Johnny Bench

Lore & Background

A fourteen-time All-Star and a two-time National League Most Valuable Player, Bench excelled on offense and defense, twice leading the majors in home runs and three times in runs batted in. At the time of his retirement in 1983, he held the major league record for most home runs hit by a catcher. He was also the first catcher to lead the league in home runs. He hit 45 home runs in 1970, the single-season record for catchers until Salvador Perez hit 48 in 2021; Bench still holds the National League record.

His 389 home runs and 1,376 runs batted in are the most in Cincinnati Reds history. On defense, Bench was a ten-time Gold Glove Award winner who skillfully handled pitching staffs and possessed a strong, accurate throwing arm. He caught 100 or more games for 13 consecutive seasons. In 1986, Bench was inducted into the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame.

He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1989 in his first year of eligibility. He was named to MLB's All-Time Team in 1997 and All-Century Team in 1999, and ESPN has called him the greatest catcher in baseball history.

Reader's Guide

Born and raised in Oklahoma, Bench is Choctaw. He played baseball and basketball and was class valedictorian at Binger-Oney High School. He survived a bus crash that killed two of his baseball teammates in 1965. His father, a truck driver, told him that the fastest route to becoming a major leaguer was as a catcher.

The Cincinnati Reds selected Bench as a 17-year-old in the second round, with the 36th overall selection of the 1965 Major League Baseball draft. In 1965, Bench played for the Tampa Tarpons and Reds' Florida Instructional League team. He played for the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons in 1966 and 1967. During the Bisons' 1967 season, he hit a grand slam against fellow future Hall of Famer Jim Palmer, then playing for the Orioles' Triple-A farm team, the Rochester Red Wings.

Bench was called up to the Reds in August 1967. In 1968, he won the National League Rookie of the Year Award, batting .275 with 15 home runs and 82 RBIs. He also won the 1968 National League Gold Glove Award for catchers. In 1970, he became the youngest player to win the National League Most Valuable Player Award, hitting .293 with 45 home runs and a franchise-record 148 runs batted in.

He won the MVP Award again in 1972, leading the majors in home runs (40) and RBI (125). After the 1972 season, Bench underwent surgery to remove a lesion from his lung; the lesion was benign. In 1975, the Reds defeated the Boston Red Sox in a memorable seven-game World Series. In 1976, Bench was named World Series MVP after hitting .533 with two home runs in a four-game sweep of the New York Yankees.

For the last three seasons of his career, Bench moved out from behind the plate, catching only 13 games, while primarily becoming a corner infielder. The Reds proclaimed September 17, 1983, 'Johnny Bench Night' at Riverfront Stadium, in which he hit his 389th and final home run.

Did You Know?

• During a 1968 spring training game, Bench caught a fastball barehanded to prove to pitcher Jim Maloney that his fastball was no longer effective.
• Bench served in the United States Army Reserve during the Vietnam War, alongside teammates Pete Rose, Bobby Tolan, and Darrel Chaney.
• In the winter of 1970–1971, Bench was part of Bob Hope's USO Tour of Vietnam.