Johnny bench stats biography

After the season the Reds hired Sparky Anderson as manager, promoted a few key rookies, and became a juggernaut. The club had a ten-game lead in mid-June and never looked back, finishing with wins and an easy division title. Bench led the way with an astonishing season, topping the league with 45 home runs and RBIs and easily capturing the league MVP award.

Although the season ended in disappointment in a five-game World Series loss to the Baltimore Orioles, Johnny Bench had become as big as baseball star as there was—a year-old seemingly without weakness on the field, and a handsome and articulate person off the field. Not surprisingly, he was besieged with endorsement opportunities and banquet invitations.

He went to Vietnam with Bob Hope and the USO, golfed with Arnold Palmer, talked and sang on talk shows, appeared in the television program Mission Impossibleand began hosting his own weekly television show in Cincinnati. His biggest offensive performance of came in a July 26 game at the new Riverfront Stadium in which he played left field: 4-for-5, including three home runs, all off Cardinals pitcher Steve Carlton.

Johnny bench stats biography: Johnny Bench, raised in the tiny

Throughout the remainder of his prime catching years, Bench generally started 20 or 30 games at other positions, keeping his bat in the lineup while giving his legs a bit of a rest. The season was a bump in the road for the Reds who fell to fourth place and for Bench who hit just. But for Bench, it was a humbling season. Bench led the way with a league-leading 40 home runs and RBIs, while also drawing walks, for a club that lost a seven-game World Series to the Oakland Athletics.

The most memorable image of Bench from that Fall Classic is one he would like to forget. In the top of the eighth inning of Game Three in Oakland, Bench was facing Rollie Fingers with runners on second and third and one out. The Reds were leading in the game, but trailing in the series, When the count reached 3 and 2, Oakland manager Dick Williams came out to the mound and pointed to Bench and first base, a clear signal that he wanted to walk the slugger.

A memorable moment, but Bench could take solace that the Reds held on to win the game. Telling only close friends and the Reds management, Bench played the end of the season and the postseason with understandable worry hanging over his head.

Johnny bench stats biography: Johnny Bench. Positions: Catcher, Third Baseman

He finally had an operation on December 9. The surgeon had to make a inch incision under his right arm and break a rib, finally extracting a benign lesion that Bench likely got from breathing an airborne fungus. After several weeks of pain from the operation, Bench went to spring training fully healed. The next two seasons were excellent ones for Bench and the Reds, though the club began to get a reputation as a great team that could not finish it off in October.

The club won 99 games, the most in baseball, yet lost the playoff series to a New York Mets team with 82 wins. The next year they won 98 games, but lost the NL West to the Dodgers. Bench contributed 25 home runs and RBIs to the club, then 33 and inhis third time leading the league in RBIs. The Reds finally broke through with their long-expected championship inwinning games the most in the NL in 66 years and defeating the Pittsburgh Pirates in the playoffs and the Boston Red Sox in a dramatic seven-game World Series.

Johnny bench stats biography: Fullname: Johnny Lee Bench

Bench hit a big double to start a decisive rally in the ninth inning of Game Two and homered off Rick Wise to begin the Cincinnati scoring in Game Three, but all that took a back seat when he embraced Will McEnaney, a famous image captured on the cover of Sports Illustratedafter the final out in the final game. Personally, it was a difficult year despite his success.

He hurt his shoulder in a collision at home plate in April and hit well through a lot of pain 28 home runs, RBIs. He had always had a very active social life, a very eligible bachelor regularly photographed with models and actresses. Bench saw her in a toothpaste commercial and called her up for a date. The two knew each other for four days when Bench proposed, and seven weeks when they married.

By the end of the season they were separated, and divorced quickly. The two had a large, public wedding, and details of their rocky relationship inevitably found their way into the tabloids as well. Bench soon returned to his bachelor ways. His games were then a career low, and he slumped to hit. After what might have been his worst regular season, Bench tacked on his greatest postseason, hitting.

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Johnny Bench. Links to related articles. Cincinnati Reds World Series champions. Regular season National League Championship Series. Johnny Bench Yogi Berra. Ernie Banks Honus Wagner. Pete Rose Stan Musial. Baseball Writers' Association of America. National League season home run leaders. Williams Kelly Hornsby C.

Williams Fournier Hornsby Wilson C. National League season runs batted in leaders. Wilson H. Davis Aaron Boyer D. Wilson Castilla A. National League Rookie of the Year Award. Howard B. Williams India Harris Carroll Skenes. Robinson Gibson Lolich Clendenon B. Lou Gehrig Memorial Award. Hutch Award. Gordon A. Robinson Ashburn Ford. May Bench Laboy Carbo E.

Williams T. Williams Boudreau T. Babe Ruth Award. Robinson Brock Lolich Weis B. Sparky Anderson Bill McKechnie. Warren Giles. Cincinnati Reds retired johnnies bench stats biography. Members of the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame. Ken Griffey Sr. Baseball Hall of Fame Class of Johnny Bench Al Barlick Red Schoendienst. Bob Hunter Ray Kelly.

Harry Caray. Members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Alexander Bender Blyleven M. And Red said to me, 'I've seen Dickey and Mickey Cochraneand this fellow is better than them also. Ergo, Johnny Bench is the best catcher who ever lived. He has ability that is not noticed at times. He is strong, he has quick release of the ball, agile, and he has great body balance.

He hit. It wasit was Bench's only runs scored season, it was his third of six RBI season, and his 73 extra base hits were the most in the league as well. Through this date, less than ten backstops have joined this unique hitting club. Johnny Bench was the first individual baseball player to appear on the front of a Wheaties cereal box image below.