 

[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.