Johnny Bench on Letterman, May 5, 1983

[Music] my next guest is considered by many observers to be the greatest catcher in baseball history he is also the host of the Emmy Award winning baseball Bunch a program which is seen nationally on Saturdays during the baseball season here now is a clip from that program watch carefully if you will change up I thought that was your Peggy Lee fastball is that all there then let's keep [Music] swinging the ugly side of baseball ladies you gotta win please mrs. daddy Johnny Bench boy oh boy I used to filter this before go down this is the the days of the Big Red Machine li-mei and Tony Perez and yourself Tommy helm Tommy helm I brought some more clippings I didn't know if you wanted to a little more okay we'll get a look at this a little bit later maybe oh that's cute now that's that's a little boy and a dog and that was one you word ball you write Ball State University in a Muncie Indiana yes sir home of the the Cardinals the yeah well we would get into that but anyway it's a real thrill to meet you yeah you always been your Oklahoma right 660 people why the you're obviously following the steamrollers is tough but George Burns 87 years old and my grandmother's just turned 87 and my great-grand my other grandparents had their 65th wedding anniversary the other day good heavens so maybe they'll get part of the book or some six his 65th 65 years or 85 and 83 how is that something you want to celebrate 65 years of marriage Wow I'm working on the year anyway Ben you're up well my small town now but you always knew you were gonna be not just a major leaguer you had a pretty good idea you were gonna be world-class huh well I was my father was a was a ballplayer and he wanted all the kids that were born him basically to be ballplayers and so I made a C in penmanship in fifth grade and I was very disturbed about it so I knew that it you know people read my autograph and they couldn't understand what it said I was you know what good is an autograph so I used to go down the Texaco station with Ford McKinney and I'd sit after after school and write my name if some time after he signs the cigar box full of autographs so you here in New York you would go for a 450 apiece but Ford McKinney Ford McKinney Texaco we'd call him Texaco what's he doing them he's working down the oil fields down in Texas yes probably back home now cuz it's kind of running dry on him now now when you went up you didn't play minor league ball did you or I played two and a half years I started when I was 17 got out of high school and caught a plane to Tampa Florida and got off the plane at nine o'clock one of the pitchers picked me up took me ballpark and I caught the ninth inning of the ballgame yeah woke up the next muna didn't have a place to stay had you know one pair of slacks the rest were jeans went over just played it stayed with some of the guys in the apartment woke up the next morning 17 you know made you a pro ballplayer you know ya woke up clothes are still on the floor breakfast wasn't ready and my mommy tough thing seventeen years old all of a sudden thrown in with the wolves there when you go out to the mound to talk to the pitcher you ever have any difficulty understanding the signals you're running the show pretty much aren't you well I'm in charge I there's times when a pitcher should shake me off I think just to get a different pattern but you know like certainly our pitchers most of them are trained now but back in the old days when Pedro Borbon people I mean you probably saw Pedro pitch but Pedro with toriel yeah I tell you six times I'm not gonna tell you seven we go through spring training would be for spring training of six weeks and we go through spring training and we go through we always had these signs clumps after two so we could you know decoy and confuse the runners at second base what did you say pumps after two pumps after two so if you put two fingers down you start counting after that okay yeah all right we'll give you a sign there's one that don't count now you start counting so you gave three signs after the finger - mm-hmm so that's the third pitch that they would have fastball curveball slider so we'd go through this for six weeks now Pedro of course opening day we'd walk out to the mound they'd finally call him in and he'd call me out to the master first time go first time and that's where it went all year long but we got it we got into the 75 World Series when we played Boston now will McEnaney has been with us since the spring training so we've been together six months almost seven now and we got Fred Lynn up to the plate I called two three one three it's a slider I'm ready he's Will's left-handed so it's gonna break out this way Fred Lynn's left-handed so it's breaking away from him so I'm ready to catch the slider he throws a fastball inside and I might might knock it down I I doubt that I you know keep the run from scoring the bases are loaded I mean we're in the sixth game as it is and that turned out bad enough but Fred Lynn swung at the pitch popped it up down the left-field line George Foster goes over catches it now Denny Doyle's on third base Don Zimmer is the third-base coach and Don is saying no no no and any thought he said go go go so now he takes off George Foster throws a one-hopper to me I tagged oil out double play we still got you know it's two outs and we didn't have any outs in the inning so I called time and go out to the mound and I said will I said you crossed me up you know I called for the slider two three one three and he said oh I guess I did well sometimes those things work out let's go what's the problem I said you wouldn't understand yeah when a guy this is the one thing I remember from listening to Joe Nuxhall and it's now Marty Brennan there used to be Jim McIntyre Jim McIntyre before that it was I mean after that was Al Michaels this means nothing to anyone who doesn't live in the tri-state area as they say but a great baseball listening anyway a guy would be wild high when he was tired they'd say well a fastball pitcher if they're coming in high he's tired is that true or is that just something Joe would make up the old left-hander rounding third and heading for home that's usually when when their arm is trailing they're not as their arm speed is a very important thing of getting the arm through while your legs are going through so if they're high they're actually their arms dragging they're dropping their elbow they're not staying on top of the elbow the elbow should stay up on top of the I heard Tom Seaver say stay on top above the shoulder so yeah I mean there's times when you know they just don't have it is it up to you is it your responsibility to explain to the pitcher that he is now no longer effective because he's tired you try not to let him know that you're trying to get him out of there yeah you you have a signal with Sparky and you sort of look at the pitcher and say check the centerfielder and then when you do Sparky say so Sparky starts warming somebody up and those were the old days when before when Sparky was probably manager when you were coming down yeah you know there's times when you have to go out there and say look you know are you all right and they'll say well I'm a little tired then Sparky will come out or whoever the manager is rhykker us and the Russians Nixon will come out when I was catching and said you know is he okay and I said well you know I he's getting tired and I think you gotta you know make the change and so we do it who is the guy that you kept call for the change-up or a change it because his fastball wasn't had no heat on it and well that's I should I Jerry I'll probably shoot me if it's a Jerry rego was a left-handed pitcher and he had a real good curveball that particular day we're playing the daytime playing the Dodgers and he had just a mediocre fastball and so I called curveball nobody's gonna be sighs call curveball he goes curveball curveball you know I know the guy he's going he's fastball I hate that he can't get it over anyway so finally I finally shakes it off again I put down fastball and he throws it up and away I'm just sitting there in a crouch and throws the fastball and I go I reach up barehanded and that's some heat boy when you got the message thank you know you know you know this is about don't you I think so okay you want it now seven is your record high yes seven how do you feel up to it sure all right all right I haven't done anything today with my hands okay see what you can do whoo I guess this is supposed to be for the vaudeville that's right yeah see now when you're done playing you can go out on tour and do this yes we we're supposedly but going to put seven of these balls in my hand I can remember at one time it was seven baseballs imagine the possibilities that's what they remember that well I think it was a 36c at that time it was we are now how many you got there you got I'm not sure we got some rubdown balls which looks like some mascara here who's working back there in the back - anyway what do you need on there some of that mud I saw Pedro I don't know if I can say this I saw Pedro Borbon strangle a teammate in the dugout one night you know this was the Indian Adelaide ball that was yeah we may be here for a while but the other one goes over here [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Don Giller

Views: 110,481

Rating: 4.8783998 out of 5

Keywords: Johnny Bench

Id: WzbWCMi4GN0

Length: 10min 4sec (604 seconds)

Published: Mon May 01 2017