Reds Hall of Famer Johnny Bench Joins the Rich Eisen Show In-Studio | Full Interview | 7/17/18

he is baseball hall-of-famer 14 time all-star Johnny Bench how many Tigers I'm doing great remember the pitch he hit out high fastball I just figured he was gonna try to overpower it it went in the upper deck and it went into the tunnel actually went through the exit and it was long as Homer and probably I ever hit and probably the longest home run they ever saw yeah in Tiger Stadium until until I call that slider down and in from doc Ellis to Reggie and he almost took the light standard out yeah no he went he went he went Roy Hobbs he went natural on 3333 Hall of Famers in that game three yeah I mean you saw Stargell I walked in here it is right here yeah we're supposed to cue it up yeah no yeah that's that's Reggie Reggie took one right out and so you you are 33 33 all the favors and they gave me I mean that you know start so Mays McDuffie eridan kala you can go down the list but it was just under Roberts is there really my first at-bat I you know this is after the 70 World Series after Brooks had stolen everything or maybe was suddenly good and stolen everything in the first ball I hit a line shot he backhands I mean and I'm just running up and down the line why now again do you still dream of this stuff County that you're playing I mean when you go to sleep at night you wake up so you don't sleep at all it's what your snow they're good they're really good but I I'm a used you know I I did it you know I played it I did it and everything else and you know you watched the home runs now last night I watched the Derby it was fabulous and I enjoyed every part of it I enjoy what these kids are doing today I you know I've heard part of the first part of it as how do we make boys baseball fun again and what's wrong with baseball I don't see anything wrong with baseball I think it's you know when we played there were 45 seconds between commercials so you ran out got ready and threw your pitches and played them so but if you take now 2 minutes and 20 seconds which now it was for a while and they're trying to cut that back you had an hour and 15 minutes that's three at three minutes almost per inning to nine innings you've got 27 minutes extra just for commercial time so you wind up now with the game it's 2 hours and 40 minutes now runs into 310 and I don't still don't know what people have to do that why they have to rush home or anything else I mean what's so important that you can't sit there and watch The Closer come in and why can't you see a rally coming and doing some and enjoy the intricacies of it now do the guys step out fix their gloves and scratch their jocks and do all the stuff too much yeah they are but you know they they've been trained now psychologically by their sports therapist that they need to really redirect and reach the focus and so they get out there now they're thinking about all the hitting things and everything else and they're going back to the videos of what they've what they debt guy did to him last time it's - I know okay let's see - and oh three weeks ago he threw me this I mean they think of that I that's that's the thing that bothered me most is just guys stepping out would you have been a even a better baseball player if that technology was available to you know do you think no I knew what was coming or guessed I like to guess I like to look you know I tell tell guys even today I said what do you look for on the first pitch and some teams say we take the first strike because we know we like to get deep in the count we want to work the pitcher right well I'm saying okay but if the first pitch is your pitch those are the major leagues you may see one pitch every at-bat if you're lucky and so why wouldn't you set on that pitch whether it be a hanging curveball cuz I look curve ball and hit fastball because I knew I could adjust that quickly and so I I said here's the pitch and if it was bad I took it and then I rezone dim and I it worked out great well you see all the binders like that a lot of these managers have and they're making notes and they're they're taking stuff out of their pocket and writing stuff down and and that there's all of these analytics about that that that create what we've seen this year a couple times like the Tampa Bay Rays starting they're closer a couple of times because they figure it's beneficial with the top of the order and then bringing somebody with all that information what would a Sparky Anderson have been like with that information if it was ever presented in front of Sparky in the middle of the seventies Johnny well Sparky you know somebody said how do you judge Talent Sparky hmm and he went yeah pointy to his I pointed to his eye and he said this is the way I can see Talent but Sparky used to call Pete Joe Tony myself in as a group or individually and they would say what about if we trade for this guy and we would say no well what about this guy yes because we knew kind of like what his talent ability was he would call you guys and I guess some of the bigger names of a big Red Machine yeah to ask you your thoughts on what a front the front office might well we were other Scouts than anybody I mean you don't need you got a guy up there but stop watch we didn't have to have a stopwatch we knew this guy had ball movement in his own or he was able to fit into a situation like it's just important to have a second place hitter as an eighth place hitter it's just as important have Terry Crowley and merv rettenmund on the bench and bill Plummer coming off to catch and Doug Flynn these are guys that had to fill in and were they ready when they were called upon so their role was just as important and we had to find out who these people are Johnny Bench here in the Rich Eisen show and we'll talk about the Johnny Bench scholarship fund in a few minutes here so the homerun Derby did you ever take part in anything like that any every day on batting practice you know Ubuntu yes get it you know hit me hit and run yes get him over and then see how far you could hit it I mean it was like Chicago we we tried to break out the windows we would break out the windows across the street so I mean they talked about these guys how far they hit it I mean we was we knocked out windows across the street and people would there were other teams would actually come out and watch us take batting practice because this wasn't anything about you know keep insides and keep your hands inside the ball do this stuff and I don't know if you know that in a 90 mile an hour fastball you have 0.42 seconds from the time it leaves the pitchers hand till it crosses one plate you have a point one seven second reacts react to it and how do you make the decision where the cameras send the signal the brain sees it it's got to send the nit to the nerve to the nerves and muscles and you react so when you start saying I've got to know I better stay inside the ball and then you go to the bench and the guy said you should have hit that the other way well next time up there you're thinking this is about the hitting wall and seeing the ball and hitting as hard as you can and in situations you know what you have to do we had guys that you know could flat hit and they didn't go up there and say let's get deep in the count it wasn't trying to get this picture you throw deep we didn't care we wanted to get this guy as many runs as we could in the first few innings and then work from there was there such a thing as pitch count when you play a doll no no right I mean Jim Maloney are one of the great right-handers if you ever look it up one of the great right-handers in the history of baseball right he threw a 10 ending no-hitter he walked 10 he hit one he threw 187 pitches and then he pitched his rotation on the fourth day how was he great there's no problem great I mean but I mean and but we're supposed to get bigger stronger faster as a human race we see it I certainly see it in the NFL oh no it's a why what what can arms no longer a handle that I think I think ownership changes and medicine house ala do you mean because you go in and said I got a twinge what we better take an MRI well you have just a slight little fiber off there well I mean in those days we used to take capsule and Abilene cream and rub it and get the hot stuff until you couldn't stand it and you went out and you pitched yeah it was it was it was just you knew you had to play you know otherwise you would have wound up without a job and so I saw you were nodding your head a couple of times when I was and I'm not just saying that cuz I want Johnny Bench to st. to the mic but you were saying the right thing about what I was saying at the top of the show here is that I want to see more of the stars of the game out there right I mean Bryce Harper and my mind should be his face should be everywhere today in front of a microphone talking about last night yeah he won me over a lot last night what do you mean by that well I've never you know I've seen all the coverage of them and sometimes we social media and now the media itself can is focused on that it's like the managers now you see well they don't have any reaction because you've got one camera totally focused on them so if they make a move excuse me make a move or do something wrong it's usually shown that night because we're gonna be showing it and replaying it and replaying it he was upset at this guy and how his reaction was so guys basically aren't going to expose themselves we see it in golf golfers now have no emotion but if they know that they are they you know we're going to show it you know he's upset with it so they've been there protecting themselves plus they got so much money they don't need a PR campaign you know they're making hundreds of million dollars I made 2.2 in my entire career your entire playing career yeah so I started off at 11,000 is that why you were doing stuff like the base what was promoting myself is that well yeah but I wasn't afraid you know I had like the baseball Bunch games people play right I had you know golf in paradise but it was the way I had to me I made more money in the offseason than I did playing just because you know and I'm trying to but people wanted me and I wasn't afraid to do it so I was promoting myself now these guys if you've got you know you're making 2 million dollars a week every other week now they can they don't really have to go out and promote or anything else they can stay right there and protect themselves and people are you know people are after you a lot you know you go out have a drink at a at a restaurant some Red Sox fan doesn't like a ganky fan and he from any tweets or calls and said Johnny Bench is driving drunk I mean so you you face that these days and so these guys are really protecting themselves they've got you know they got their posses they got their agent you know they got somebody saying you need to do this and somebody saying you need to be there and so they become isolated in so many ways that's a bummer well bit of a bummer I mean I'm you know I cuz I'd love to get to know again but but that's me I understand I'm not living the life that you've just described you know you found out about it though true recognition things that you do well I guess so no no okay but what I mean is I guess I'm still out there I know that that's maybe why that's what helps put a roof over my head but and and I understand that a show that I do right here like I'd love to just be sitting next to Bryce Harper in our number-3 talking about last night you know but so I understand that I I do have my own agenda and I have this I said there's been a lot of part of you as a player you know you want Bryce on the show Dan wants his race sure you want this and then the local guys wants to do it and then you I mean you look down on the crowd last night and I'm Media people were there tons and they all want something and you can't always share it so sooner or later you basically just said like can't do anything or I won't do anything well I want to take a break be back in 60 seconds stole down a little bit more of all-star memory lane and then get into this poll question a little bit more about who you'd want to build a team around oh gosh we could talk about those things just that's the great thing about baseball you know the guys sit around and always kibbutz about who does this and who's the trade and who's gonna make a better better player so you know when he when he talks about judge yeah I mean he's a guy that's a personality he plays with personality we'll talk about it after we come back from break you want to throw 260 say you want to do this back we'll be back in sixty minutes here on the rich I've second second away second 60 seconds no I want to talk a minute okay right come back grab something back on the Rich Eisen baseball Bunch Johnny Bench here for another segment on the Rich Eisen show okay ask the poll question of Johnny Bench Cris Brockman go find mr. Benge who would you build your franchise around mookie betts Bryce Harper Aaron judge Manny Machado Mike Trout Mike Joe you didn't stutter no no and Machado but if you had to choose one it would be trout that l'autre what do you love about him I just love his the whole thing he's a kid playing baseball you know everything about him is running around the bases going into the dugout and putting his head down he hits home run he puts his head down he runs around the bases doesn't try to show up anybody he plays the outfield as hard as he can play it he jumps over over the but he's just he's an inspiration to kids he's like this is fun I still love playing the game and Machado is so talented judge is a guy that I really enjoy yeah he strikes out too much but you know he's still close to 300 and he hits the long ball he can do it he's in the clutch situations do we got else bets bets yeah amazing what he's doing in 367 or something made close to that no you know the real guy up there is JD Martinez what he liked about his dud man stud you put it on the line he'll do it I mean look at what he did in Arizona you know he turned that team around too because you got to have somebody in the middle of that lineup that you can rely on and those guys really make it easy for him because a bettin a veterinary button Rd mm-hm penny Cindy been attending great little kid watch him I love to watch him I'm like bets they set it up for him and this guy when it comes down to it he takes a load off the back of the lineup but he drives in he's got what 80 RBIs already well I mean you know and then there's the guy who got the award for most votes ready I know about Rubio who've a yeah I could I watch him every day I don't care I checked the Bucks course I'm a box poor guy yeah I will watch out to he's everything here is another 130 hits already amazing it's just it what do you what does morgan think ham do you talk baseball would jump when you get a chance you know joe joe and i don't talk a lot but we love him but Joe you know Joe's gone through a lot of you know with the health or Merrill yep and he's great now he's walking without his cane he's got it and I you know we talked and his mother passed away I don't say Joey you know I talk to talk to you but still my my sympathies go out and I told you off the air you know when I first got tspn I'm a 26 year old kid and loving baseball that's what I did for ESPE and more than any other sport and Joe is great to me he's a clear easy quiz rate he was raising a lot raising he was really the change that made the difference in our bulk him and John Miller or just maybe the best ball player I've ever played with her scene was Joe Morgan yeah why is that yeah steal the base get a walk Gold Glove and if it was on the line he'd drive in the run so there wasn't anything he couldn't do and he understood how to do it so you choose trout to build your team around who is best catcher in the game today Johnny well probably Salvador Perez is probably the best defensive catcher you know you'll never get the recognition unless you put the offensive numbers up you know it's real Mutoh down in Miami mm-hmm he's like 5th in the voting he's hitting over 300 45 RBIs what do you think of Sanchez has it he still needs to move around to plate a little bit well everybody says that joy you know you got a pitching staff like that they throw me so many different pitches guys throw 200 pitches a game and you wind up well he's got 15 pass balls so what I mean you know these guys cross you up or they move it or some ball does something right it's hard he's a big guy but he can he can hit he got a great arm and I mean I obviously I like him a lot and what do you think of the Buster Posey rule certainly since we're here in the all-star game and we all know about your colleague Pete Rose barreling into Ray Fosse that's still a moment to this day that everybody keeps talking about do you like that rule player safety rule put in place in baseball well Bruce called me Bochy called me now Bruce it at 3:00 catchers carried off the field mm-hmm and it got to the point where you know some people don't like it but today's game you got guys that are six to 220 rounding third base and they're gonna make SportsCenter by knocking the catcher in the dugout well you got all the equipment on yeah you got a piece of that for your chest protector and you got everything else exposed and these guys come flying in there and you know why now we can't take out the second baseman in a double play I mean that's changed but it's proved that it's it's helped it's such a funky rule about how to block the plate I never stood on the line in any way I always stood out in front of the plate because I wanted them on the ground if they see the home plate they'll slide you don't see too many guys today that don't slide and that's because they see home plate but if you're standing in the line blocking on plate people are gonna start thinking about knocking you in the dugout from 90 feet away and they got a full head of steam so I don't know why you know we I've got I get hit in midair I guess I gotta I had a whole Klayton work on my on my uniform where guys hit me in the mid air and you know if they hit me the wrong way I'm out for the rest of the year right and then I'm having I've had no surgeries and by that time I've had no knee surgery Johnny Bench Evan I was really smart guy kept my foot pointed at the runner so he had to go up the shin guard well I gotta tell you - it's some of the best running backs in the history in the National Football League the most yards and longevity knew how to get hit knew how to move their body to avoid the hit also knew that if I went in this hole based on the defense that I saw before the snap I'm gonna get my head knocked off so I'm going to choose this home and I get down now I'm gonna I mean he it yeah there's a certain professionalism in understanding the game keeps you healthy - well I mean there's this guys that you know I the quads are everything for the knees the stronger the quads better than these they will support them so if you ever have a knee problem you want to build up your quads kids that are gonna catch build up your quads and you will do it and learn and you will not have nearly as many knee injuries and you won't be squatting down and putting so much pressure on it because the quads will actually support it what'd you say - Pete after he blew up ray Fosse comes well you know thy God he appeared had ray out to dinner that night before at his house so they were good friends if you watch it and close enough and you've seen it so many times Pete starts the headfirst slide and when he started the headfirst slide here's Fosse shin guard standing right there and he almost had a little stumble and then came up because he couldn't headfirst slide and then it was but it's a you know the game's on the line the the game is on the line and you look at him he's saying are you all right ray watch him he starts to see how he starts to mm-hmm and then that's it there he goes down yeah we Pete I mean that's us though but the game is on the line so you've got to do something with it I got ran into similar to that by Gary Matthews in 1975 mmm-hmm I had six cortisone shots every three weeks to finish the season just because they tore up the AC joint the cartilage in between the acromial and the co Vick Euler and they tore it up and but I had to finish the season and then I had the surgery after the season was over but I mean we're gonna we're gonna get banged we're gonna get hit and so I like it actually I like the way it is the Johnny Betts the Johnny Bench scholarship fund jb5 F dot org what's that all about Johnny yeah yes v is either I got I didn't go to college I really wanted to go to college part of my signing bonus is six thousand dollars in cash was bonus check and then one thousand dollars for each semester because I was going to go to college I felt like I needed to and then so when I retired I hadn't been because I went to winter ball instructional league every year and then by that time I was established and I couldn't go back and so I said we want to give you something I said what I'd like to start us scholarship fund so we have I started with it I had golf tournament I donate from I had two hundred and fifty thousand from Who Wants to Be a Millionaire that we gave to it and we've got a minimum were usually eighty to eighty students a year that are on scholarship from Cincinnati and Binger Oklahoma and they've had to play sports they're not going to play sports in college necessarily but they've had to play sports and if they're local enough that they get an education usual stay in the area they are and the city becomes better because of their education Johnny Bench National Baseball Hall of Famer first ballot ninety six point four two percent of the vote - do we know who the three point line drives percent no a lot of guys wouldn't vote a first first ballot because they'll like Ruth didn't make it or whatever and you know at the end of the year into my career I played I moved to first and third guys did it guys now they may have had have been better I might not have talked to certain reporters I mean you know as to how Ted Williams was when he went didn't when the MVP when he hit four Oh three or four he did 401 he didn't get the to New York writers didn't vote for him that year and he didn't win the MVP DiMaggio wanted there so you can you can upset a reporter for whatever reason hmm and you know it's what it is but I got in yes you see I got the ring and it's on your left hand so you know whether it's a vote or not or whatever I mean it's such a it's just one of the greatest honors and in life well Johnny thank you for coming on your leisure by the way thanks for the batter up idea years ago in my backyard you weren't the one with the aluminum bed I'm not the one with the aluminum bat that you say some kid took it out and then there is a liability issue that took that I guess that sat down on the batter up that benched the batter out can we can we answer the is a poll question go fill there yeah what do you where do we got what are the reason what are the results so for look up Johnny Bench Chris Brock go ahead ask Chris Pratt before the results over there Johnny Bench a Mike Trout leading away right now 68% you put your thumb on the scale Mookie out on the bottom Manny Machado milk 2% and then and everyone else in the middle ten percent mookie betts Bryce Harper Aaron Judd okay there you go one again Machado news when we come back apparently on the moon Dodgers I don't know Yankee will have will find that we'll do our best to find that out Pudge Rodriguez the Commissioner of baseball Rob Manfred now Leiter still to come the Rich Eisen show weekdays at noon eastern on audience

Channel: The Rich Eisen Show

Views: 57,735

Rating: 4.9238901 out of 5

Keywords: rich eisen, rich eisen show, sports, tv, radio, entertainment, music, football, baseball, basketball, hockey, nfl, ncaa, cfb, college football, nba, nhl, mlb, pop culture

Id: opj-J4A8kOE

Length: 22min 38sec (1358 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 17 2018