The Wonderful Johnny Bench

It was wonderful seeing the four men voted baseball’s greatest living players– Willie Mays, Sandy Koufax, Hank Aaron and John Bench–walk out amidst thundering applause at the All Star Game in Cincinnati two nights ago.

In the next few days, I will share some of my thoughts on each of these great players.

Cincinnati was the site and a great Cincinnati Reds’ player Johnny Bench is today’s topic.

I thought of him along the lines of Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Bobby Orr when he started and though it is almost impossible to be as great as those two were in their respective sports of basketball and hockey, Mr. Bench came close and received a great, well deserved honor the other night.

Few if any players delivered in clutch situations the way Bench succeeded in doing.

Al Michaels gets all kind of credit for a “tag line” when the U.S. hockey team upset the Soviet Union’s team in the 1980 Winter Olympics.

His true great call was his play by play as the Reds’ radio broadcaster, when Bench homered off a then great relief pitcher Dave Giusti of the Pittsburgh Pirates, to tie the decisive 5th game of the 1972 NLCS (eventually won in the same inning by the Reds).

Lesser known, but perhaps more important, as the Reds, who lost the 1972 World Series did win it in 1975, was Bench starting the Reds’ winning 2 run rally in game 2 of the great 1975 World Series vs the game Boston Red Sox.

“Cincy” trailed both the World Series and game 2 by one, when Bench doubled to right. The one time seeing Johnny, I recalled that hit to open our conversation and he remarked “how few people remembered such a big hit.”

Back to the 1972 game 5 home run. Bench hit it to right field as he did the 1975 W.S. game two double, the ball sailing over the head of the great, great player Roberto Clemente of the Pirates.

It really does not matter that had Clemente been alive, he died in a plane crash as he was aiding victims of an earthquake in Nicaragua, he and not Bench would have been one of the four players cited two nights ago.

What matters is that he died, how he lived and how precious life is. When that ball went over Clemente’s head, it was the last time the public saw him.

All of this, reasons why it was so special seeing the great living players, Johnny Bench, perhaps baseball’s greatest catcher alive or deceased, being one of them.

Click here for the 1972 NLCS Finnish