MLB: Bench (Johnny)

[Music] there's a room tucked away in the corner of a house in south florida with a man who owns the house actually doesn't go too often but every once in a while when he finds himself inside he remembers some of this stuff gets stuck away in storage and you know you finally pull out a album and you know jogs the memory of oh my gosh i mean this is really cool [Music] [Applause] when you're a baseball player time puts a limit at how long you can play the game but it can also give you that gift of remembering actually i mean i look back and say did i really do this stuff and i guess i did cowboy and all these years later from one of the truly greatest ever to play the game there'll always be a lot to look back upon to marvel at to get lost in all over again nobody really thought that a kid from a town of 661 people would be drafted or anybody would find him because while to some memories might make you feel old isn't there just as much of an argument that they also keep you forever young look at this this is like september 1st i caught i got called up on the 28th the reds are dead set on producing the best bench in the national league well pretty cool to be major leagues 19 years old you don't have you don't have too many catchers even today in baseball to come to the big leagues and are potential mvp candidates every year i can't imagine the guy played that position any better than johnny bench it's hard to imagine defensiveness was great nobody can run on him he was a different animal when it comes to being a catcher in the business johnny bench was simply the best catcher i had ever watched nobody said over here with jonathan he's smart it wasn't that he was good because he was really good he was just smarter than the rest stuff collisions at home plate concussions i have six broken bones in each foot that's a wear and tear position man come on get over here right here john right here right here that's the boy nine drive left field off the wall bench goes to second he's turned a triple into a double nice going johnny cooper johnny had a lot of ham in him too i mean he enjoyed that [Music] he's just always been comfortable in being himself there's a lot of guys like him cats that were just born to be in front of people he's going to be telling a joke or he's going to be singing a song [Music] people love being in the presence and in johnny's company well i'll tell you i heard so many times this year when you're hot you're hot he was bigger than life he was a paul bunyan myth can i get some gillette platinum plus injector blades for my brother sure john thanks i mean johnny bench would wind up on the cover of time magazine i mean he was that famous he's the greatest catcher ever and i've been saying it for my whole damn life mccarran lily got told to appeal colonel papil he said what are you going to do my son will be the best player ever in the history of baseball cocky yeah inner confidence enter conceit yes wow i did it [Music] all these years after his last game in the major leagues the memories of what once was aren't really what keep johnny bench feeling young because while he might be in his 70s the man who many say is the greatest catcher of all time is something else now too a single dad of two young boys hey guys time to get up time to get up joshua hey bud what color are you wearing white green red my choice help me out here justin and josh are three years apart and they've been living with their dad since 2017. breakfast is almost ready so four or five minutes all right it's not where johnny bench expected to be at this point in his life but he wears his latest roll quite naturally justin gets an omelette or cereal depending on and he gets uh he gets english muffin gosh goes anywhere between waffles yogurt and uh cereal joshua's the kid just won't eat you know he's got i said i'll give you 50 if you hit a hamburger no i said josh you're gonna start eating something i mean at least try a salad he said i don't like salads i said how would you know you've never had one he said i'm psychic dad [Music] yes sir oh how many how about worship i get up 5 50. 6 25 get them up josh come on omelet cereal whatever they need and it's it's just great and it keeps me young because your all-star game happened good joshua thank you i can't even imagine being without those boys even for the periods that they visit their mom it's wow you know what are they doing how are they doing get your you get your vitamins okay they're really my life i'm mr mom i'm dead we eat and then they brush their teeth and now they're hair coming why do we have to call my hair because you're a bench and you have to look good and besides that the girls are crazy about you and they no i don't like you i'm telling you the girls are going to go crazy today yeah i'm serious they see this hairstyle no that's always what you say [Music] no you're the artiste thank you so much for asking do you have a problem with boston no i'm because the only other i'm better than you are you we have a lot of fun and then okay get your shoes on grab your backpacks in the car i'm dead you ready i am if you are well i am that's why yes drop them off at 7 40 come back here take the beds do the laundry go grocery shopping anybody coming and then you got to figure out what dinner's going to be that night this is what we do bingo oklahoma a farm town with a population of less than a thousand not the kind of place that jumps off any map unless you happen to know about the sports legend who was born and raised here now johnny did put us on the map i remember one time a guy asked him said john just exactly where is bingo and johnny in his infinite wisdom said well it's about 50 yards on the other side of resumed speed so that's about how big bingo is yeah city limit signs were back to back on the same page wenger might have been tiny but it didn't stop ted bench from encouraging his son johnny to dream big my dad had served in the war unfortunately for him he served two hitches and never got the opportunity to play in the major leagues he wanted to be a catcher and we would watch the game of the week now batting the next superstar the switch heading center fielder from oklahoma mickey mantle and i i looked at my dad and i said you can be from oklahoma and be in the major leagues i said that's what i want to be and he said well catching was the quickest way to the major leagues and what the major leagues needed so my life was consumed with baseball during baseball season and when basketball season i played basketball we didn't have football [Music] we started school in the first of august and at the end of august we let out for three weeks went out and pulled cotton and combined peanuts and i mowed yards and had the paper route and it was just part of you know a way of life i learned how to work i learned what work was all about i wanted to not to be afraid of it i mean i didn't come from means or anything else you know i'm just a kid who grew up in oklahoma come on in i met johnny a long time ago he always brings up okey okay hello hi how are you he takes a lot of pride in being from oklahoma and being from a small town it's our 1965 banker high school annual our class consisted of what 20. this is johnny this is sharon and johnny our teachers always had us right at the beginning i think of every year what we plan to do when we grew up and he was from the beginning he was a major league baseball player and we were like oh yeah right yeah right so in eighth grade i was only five foot two the same size hand same size head same size feet i mean i was the uh you know ugly duckling i mean the only people scouting me at that time was barnum and bailey he was all hands on all feet when he was little that's what we always talked about here i was i grew nine inches the next year two years and and the junior year they asked again and i said i want to be a major league baseball player and they didn't laugh so much he set that goal and he was you know really a a goal setter i think and worked toward that i mean when johnny was hearing bingo playing ball he was exceptional of course but we'd had other ball players in this town that looked as good as johnny la but he had that desire that little something inside heard him say one time that he was always afraid to fail and he wasn't gonna let that happen he never ever doubted for a minute that he would not be a major league baseball player i remember riding my bike and i'd be riding down the street and cars would be whizzing by me and i i even thought i said wonder if they know that i'm going to be in a major league someday johnny clearly knew what he wanted but in the spring of his senior year of high school there was no way he could have seen what was coming [Music] our senior year we're coming back from a baseball game and we would have stopped at the top of the winger high school team we would have stopped at the top of the hill to let sput off but he was sick so we went down the hill and all of a sudden the coach who's driving the bus haulers no brakes no brakes and we said april fool it was april 1st and everybody started laughing at first and i was sitting about three or four seats behind the coach and i looked up there and saw him pumping the brakes and trying to change gears to slow it down and i hollered he means it he couldn't gear it down he tried to make the curve and the front fender hit it we flipped over rolled down and banged johnny i was sitting with him and he grabbed a hold of me and and pulled me down on the floorboard we were both holding on kind of went end over in once and they say rolled about two to three times and when it finally came up it landed back on its wheels with a little door that's at the back of all buses johnny's legs were just starting to go out that he still had me around the waist billy and heraldine were both had died in the crash those two boys got thrown out and the bus rolled over them you know i became a little bit you know hardened by it i think you know it was something that could have happened to me here i was now and here i am in a car wreck and you know i'm still with plans of who i should be and what i was going to be and then the draft came along in 1965 the first free agent draft nobody even knew what the draft was going to be like in fact the reds knew nothing about me some people in the bar were talking one night and asked the mater league coordinator what he thought about this kid bench and he said we're not that high on him and then he walked out the door and said who are they talking about who's bench and they saw me play two games loved the way i threw and they drafted me in the second round and i never thought for a minute that i wouldn't be drafted i never thought that this would never play out [Music] and here i was i guess on my way in the spring of 1965 the world began discovering what everyone in bangor oklahoma had known from the start johnny bench could play baseball and the excitement only grew during minor league stops in florida the carolinas and buffalo new york we hear about him generally minor leagues for hey what's coming up here could be the future superstar the national league hey the reds got this stun he was bally hooters can't miss can't miss can't miss he's young can't hear it does have powers a great behind the plate he has this great arm we heard about the arm we really heard a lot about the arm the finest arm of any catcher i have ever seen you don't hear many stories about a catcher that's got a gun it got to cincinnati before john did and he got there quickly in august of 1967 bench got the call he was just 19 years old and the reds were making him their starting catcher look at this this is like september 1st i caught i got called up on the 28th well johnny bench 19 year old called a good game wednesday is the pappas and ted abernathy combined to beat the phillies oh nice milk they can catch kid really called a good game when he got there and 67 he was great so quick benches 12 big league games impressed teammates and opponents johnny was like a leader general you know he was young but he want to stay sharp you're getting tired and you're rushing yourself now on so many veteran players they say shut up kid you know something like that take your time you stay on top that's all i remember becoming a big league scared to death you know but you know it was like being a freshman in high school he was a senior he walked in ready to graduate rookie bench hero is red's win 3-1 bench followed up the intentional walk bringing a drive to the wall first time i remember seeing johnny bench he was on the cover of sports illustrated check that out johnny hands bench he was recognized as the next roy campanella yogi berra maybe better than after his call up in late 67 bench was the pre-season favorite to be named rookie of the year in 68 but he wouldn't just win the award he was so good that he began redefining what a catcher could be golden glove play behind the plate with the opportunity to hit 40 home runs and not many catchers none of them could do what he did everything he did seemed different johnny made one hand catching the thing you know most guys that came up in the 50s 60s there were two handed catchers i broke my thumb twice 1966 then i broke it again at the end of 1967 and i said this is stupid that's when i started to become a one-handed catcher i keep my throwing hand away from the plight of the ball and where foul tips might be able to hit it he was a different animal when it come to being a catcher in the big leagues it all came so fast but even with the instant success it still felt like johnny bench was just getting started you could see it coming it was something that you you felt you saw and you knew that this guy was going to get better and better and better you know a lot of guys want to play whatever the sport is bench didn't want to play he wanted to win there's a difference and when the reds hired sparky anderson as their manager in 1970 bench got his wish john larry is going to uh let me tell you something i'm not second guessing sparky came out of nowhere nobody knew who sparky was you know sparky had to prove himself can't do anything about it that's what i want to know i said that's fine sparky's strategy was simple ride his star catcher as far as he could well god damned sparky had to kiss his ass every once in a while for how good he was there were times when sparky i seen that sparky come on am i ever going to get a day off he said i mean always crook up that finger let me tell you if we're behind him we'll catch you to catch up if we're tied and we'll catch you get ahead if we're ahead we'll catch you to stay ahead i said i'm not going to get any days off am i not the reds were the powerhouse of the nl in 1970. we were 70 and 30 after 100 games and they got the nickname to match we were so good at 70 we became the big red machine the big red machine be red machine that big red machine which has been rattling and rumbling along and johnny was the key part he was magnificent this could be my best year ever who knows i'm quite pleased with the way things have gone especially when you're in first place i had four ways to have a good game i had to call a great game johnny was very intelligent ain't nobody sitting in that dugout telling johnny bench with the call i could throw runners out it would have been interesting to be a reds pitcher because you better get your ass out of the way like a block home plate forget it we know that guy's going to be out and i could get hits i remember facing him across the field and he hit a rocket against that scoreboard i thought he's going to knock it down because there was continual noises after it hit the reds won the national league pennant in 1970 and bench led the majors with 45 home runs and 148 rbis an easy pick as the league's most valuable player he was 22 years old not even five years out of high school in oklahoma and he was one of the biggest sports stars in america 1970 i'm mvp my classmate in binger she calls and says well you know it is our five-year class reunion and she said we'd also like to have a parade and honor you so wow and they got the trailers and they got them in there congratulations johnny mvp and here they are we're all lined up didn't have a band but we you know abandoned binger so here we go uptown and nobody's there everybody is in the parade except for three drunks who came out of mike's bar and they said yeah man johnny and we made a u-turn at the police station and we waved at each other as we went back by as we passed by each other and that was our parade hi i'm johnny bench of course i love to play baseball that's why i chose the profession baseball is a great career as johnny bench got set for his fifth full season in the big leagues he was one of the faces of baseball a star who blended brilliance with dependability once again it's johnny bench in talking about johnny bench he posted every day he went to the clubhouse he posted his name i am ready to play that was what johnny bench stood for he was one of those guys you could count on for four bats a day he didn't like the rest it was paul bunyan i kept looking around for the blue ox the rock ribbed figure of johnny bench his hands are bigger than his mitt somebody told me that he can hold seven baseballs like that johnny would stop to go you're gonna score the run he will stop you you're actually blocking the plate from the runner coming in trying to score and when you get those big strong guys away 220 to 230 they come barreling around third base sometimes you have second thoughts you have to be able to prevent that runner from reaching home base because it means a game to you and that's what you're trying to do is win well what else is there but smart and top those are the two most important ingredients in life and he had bench's toughness made him seem almost indestructible which made what came late in the 1972 season so stunning this was in august we went in for our team physical they got the x-rays and stuff and a few days later they came back and said we need to take another x-ray and they said we'd like to take what they call a graph x-ray and i said wait what is what's going on here and they said well i can't say unless the doctor i said well am i going back in unless you tell me she said well we we see a little shadow or spot on the lung and we want to make sure so they did the other graph and then sure enough i had a spot on my lungs more tests on the spot on his right lung followed but the doctors couldn't make a diagnosis so now they don't know what to do except they've got to go in there because i know it's about this size the size of a silver dollar and it's on the interlobe of the right lung and they've got to go get it i mean you hear something like that that's scary you don't know what it is i mean is this a pimple or is it stage four cancer you don't know still everything they could learn including the fact that the spot had only newly formed left the doctors comfortable putting off the surgery until december so despite the uncertainty bench kept playing and playing as well as ever if you didn't know you wouldn't have known i must say he took in stride but he didn't he didn't complain he just kept playing and that was the way he was johnny was going about his business so i don't know exactly what he knew and none of us knew really anything more than he might have a problem here but there was nothing to indicate that there was anything out of the ordinary going on at that time bench's performance on the field never wavered and the 24 year old earned his fifth straight gold glove and second mvp award while leading the reds back to the playoffs but all the questions about his health were never far from his mind of course sort of went into that playoffs knowing that there was a chance that that could be my last game today it's the fifth and final game of the national league playoffs at riverfront stadium in cincinnati ohio between the pittsburgh pirates and cincinnati red the pirates were leading by a run in the bottom of the ninth when they brought in their star reliever dave justin with the first man he faced wondering if this would be the final at-bat of his life well johnny bench will leave things off for cincinnati their final hope for 1972. nobody really knows about the surgery except my parents in the ball club and so i'm in the one deck circle the lead off the top of the ninth and everybody's yelling johnny johnny and then he said it's your mother and i turn around and i look and she she's looking at me and she's going hit me a home run i'm smiling to myself because this is dave justin pitching i mean you just didn't really hit dave justin justy took bench down to his final strike and then number five dug in for the most dramatic moment of his young career celebrating again in pittsburgh very shortly for all kinds of stuff that's going to break loose here in cincinnati in this ballpark trailing 3-2 bottom of the ninth inning the only thing i could think about basically was okay maybe not this year and then johnny comes up well why [Music] the place is going crazy of course it is you know i'm going crazy it's wonder right the game is tied i don't know that there was ever a louder echo in that stadium bench's opposite field blast fulfilled his mother's wish and tied the game for cincinnati everybody's channing everybody and five batters later the winning run would come home in more unlikely fashion it was stunning it was stunning all of a sudden he crosses the plate and said we're going home and it's so abrupt and so final we're going home so the reds win it four to three riverfront stadium offense gone absolutely berserk i think to this day you can almost still hear the echoes in that stadium the come-from-behind victory against the pirates would prove to be the high point for the red 72 season as they'd fall to the oakland a's in seven games in the world series oakland has won the 1972 world series but for bench the loss was quickly overshadowed by what he was facing next six weeks after the season's last out he finally went into the hospital for the surgery on his lung four days after i turned 25 i'm having the surgery and i don't know if i'm ever going to play again by now the procedure was public knowledge and everybody waited anxiously for the results cincinnati watched with interest the personal side of johnny bench he was hospitalized when a spot was found on his right lung i mean it was frightening is johnny going to die the operation lasted two hours with the doctors removing a marble-sized lesion from the lung you know they cut the bone they cut the rib and they cut the tissue they cut the nerves the test results came back with good news the lesion was harmless the spot was found to be benign but there was a tremendous outpouring of well wishes from bench fans all across the country an airtight seal with these staples they're still there and stapled me back up across the chest but i never was johnny bench again but at least i got to play and i'll always thank doc for giving me that opportunity do the players ever talk in the clubhouse at what age they think that a ball player peaks well i think around 26 7 8 9 even those years were when you really fully matured and you really got everything going for you johnny bench was still just 25 when he came to spring training in 1973 after the successful surgery on his lung looking forward to entering what he saw as the prime of his career his team meanwhile also looked to be as strong if not stronger than ever i was rookie year in 63 perez got there in 65 davey got there in 69 johnny got there in 68 so slowly but surely the big red machine was developing we were so good in 70 we became the big red machine but then joe comes over in the trade after 71 and all of a sudden the big red machine was in full force that was a team with a lot of alpha dogs you had pete you have tony perez you had johnny joe morgan gets traded there in 72. i give most of the credit to sparky anderson he knew who the leaders of the team were set over here with jonathan he's smart when sparky came to the reds in 70. he gained johnny tony and my respect we just loved him and if he got our respect the rest of the guys were going to follow suit we had that first clubhouse meeting at the end of spring training sparky said we're just going to set down the rules p joe tony johnny you don't have any rules the other 21 of you you're going to and i'm thinking did i hear that right oh man now i don't have to sneak in through the kitchen if i'm out a little late and everything else doing this this is the greatest and then i'm like oh this guy's really good sparky anderson he has treated us like men and i have to say he's probably the finest manager in baseball today sparky anderson say hey you guys in charge peter rose joe morgan johnny banks and myself these guys over there they're going to follow you guys we have black leadership we have white leadership we have spanish leadership oh help me no teams ever had a black hall of famer a white hall of famer and a latino hall of famer and hall of fame manager on the same team in the history of baseball boy it would be tough to field that team that we had because even the guys that aren't hall of famers are really good players i mean the concepcion is a really good player griffey's a really good player foster hit 52 home runs geronimo was a gold glover every year so we had the same eight guys that played every day that group of regulars would become known as the great eight the heart of the big red machine in the 70s when you walk in to the big red machine locker room take a choice do you go to this hall of famer or that person with the most hits in the game you go to this hall of famer over here or how about this guy that belongs to the hall of fame you know you had your choice not only with a great players but they had terrific personalities and that team put a tremendous emphasis on winning it was fun going to the ballpark back then we had fun but you know why we had fun because we won we didn't win every year but we never went to spring trains and we didn't think we could win they were united in their goal on the field even if their two biggest stars were hardly cut from the same cloth you know to me you're two different people and i think the public ought to know it actually call me an animal well i call you the animal that's right we live kind of different lives johnny was always hanging with the right people you'd probably say i was hanging with the wrong people because i'm a gambler okay you know i like to go to the racetrack i don't think johnny had been to a racetrack and the differences between bench and rose led some to wonder about their relationship there was especially with pete and johnny competition i mean he was pete who had been there longer had been a cincinnati kid he's playing in his hometown had developed the role of charlie hustle and here comes johnny even though he's from bingo oklahoma but had an air of sophistication about him so who was the alpha dog between those two johnny was really popular in cincinnati but i probably was more popular simply because the only reason because i was born there not because i was a better player i mean i was born three miles from the ballpark i don't know if johnny really understood this ever and i don't think he ever let that known but i think he had trouble with that there was no difference in pete and i we were partners in the car dealership we were partners in bowling alley we had the same drive he was driven to be that and that was fine he could be the spokesperson it was great because i didn't have to talk they'd come and ask an opinion and he could give it he was great copy i didn't need the pub and it wasn't like i ever looked at like what the eggs are doing how come they don't come and see me i don't care when we're on the ballpark we all get along i never see a discussion or anything on between p and johnny they both understood they were in a situation where this was extraordinary this may be one of the great teams of all time and they weren't going to let any problem that they may have or who's going to be the biggest stud or whatever and nothing was ever done to the detriment of the team in the early 1970s johnny bench was the most popular star on one of the most popular teams in america's most popular sport and his fame extended well beyond the baseball diamond whenever you're around him then sooner or later he's going to be the centerpiece and he's going to be telling the story or he's going to be singing a song or he's going to be telling a joke why is it easier to steal second base than it is to seals birthday well sure that's simple there's a shortstop between second and third johnny had a lot of ham in him too i mean he enjoyed that he had a lot of fun with it people loved being in the presence and in johnny's company in 1970 i win the mvp and bob hope calls and said he wanted me to go on his uso trip around the world to vietnam and here i am now going around the world with bob hope and the dingaling sisters and the gold diggers and we go rehearse in burbank i do the shows we finished and then it became just a natural thing i was on johnny carson i was on all these talk shows you weren't afraid to sing you weren't afraid to do anything when he's got a camera or a microphone in front of me he's real relaxed you know there's something to that you got to be cool you know hey guys how you doing he enjoyed how the business of show business worked and wanted to learn about it and became a part of it and along with the talk shows tours and movie cameos came something else his own tv show in 1971 i had the john events show my first guest was bob hope and willie mays and my co-host was a guy named al michael oh wow i can see why mike sent you over here gee that is heavy very i love you we wound up doing the johnny bench show the syndicated variety show so i was ed mcmahon to johnny carson that was pretty cool we had a lot of fun doing that show my tv show most of the artists we could get in those days were artists from nashville singers and everything else sing freely would you do that for us good even at that young age he had that welcoming warmness to him and i think that made people feel very very comfortable with him and that's why i think he developed as many friends people who were well known and famous and while the friendship seemed to span every corner of hollywood and the music world there were also bonds formed with big names from other sports none more significant perhaps than the king of golf arnold palmer i got to play golf with arnold and we walked the fairways together and he would say hello to people hi how you doing over there look at that one over there oh how you doing over there and you know he knew how to made people feel good made eye contact and i think i learned a lot that day about what it was to be famous but at the same time let people in on what you are and who you are if arnie could teach johnny a course on charm maybe those lessons could be used on visits with another mentor he talked to my players a lot over the years and he he would always have something to say that the kids loved it would be something like this boys i can't tell you how happy i am to be here and how happy i'm going to be to coach today because it gives you guys a rest i mean he would come up with stuff and the kids loved that because he was needling me this is johnny bench you know your autograph can be pretty valuable if you put it in the right place i think johnny bench had a way of relating to the american public people gravitated toward him because he was such a great athlete and this guy was the real deal can i get some gillette platinum plus injector blades for my brother sure john thanks at your local store this is krylon spray paint advertisers believed i had a clean enough image and i was trustworthy so i was always doing commercials i've always liked the convenience of electrics but none of them i tried got close enough for a guy that didn't go to college johnny smart knew how to sell a product when a guy wears a mask to work every day he kind of likes to look the best he can there's a major star and johnny bench would wind up on the cover of time magazine he was that famous and that popular there's a lot of guys like him cats that were just born to be in front of people he's just always been comfortable in being himself i've had him sing a few things me on the bus and it always makes me grind [Music] and then there were other benefits of being hot i mean johnny was the number one bachelor in cincinnati he was married morgan was married perez was married so he was the bachelor in southern ohio and northern kentucky and eastern indiana and just about every other place i could think of life was good for johnny bench but back on the baseball field there was still one thing missing for his powerhouse team the big red machine still had not won a championship to cap their story there was a feeling around the clubhouse in the buses on the road that that was something special and there was something that told me that we were on the precipice of watching one of the greatest teams in the history of baseball at sparky there have been some tremendous cincinnati teams in the past few years and the sports writers are calling this team the best of them all how do you feel about that i think it's our best club on paper check it's just going to depend how we perform out on the field the big red machine entered 1975 as the class of the national league as usual but defeats in the world series in 1970 and 72 had been followed by a stunning playoff loss to an underdog mets club in 1973 and a second place finish in 74. for all of their talent the team still had not won a world series title it was hard for us because of which we think we can win uh all the time 0.75 we put everything together again and we got one of the greatest thing ever the reds would win 108 games in 1975 the most by any national league team in six decades and still unsurpassed all these years later for his part bench led the club with 28 home runs and 110 rbis the reds then swept the pirates in the to nlcs up a meeting with the boston red sox in the world series where it felt like all the pressure was on cincinnati to finally get it done if we'd have lost that one we lose the orioles we lose the days and now we're going to lose again and we are the big red machine come on the series would turn out to be one of the most memorable of all time they had exciting games every every game was excited the reds took a three to two series lead into game six in boston which set up one of the most famed endings to a postseason game ever bottom of the 12th inning and it will be fistful in petrocelli against pat darcy who has been very impressive in two innings pat darcy pitches great got ball movement everything 12th inning he goes out to warm up and he barely gets it to me i mean he is barely getting it to me and we didn't have any pictures left and fist will eat it off has a single and has walked twice he's been on base three times i turned and looked in the dugout and i looked at sparky i went no [Applause] chance [Music] it was the drama of it all red sox went in 7-6 in 12 innings and carl fist had a lot of little boy in him right there joe and boston won that series three games to four from what i hear the sparky said big red machine my ass now says sparky relax man we got them right where we want them do you see that celebration they just had they won't be able to come back to the ballpark the next day but the red sox didn't just make it to fenway they grabbed an early lead in game seven still the big red machine remained unfazed he's down three nothing in the sixth i say hey the guy's not over yet wait a minute and when he came to the plate in the sixth tony perez cut the lead to one run with one swing perez slammed it over the screen and now we have another one-run ball game and knowing the big red machine like i did we knew we were going to come back from a three to two deficit a pete rose single in the seventh would tie it and joe morgan would then put the reds ahead in the ninth joe morgan's bloop single right now is the difference out the reds are one out away from winning the world championship it should be all over geronimo's under and cincinnati has won the world championship beating the boston red sox four to three greatest moment 1975 walking in the clubhouse [Music] it meant so much to be validated for who we really were [Music] 25 players are world champions the coaches the trainers the equipment and the managers everybody's the world champion number one recently going to bed we did it and there's no way you can't share all of that i mean that's the way you share with everybody the machine works only when all the parts are working and it sure works smooth tonight then i knew exactly what it was all about it was pretty special [Music] oh man oh [Music] 1975 might have offered the perfect ending for the cincinnati reds but the following year they picked up right where they'd left off with the big red machine dominating the national league again leading the league in nearly every team offensive category for johnny bench though while he was still just 28 it felt like all those years behind the plate were catching up to him i couldn't sleep on my shoulder every time i'd start to curl to you know load the bat somebody like stuck a knife in my shoulder didn't have a very good year but we still had tony we still had pete we still had joe we had george foster cesar kenny davey i mean all of it could carry anybody me in particular because they carried me would i like to have been better i couldn't be and when you don't have it i mean you're still better than some but you're not as good as you used to be not as good as i once was but i was good once as i ever was and that was the world series against the yankees his idol mickey mantle's old team bench's bat suddenly came alive certainly johnny was a great clutch player he had an off season but when the chips were on the line he came and had his greatest moment at the biggest moment during the world series he'd hit over 500 in the series with two home runs in game four get out of here get out of here how about that boys i got news three we're gonna be world champions again sugar bear i got news for you we are now going to be world's champions again [Music] hey john danny that's the boy oh boy we're world champs man his hot streak earned him world series mvp honors as the reds dominated the yanks over their four-game sweep play with these guys and they've done the job all year and then you're able to do something just you know make up for everything you haven't done with back-to-back championships the big red machine had now put itself in the conversation as one of the greatest teams of all time number one lineup that ran on the field will always be the big red machine there was something about the moniker there was something about the way they just plowed through teams and ran over people one of the greatest teams in the history of baseball there's no disputing that look at the players look at those players we had speed we had defense golden glovers we had batting champions we had home run champions we had rbi champions you come to a big red machine game you saw everything every night we were a fan's dream i am [Applause] [Music] i'll put my guys up against anybody it'd be hard to match that team i watched you guys win last year you took it very much in stride you took it in stride this year you take the third one and stride too if we can keep together we will that's the only problem that in my mind baseball has changed the free agencies and the opportunity to be traded or to go wherever you need to go and when things like that happen they can break up a ball club bench had it right in the years after 1976 the big red machine gradually broke apart and by the end of the decade only an aging johnny bench remained rose is gone morgan's gone perez is gone you're still here why is that i guess i was the youngest i had a figure at one time or the other uh i'm at the age where it's my turn to be gone all the wear and tear of catching had forced him to move to the infield as a first and third baseman and by 1983 at the age of 35 it became clear to him that his days as a player were dwindling my performance has not been great the last couple of years and i know it wasn't as good as everybody else wanted me to because my standards are very high i lost it and i you know i'm not afraid to say that you know most guys aren't smart enough when it's time to quit but he wasn't one of them and so in june of 1983 bench announced that his 17th season as a member of the cincinnati reds would be his last i decided about three weeks ago that it wasn't as much fun and uh the body says it wasn't as much fun i couldn't catch anymore my back was killing me i have five bad discs in my back and i couldn't play like johnny bench and i wasn't earning the money it wasn't fair for me to take it if i wasn't earning it the way i should be on the field that year that september as the final games of bench's career wound down the reds honored him with his own knight giving fans a final chance to come to riverfront stadium and say goodbye presenting the catcher of the cincinnati reds one of the greatest players ever to wear a red uniform number five johnny bent everything else was about the ball club about the team i mean 55 000 people showed up and this was about me wasn't about a team it wasn't about anything this was about johnny and that's what really validated what my career was like i did the right thing i played the right way and you know and people appreciated it you have done everything with such dignity a man who has redefined a position he was the guy the city could be so proud of during that period of time and frankly forever i mean people just exalt when they think about it you have made this day complete you have made it better than i could have ever written a script for i thank you so much my family thanks you and i'm going to try like hell to play good for you tonight thank you and in the third inning on johnny bench night the catcher improbably found a way to deliver on his promise giving one more lasting memory to the cincinnati fans and now number five will step to the plate and they come to their feet again [Applause] to be able to say in your lifetime that you were a reds fan got to follow a johnny bench on a day by day basis hey you are a most fortunate baseball fan i gave them the moments they needed to be happy hell i was i had a great career two-time world champion two-time mvp 14-time all-star ten-time gold glove winner johnny bench had come a long way from wenger oklahoma he's the best ever oklahoma takes a lot of pride in the fact that johnny bench is an okie he's just one of us even to this day he's one of the bigger guys always was and always will be we have a class reunion every five years and i think he's come to every one of them if we go places and someone's where are you from and where's they've been girl from uh johnny benchtown i was like yeah i graduated and it wasn't just the folks from back home who saw him as one of the game's greatest ever hey i'm not the only guy in the world is going to say he's the greatest catcher ever it's the best catcher i've ever seen there's no question about that you can't ask anybody on our team who to think who was the best the best catcher we say johnny he not only did it better than anybody has probably ever done it but he did it longer no one ever said catching was easy even though john made it look easy it's the hardest position there is in sports i played through these injuries i played through all these things i worked my butt off to be who i was bench has become the standard by which catchers are measured i think johnny was a better all-around player than most every player that you would could compare him to and that would include me if someone compares me to johnny bench i'm honored not only is the guy my friend i admire the way he went about his business five years after bench retired in 1989 he got a phone call hello john yes congratulations john jack lang yes sir just been elected to the hall of fame all right [Music] third highest vote third highest vote it's official it's official it was an honor he'd long dreamed about but a few months after that call news came about his old teammate and there are new reports this morning about baseball's investigation of manager pete rose those allegations reportedly involved rose's gambling habits uh i don't know if i ever told anybody this or not but johnny is the one guy in the world that should be pissed off that i got suspended and i'll tell you why in 1989 from day one the press followed me everywhere i went rose left the ballpark with a police escort refusing any further comment and be honest with you i apologize to him but he didn't get his just due going into the hall of fame and i think that in that respect he got pissed at me i've harbored bad feelings in a certain way because of the what he did to the induction here that i had to endure the more i knew and the farther away we got you know when you started hearing the rumors about what was happening and what was going on then you know it's like you know keep your arm distance and i understand why he did what he did why he thought what he did because that was his year and that's why people think that we have ill feelings about each other i love johnny bench johnny bens is like a brother to me by the time induction weekend came around that summer the spotlight was back on bench who himself was happy to share the experience with the man who first taught him the game the best part of it all was i wasn't going into the hall of fame my dad was we go to the hotel the ota saga we get out and the limousine i tell mom and dad i'm going unpacked i'll see you downstairs later so i take the take the luggage i go and i unpack and i come out of the room and i'm walking down the hall here's enos slaughter hey i just met your dad and i get to the elevator and the door opens and i'll step peewee reese hello johnny i just met your dad and i get down to the lobby and i get out and here's ted williams hey i just met your dad and so when i made my introductions of the family i said i would introduce my dad but i'm sure most of you have met him already that's your cue dad [Music] i would hardly be surprised if you all out there haven't met him yet he has taken this town by storm to think that you can go back to binger oklahoma as a four-year-old kid and learn baseball from the man who hit the longest home run ever who was the best baseball player ever my father i feel very honored to stand before all of you today and accept this plaque and go into the hall of fame with the greatest people on earth to see that picture with him and the tear in his eye that's it i mean i gave him everything yo i gave him everything he could hope for a guy by the name of yoki bara said it's not over until it's over yogi it's over we have made it and thank you very much [Applause] this is new york city hello john yes congratulations john just been elected to the hall of fame all right you said all right before he even finished his sentence well he said hall of fame justin the only reason why you can tell that you weren't born is because he has hair yeah he saw his hair on his head it was the foul balls that took all my hair thirty years after he got that phone call life is different for johnny bench arguably the greatest catcher who ever lived now just goes by dad all those memories though are still there and there still are plenty of ways to share them with his sons bobby bench is from johnny's second marriage while justin and josh are from his fourth which ended in 2017. you know my brothers we visit cincinnati every now and then and when i took him to the reds hall of fame museum they got to see the world series trophies which are as big as they are and they turn around there's a statue of dad and they get a kind of realization of oh you know we don't just come to cincinnati go to these parties for nothing there's there's a reason dad did something special don't throw this i'm just telling you right now see ya whoa you ran a bit slow there you run slow on the home runs you know how that is in the back of my mind i know they know stuff josh had a report you know he had an essay he had to write so he picked me i was mvp of the world series he wore the uniform to the thing but we're writing out the essay you start saying i did this or i did that and i'm doing it with him you know it's all of a sudden you know it was pretty cool look at the speed can you tell me again who him is that's me look at johnny run we're going to say johnny can we say that he's trying to kind of your hero sure do i make a better dad because i was in the hall of fame i'm in the hall of fame i don't think that does anything hey do you know who i am you know i you know it's yeah your dad that's the greatest answer in the world [Music] you know i look at johnny now and the way he's raising the two young boys it's pretty amazing i mean not too many fathers could could pull that off but the one thing about johnny that i can see that translated from baseball into what he's doing right now is he's going to immerse himself in something and he has in this particular situation i mean he's playing that role of of mr mom which is not something i ever would have thought you know 45 years ago would be happening right now there's nothing that fulfills my life the way these boys do it's the love that they show me that is the greatest reward of all thanks dad for a hug here's a guy with a big heart he answers the phone for me takes time hey 44 this is five tell me what's going on uh and the conversation is about health it's about relationship friendship to just have that tie that we became friends and then i look back and and i'm like well i tried to be number five little leaguers fought over the jersey five and we all tried to play catcher and how many childhood memories i had of everything was johnny bench when we were little the friendships still endure some inscribed indelibly into the fabric of his life what did it mean to you that he named his first son well i think when he did that [Music] the first thing i probably had was tears oh as i look back in my life i never had a more enjoyable experience with people than i did with bench not a lot of people get to live a life the way johnny bench has and to hear him now you get the sense he knows that people love to come up and they say you know i was a dodger fan i was a philly fan but man i really respected you i really respected your team and then they named the team [Music] see what that throw is outta here thank you very much but alongside all those memories it feels like there's a whole nother life still ahead and johnny bench is ready for anything and everything it's going to throw at him it was a magnificent time and i'm just it's now even more so i think because the gratification of being able to meet the needs of those boys it's something that i strive to do and want to do and i relish the fact that i have this [Music] opportunity

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Id: jOIzikGPPfY

Length: 65min 59sec (3959 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 28 2021