Speaker 1: Is this a great game or what our Cooperstown addition?
Speaker 1: And today we bring you the greatest catcher of all time.
Speaker 1: Johnny Bench is our interview for today.
Speaker 2: Dad.
Speaker 1: He is hysterical, he is amazing. He's the MC for
Speaker 1: all of the Hall of Famers in Cooperstown and we
Speaker 1: were there for the whole weekend.
Speaker 3: What a great time we had with Johnny.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, we had a great time period. You cannot
Speaker 2: have a bad time in Cooperstown.
Speaker 4: It is a.
Speaker 2: Ludicrously charming town in upstate New York. Everybody there is
Speaker 2: so happy. There is a shared love for the game,
Speaker 2: and that's what this podcast is all about, Jeff. It's
Speaker 2: also a very emotional place. I've seen people weeping in
Speaker 2: that town because of the joy of what baseball and
Speaker 2: Cooperstown brings. And on Saturday night, the night before the induction,
Speaker 2: I went to a Tigers party and Jim Leland, whose
Speaker 2: number was retired by the Tigers, he got up and
Speaker 2: spoke at the party before the induction and he just
Speaker 2: broke down. Because that's what Cooperstown will do to you.
Speaker 2: That's how important and powerful and beautiful that place is.
Speaker 2: And Jeff, I believe that's where you got your start
Speaker 2: as a radio guy and you were only ten years old.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'll never forget it.
Speaker 1: There was a line of media and w fu V
Speaker 1: out of Fordham in New York City. Bob Aarons was
Speaker 1: the program director there and Dad was doing radio row
Speaker 1: and he moves on to the next radio station.
Speaker 3: And there's me following behind as I always did.
Speaker 1: And Bob Aaron sees me and says, well, do you
Speaker 1: want to come on and talk about being a kid
Speaker 1: at Cooperstown? And I did an interview with two student
Speaker 1: radio broadcasters. And when I left that interview and Dad
Speaker 1: and I finally got to meet again because he's still
Speaker 1: doing radio row, and I'm sure you were on a
Speaker 1: radio show next.
Speaker 3: To us, being like, what's going on over there with
Speaker 3: my son.
Speaker 1: But when we finally were able to recap, I remember
Speaker 1: it vividly, saying to you, that's what I want to do,
Speaker 1: not be interviewed, but I wanted to be one of
Speaker 1: those radio broadcasters that was interviewing me. And we actually
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm on the tonight show.
Speaker 3: We have a clip clip.
Speaker 1: Here's a little bit of my interview I did with
Speaker 1: WFUV at Cooperstown years ago.
Speaker 2: Just a little while ago. You heard Sam Kirkshan, who
Speaker 2: has a new book out, and we actually grabbed his
Speaker 2: son from Jeff. How are you doing, buddy, I'm doing great.
Speaker 2: Everything's going well. Yep.
Speaker 5: The Hall of Fame is such a great place for
Speaker 5: baseball and it's just so much fun, so many baseball fans,
Speaker 5: so many great people.
Speaker 3: You sound like your dad or right now.
Speaker 1: Your dad said you want to do what he does
Speaker 1: one day, and you're getting your shot today.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's great. I mean I always I like writing,
Speaker 5: and I love baseball, and you know I like to talk. Well,
Speaker 5: I guess I guess I can get somewhere.
Speaker 2: Well, you sound like you're a booming Borough cast.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and that was kind of the start. That's when
Speaker 3: I knew. That's when the light bulb went off for me. Dad.
Speaker 3: And I can't thank you enough for Bob.
Speaker 1: Aaron's enough for bringing me on, but for you for
Speaker 1: teaching me all I know and love about broadcasting and storytelling,
Speaker 1: because I wouldn't have the career as a radio host
Speaker 1: now in the Philadelphia area without that moment.
Speaker 3: I firmly believe.
Speaker 2: That, right, Jeff, that sounded like a clip from you
Speaker 2: last week. Your voice hasn't changed that much. Really give
Speaker 2: me a little more credit. There was a tiny bit
Speaker 2: of puberty that hit me.
Speaker 3: So Dad. What are your takeaways from our weekend in Cooper, Sam.
Speaker 2: Well, Jeff, they're always the same. It's the speeches and
Speaker 2: the people who were honored and inducted. Jerry Freeley won
Speaker 2: the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Baseball Writers Association of America.
Speaker 2: I've told you if I could put any beat writer
Speaker 2: in charge of my baseball beat in all the years
Speaker 2: that I covered, it would have been Jerry because I
Speaker 2: know we're not gonna get beaten on a story as
Speaker 2: long as he's there. And Joe Castiglione, who has done
Speaker 2: the Red Sox games for forty two years, won the
Speaker 2: Frick Award Most Deserved. He did it. He's done the
Speaker 2: Red Sox for forty two years. Jeff, and I've told
Speaker 2: you before, with play by play guys, it's like they're
Speaker 2: a member of the family. They come into your living
Speaker 2: room every night, and Joe is your dad, he's your grandfather.
Speaker 2: He's your cuddly little uncle who teaches you about baseball.
Speaker 2: Those guys were absolutely great at their job and honored
Speaker 2: by the Hall of Fame. That was so cool. And then,
Speaker 2: of course there are the players. So Todd Helton went
Speaker 2: in first. He made a great speech. As we know,
Speaker 2: Todd Helton is the greatest player in the history of
Speaker 2: the Rockies. I told you once, Jeff, that one of
Speaker 2: his former managers, Buddy Bell, told me that Todd Helton
Speaker 2: understands the competition of the game better than anyone he
Speaker 2: ever managed or played with, and that pretty much covers everything.
Speaker 2: Adrian Beltray went in second. I will never forget the
Speaker 2: face of joy that he showed every single day that
Speaker 2: he played in the major leagues. And the story that
Speaker 2: he told during his speech was that they put him
Speaker 2: at second base as a ten year old because they said,
Speaker 2: you're gonna be too short to play anywhere else. Well,
Speaker 2: he got a whole lot bigger, unlike you and me.
Speaker 2: But at age that same year they switched him to
Speaker 2: third base. One kid said, I want to play second.
Speaker 2: You switched to third. He's been playing third ever since.
Speaker 2: He got more hits than any third baseman in the
Speaker 2: history of the game over three thousand and As we
Speaker 2: talked about before, Jeff, he's one of the five greatest
Speaker 2: defensive third basemen. I've ever seen. And he did it
Speaker 2: while never wearing a protective cup, which I told you.
Speaker 2: I said, Adrian, how could you do that? Why didn't
Speaker 2: you wear a cup? He put his hands up and said,
Speaker 2: that's what these are for. So I told that story
Speaker 2: to Ian Kinseler, who played second base next to him
Speaker 2: or near him with the Rangers all those years, and
Speaker 2: I told him that story and he goes, no, he
Speaker 2: didn't wear a cup because he's crazy. And he meant that.
Speaker 2: He meant that in the nicest way.
Speaker 1: And did you see the moment on stage when David
Speaker 1: Ortiz snuck up to touch Adriane Beltray's.
Speaker 2: Head If you don't know, Adrian Beltray hated it if
Speaker 2: anybody touched his head under any circumstances. Teammate, human beings, anybody, right.
Speaker 2: So David Ortiz, also from the Dominican, right before Adrian
Speaker 2: Beltra is to deliver the biggest speech of his entire life,
Speaker 2: he jumps out of his seat in the Hall of
Speaker 2: Fame group behind and goes and rubs Adrian Beltray's head.
Speaker 2: It was just priceless, beautiful, And Jim Leland of course
Speaker 2: went in as one of them as a manager and
Speaker 2: He's one of the best managers I've ever seen. His connection,
Speaker 2: his communication with players is virtually unprecedented. And I will
Speaker 2: tell you, Jeff, this is a tiny bit self serving.
Speaker 2: This spring he told me, he said, I'm working on
Speaker 2: my speech. I'm thinking about using this line in my speech.
Speaker 2: Do you think this would work? So he gives me
Speaker 2: the line. This is in spring training. We're in Tampa.
Speaker 2: I said, Jim, not only should you use that line,
Speaker 2: you should lead with it. And he said that, And
Speaker 2: he said during his speech that he said to his
Speaker 2: wife Katie, Katie, in your wildest dreams, can you believe
Speaker 2: that I'm going to the Hall of Fame? And his
Speaker 2: wife Katie said, Jim, You're not in my wildest dreams,
Speaker 2: which got this tremendous applause and laughter. And he did
Speaker 2: exactly what we told him to do. He kind of
Speaker 2: led with it. It was absolutely beautiful. Everyone was laughing and
Speaker 2: on his side, as they always have been.
Speaker 3: That is incredible.
Speaker 1: I've only been married less than two years and I
Speaker 1: already feel that from my own wife is amazing.
Speaker 2: Join the club, bub We got it.
Speaker 1: You got forty years with your mom, with your wife,
Speaker 1: my mom's and it's all the same, all.
Speaker 2: Right, So Joe Mauer went last. And Joe Mauer, Jeff
Speaker 2: is the salt of the earth kind of guy, a
Speaker 2: Saint Paul, Minnesota guy who grew up there, and he
Speaker 2: played his entire career with the Twins. He's one of
Speaker 2: the greatest hitting catchers of all time. He changed the
Speaker 2: game with the offense that he brought from brought behind
Speaker 2: the plate, and that's why he was a first ballot
Speaker 2: Hall of Famer also. But Jeff, it was his connection
Speaker 2: to Saint Paul. It was his connection to Twins fans
Speaker 2: that was so obvious to me. Boy did those Twins
Speaker 2: fans show up, as did fans from everywhere else. But
Speaker 2: never forget, Jeff that the Twins when Joe Mauer played there,
Speaker 2: every year they had a bowling tournament at the bowling
Speaker 2: Alley behind the KFC in Fort Myers, not exactly the
Speaker 2: greatest part of town, let's put it that way, and
Speaker 2: people would pay money regular fans to go bowl with
Speaker 2: the Twins players. Joe Mauer used to bring his own
Speaker 2: bowling ball to the tournament. He would bring it on
Speaker 2: the airplane to take it to spring training. That's how
Speaker 2: much he cared about competing in the team bowling tournament
Speaker 2: with the fans, and every time a fan would like
Speaker 2: get a strike, they would get a high five from
Speaker 2: Joe Mauer. To me, that just speaks to how much
Speaker 2: he loves his city and the fans who live there.
Speaker 1: Well, it's a perfect time to talk about who I
Speaker 1: believe to be our game changers multiple of the week
Speaker 1: this week, it's the fans. It's you, It's the people
Speaker 1: we met while walking down the street on the Saturday
Speaker 1: of Hall of Fame induction weekend in Cooperstown, New York.
Speaker 1: We were at the Hall and if you've never been there,
Speaker 1: it is the most magical street, not even just an
Speaker 1: induction weekend. It has a certain childhood like amusement park
Speaker 1: vibe that just glows. And Dad, you and I walked
Speaker 1: all the way down from the National Baseball Hall of
Speaker 1: Fame all the way to the bottom of the street
Speaker 1: where our friends at Baseball as a Mark, and the
Speaker 1: amount of people we met that are huge baseball fans
Speaker 1: wanted to talk to you, And the coolest thing I
Speaker 1: have to say about watching you interact with all of
Speaker 1: these amazing baseball fans status it's not Hey, Tim, I
Speaker 1: love your stuff, and you're like, hey, thank you. You
Speaker 1: always ask them because you want to hear from the fans. Hey,
Speaker 1: you're wearing this twins Jersey, tell me are you from
Speaker 1: there originally?
Speaker 3: Did you ever see Kirby Bucket? Did you ever see
Speaker 3: Joe Mauer?
Speaker 1: Tell us those stories of what you heard from the
Speaker 1: fans in Cooper se.
Speaker 2: Well, Jeff, that's the most interesting. That's where great stories
Speaker 2: come from, when you actually speak to another human being
Speaker 2: and say, tell me about you. So I saw an
Speaker 2: elderly guy there. I said, is this your first time here?
Speaker 2: He goes No. I came the year that my hero
Speaker 2: Brooks Robinson was inducted.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 2: And I have come back every year and I will
Speaker 2: come back every year until the day I die. That's
Speaker 2: how intoxicating Coopersown is. Once you've been there, you have
Speaker 2: to keep going back. It is that seductive. Of course,
Speaker 2: I introduce you to my friend Chris. Chris I met
Speaker 2: two years ago. Chris is the guy who's a young guys,
Speaker 2: late twenties, and he went to Coopersown with his father
Speaker 2: every year for like ten years, and this made me cry.
Speaker 2: Two years ago his dad died, and when I saw
Speaker 2: him two years ago the year I was honored, Chris
Speaker 2: went by himself and it was the first induction he'd
Speaker 2: ever been to by himself. And that's the kind of
Speaker 2: stuff that really matters to me. And when I asked him,
Speaker 2: I said, Chris, where do you stay while you're here?
Speaker 2: He says, well, I rent this tiny little room. It's
Speaker 2: just above a funeral parlor in Coopersoun, and it's just
Speaker 2: the most priceless thing. This is what you do to
Speaker 2: get there. So this year he didn't stay above the
Speaker 2: funeral parlor. He stayed in almost as small a place,
Speaker 2: and he had three buddies with him, and they brought
Speaker 2: their cots and they slept just so they could sleep
Speaker 2: in downtown Cooper's Oud on Main Street, so they could
Speaker 2: wake up in the morning and be in the heart
Speaker 2: of that little town.
Speaker 1: There was one fan that I had an opportunity to
Speaker 1: talk to, and I actually witnessed you talking to them
Speaker 1: as well, and he kind of stopped you as you
Speaker 1: were walking away from one fan. He says, Hi, excuse,
Speaker 1: excuse me, And I thought I heard him call you something,
Speaker 1: but I wasn't sure what it was. And he goes, hey,
Speaker 1: do you still live in Minnesota? And uh, you know,
Speaker 1: politely as you do. He said, I know, I've never
Speaker 1: lived in Minnesota, and he goes, oh, really, well, did
Speaker 1: you like.
Speaker 3: Playing for the Twins?
Speaker 2: Don't say? I had to tell him he never played
Speaker 2: major league I said, uh, I'm not a baseball player.
Speaker 2: I think that's pretty obvious. And he said, well, what
Speaker 2: are you so? I'm a writer. He thought I was
Speaker 2: a guy who played for the Twins. And I'm trying
Speaker 2: to go back and find a Twins player who's roughly
Speaker 2: my age who played for the Twins. Maybe Steve Lombardozi,
Speaker 2: but he was the second baseman. But he's about eight
Speaker 2: inches taller than me. It couldn't be me. That's the
Speaker 2: first time I've ever gone to Cooperstown and been mistaken
Speaker 2: for a major league player. I've been mistaken for others,
Speaker 2: as we know, a guy who works at Applebee's. We
Speaker 2: know all about that one. But yeah, this arm right,
Speaker 2: this guy was a little bit confused us. He thought
Speaker 2: I played for the Twins. I had to explain sadly
Speaker 2: that I did. But Jeff, you.
Speaker 3: Love the kicker.
Speaker 1: The kicker dad is that he after you explained that
Speaker 1: you are clearly not the person that he thinks you are,
Speaker 1: and you are clearly not a former major league baseball player.
Speaker 1: He still said, my wife wants me to get you
Speaker 1: to sign this hat. You don't know who this guy is,
Speaker 1: and you're gonna go back and tell your wife, Hey,
Speaker 1: I had this guy that you wanted.
Speaker 3: It blew in you. So of course you signed it
Speaker 3: and walked away.
Speaker 1: And there was there was one really great signature that
Speaker 1: we have to bring up that you signed. And this
Speaker 1: was really really cool because he is actually collecting signatures
Speaker 1: on a Hall of Fame jersey. On the right side
Speaker 1: is all of the baseball writers that have been enshrined
Speaker 1: into the Baseball Hall of him and all of the
Speaker 1: baseball broadcasters that are on You.
Speaker 3: Remember signing that jersey? He had the signature all down
Speaker 3: each side.
Speaker 2: Yes, And it's the first I told him it's impossible
Speaker 2: to sign a jersey properly. First, I have the worst
Speaker 2: signature in the history signatures. But it's really hard to
Speaker 2: sign something like what somebody's read. It's on somebody's back, right,
Speaker 2: So you and he stretched it out so much and
Speaker 2: then I signed it like right under Peter Gammon's my
Speaker 2: all time baseball writer hero. So that was a thrill
Speaker 2: for me to be on a jersey in which the
Speaker 2: whole left side were Hall of Fame Baseball writers.
Speaker 1: Well, let's get dad to the quark gins, because I
Speaker 1: know I really want to get to Johnny Bench here
Speaker 1: on the show, and I know people are graciously awaiting.
Speaker 1: I know my good friend Joe Bell has been texting
Speaker 1: me ever since the photo went out of me you
Speaker 1: and Johnny saying when is the Johnny episode dropping? He
Speaker 1: can't stop texting me about it. So we're gonna get
Speaker 1: to it in a minute here. But what are your
Speaker 1: quark gins for this book?
Speaker 2: I've only got a few, because again, Jeff, we only
Speaker 2: had Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to work with this week
Speaker 2: because you know, of the All Star break. But I
Speaker 2: found an interest saying that Corbin Burns started the All
Speaker 2: Star Game for the American League, and then he started
Speaker 2: the first game of the second half for his team,
Speaker 2: and he started it in the same ballpark, in this case,
Speaker 2: Globe Life Field. So since two thousand, since nineteen sixty nine,
Speaker 2: I mean, the only pitcher that's ever done that is
Speaker 2: Tim Linsecam. In two thousand and nine, Rowdy tells of
Speaker 2: the Pirates against your Phillies had three sacrifice flies in
Speaker 2: one game only. He's one of only three players to
Speaker 2: do that since two thousand and His batting line, Jeff,
Speaker 2: and you know how much I love them, is one
Speaker 2: zero zero three. It just doesn't look right. Edgar Martinez
Speaker 2: Hall of Famer two thousand and two is did this
Speaker 2: in two thousand and two. Is the only other player
Speaker 2: since two thousand to have a one zero zero three line.
Speaker 2: So it's one at bat and three sacrifice flies. And last,
Speaker 2: I'm just gonna test to you again on this, Jeff Jr.
Speaker 2: Don Alvarez of the Astros hit for the cycle on Sunday.
Speaker 2: Just give me the four guys that I keep telling
Speaker 2: you about who never hit for the cycle and are
Speaker 2: in the Hall of Fame, even though there are a
Speaker 2: lot more than four.
Speaker 1: Hank Aaron, Right, Baby, Ruth, Yes, Ted Williams, No, oh,
Speaker 1: not Ted Williams, Willie Mays, Willie Mays.
Speaker 2: And yes, sorry, here's how you remember it, Babe, Ruth,
Speaker 2: Barry Bonds, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, that's it all right,
Speaker 2: Let's move on.
Speaker 1: We've got our Kirchen quandary, and it's perfect because it's
Speaker 1: about Babe Ruth this week, right, dare right.
Speaker 2: And I spoke at the Babe Ruth Museum this week
Speaker 2: in Baltimore. If you've never been to the Babe Ruth Museum,
Speaker 2: it's where Babe Ruth grew up. And it's like two
Speaker 2: hundred yards from where Camden Yards the ballpark is located.
Speaker 2: Right now. So the question, our question, our quandary for
Speaker 2: the day, Jeff is and again these there can be
Speaker 2: no hate involved in this question. We will not put
Speaker 2: up with it on a show like this. All right,
Speaker 2: this is a Valentine for baseball fans. If we took
Speaker 2: Babe Ruth in his physical prime nineteen twenty, let's say,
Speaker 2: and we dropped him into today's game, and we gave him,
Speaker 2: Jeff a full year to figure out how to hit
Speaker 2: a slider, what bat to use, maybe to do some
Speaker 2: strength and conditioning, maybe to get himself into even better shape. Okay,
Speaker 2: and he was six two two fifteen, two twenty. What
Speaker 2: would Babe Ruth do in today's game? What would he hit?
Speaker 2: How many home runs would he hit? I'm going to
Speaker 2: start with you on this and then I'm going to
Speaker 2: tell you what I think. And I am so in
Speaker 2: the minority, but you go ahead.
Speaker 1: I don't actually know where you're gonna land with this,
Speaker 1: So I feel like I might be in the minority
Speaker 1: in saying I think he's going to be an average
Speaker 1: baseball player. I think he's going to be a start harder.
Speaker 1: I don't think he's going to be a bench player.
Speaker 1: But I don't think he's going to be a Bryce
Speaker 1: Harper level, a Sho Heo Tani level, because the game
Speaker 1: was so different.
Speaker 3: Back then than it is now.
Speaker 1: I think that it's so easy to draw comparisons to
Speaker 1: the NBA because you see the physicality of the NBA.
Speaker 1: Back in the fifties and sixties, it was a different game.
Speaker 1: Now it's completely different from then. But it's hard to
Speaker 1: really understand how much faster balls are going from the
Speaker 1: pitcher's arm because video is just not the same as
Speaker 1: it used to be, and the difference between an eighty
Speaker 1: eight eighty nine mile per hour fastball and one hundred
Speaker 1: and two from Paul Skins now is an obscene difference.
Speaker 1: So I say he plays major League baseball, but I
Speaker 1: do not think that one year is a long enough
Speaker 1: time for him to turn things around and learn how
Speaker 1: to hit to the degree and level that he was
Speaker 1: back in his.
Speaker 2: Prime, right, Jeff, I know exactly where you're coming from
Speaker 2: on this. I think you're in the vast majority of
Speaker 2: people who think he could play but wouldn't be great.
Speaker 2: I disagree. I think he would be great today. I
Speaker 2: think he would hit over three hundred I think he
Speaker 2: would hit forty home runs in multiple seasons. I think
Speaker 2: he would drive in one hundred runs. Remember, he was
Speaker 2: a great athlete in his day. He stole over one
Speaker 2: hundred bases in his career. He had one hundred and
Speaker 2: thirty six triples. He was a great basketball player. He
Speaker 2: was six two, two twenty in his prime, and he
Speaker 2: could run. Jeff, he hit tape measure shots, you know,
Speaker 2: one hundred and fifteen years ago. That's how amazing Babe
Speaker 2: ruth was in his prime. I think once he figures
Speaker 2: out how to catch up to ninety eight miles an hour,
Speaker 2: I think he would have figured it out. Now again,
Speaker 2: we're going to leave this up to our listeners and
Speaker 2: to our viewers on this. If you think I'm crazy,
Speaker 2: go ahead, but just don't tell me that Babe Ruths
Speaker 2: is some big, fat, unathletic guy, because that simply is wrong.
Speaker 1: You can chime in right now, Great Game or what
Speaker 1: dot com. You can also follow us on all the
Speaker 1: socials you can do at Great Game or what on
Speaker 1: x or Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Every week a best
Speaker 1: of All tim And this week, Dad, you're gonna go
Speaker 1: through the best Hall of Fame team. Now, keep in
Speaker 1: mind that this arguably is the best players of all
Speaker 1: time at each position, and that is up to debate
Speaker 1: when it comes to your team. So if you want
Speaker 1: to let us know what your best of all tim
Speaker 1: All Hall of Fame team would be, you can do so,
Speaker 1: Great Game or what dot Com?
Speaker 3: Dad, what do you got?
Speaker 2: Well? Again, this is my list. It's not the correct list.
Speaker 2: It's not the only list. It's my list. Your list
Speaker 2: should be different than mine. That's the beauty of this exercise.
Speaker 2: My first baseman is lou gerrig He's the best of
Speaker 2: all time at that position. Rogers Hornsby said second at
Speaker 2: four hundred four a five year period. Jet Hannas Wagner
Speaker 2: is the shortstop, the first superstar player, everyday player of
Speaker 2: the twentieth century. Third base is Mike Schmidt. Ten homer
Speaker 2: run titles. I'm sorry, Mike Schmidt, ten gold gloves, eight
Speaker 2: home run titles. Ted Williams is my left fielder, second
Speaker 2: greatest hitter ever for me. Willie Mays is the centerfielder,
Speaker 2: second greatest player ever for me. Babe Ruth is the
Speaker 2: right fielder, greatest player ever for me. Walter Johnson, and
Speaker 2: I'm wearing my Walter Johnson sweatshirt here one of three. Hey,
Speaker 2: did I ever tell you I went to Walter Johnson?
Speaker 3: Do you goot high school?
Speaker 4: There?
Speaker 2: Lefty Grove is my left handed pitcher. Start the arguments
Speaker 2: anytime you like. And Mariano River is my relief pitcher.
Speaker 2: And catching all my pictures is of course Johnny Bench,
Speaker 2: who I still believe is the greatest catcher of all time.
Speaker 2: But now that Josh Gibson's numbers have been thrown in,
Speaker 2: we're gonna have to reevaluate year. But Johnny Bench is
Speaker 2: my greatest catcher of all time, and Jeff He's coming
Speaker 2: up next. Welcome back to is this a great game
Speaker 2: or what? We are joined by the greatest catcher of
Speaker 2: all time, Johnny Bench. Thanks for being with us.
Speaker 4: Johnny always a pleasure, my son.
Speaker 2: Jeff, He's got my voice and my height. Unfortunately I
Speaker 2: passed them both along.
Speaker 4: Sometimes that works out. He ought to be in this
Speaker 4: jock here at radio man or going into the pipes,
Speaker 4: and all of a sudden you go under the radio
Speaker 4: voice and when you start doing yeah, we can fake
Speaker 4: it if we need to. But Jeff, nice to see you.
Speaker 3: Johnny, thank you so much for joining the show.
Speaker 1: You were the number one choice for guests when we
Speaker 1: were going to have a chance to do this in
Speaker 1: the Hall of Fame. And my dad has told this
Speaker 1: story a number of times.
Speaker 3: When he was asked to.
Speaker 1: Be a member of the Hall of Fame under the
Speaker 1: Baseball Writers. You gave him a call right after he
Speaker 1: found out. Do you remember that phone call.
Speaker 4: Of course, I call all the I mean it's not
Speaker 4: particularly I mean it's not one one of a kind.
Speaker 4: I mean, obviously I had my Tim and respected him
Speaker 4: for so long and enjoy more than anybody. You know,
Speaker 4: the way he treats the game, the way he broadcasts
Speaker 4: the game and made funds of the game, how it
Speaker 4: all evolves. But I call all the new inductees to
Speaker 4: try to welcome them. I think it's important for me
Speaker 4: to do. I don't do it for the Hall or
Speaker 4: I don't do it. I just do it for myself.
Speaker 2: Johnny you told me that day. You said, Tim, it's
Speaker 2: moments like this that take you back to Little League.
Speaker 2: And I was just about ready to cry again, and
Speaker 2: you said, and let's face it, Tim, you can still
Speaker 2: fit into a Little League uniform. Do you think that
Speaker 2: was really necessary to tell me that?
Speaker 4: Well, it was a Kurtchean thing. You know, there are
Speaker 4: Kurchian things in our lives that everybody still. I know,
Speaker 4: I get such a kick out of you when you
Speaker 4: when the people emulate you, and I never could. I
Speaker 4: don't have that kind of voice. But well, it's good
Speaker 4: that you but you're you know, you're self deprecating and
Speaker 4: so many ways you accepted you. That's what That's why
Speaker 4: I'd admire and respect you, and that's why it was
Speaker 4: easy to call you for the especially for your Hall
Speaker 4: of Fame in selection and induction.
Speaker 2: Right, Johnny, you came to my speech and I people
Speaker 2: asked you, why are you going to Tim Kirchin's speech,
Speaker 2: and you said, well, I need to see him cry?
Speaker 2: And I came through did not?
Speaker 4: You did? You did? And if you can't, I mean
Speaker 4: there's no emotional feelings. I mean when you think how
Speaker 4: many years back, you know, when you first had three
Speaker 4: and a half years old, and I'm telling people I
Speaker 4: want to be a major league baseball player, and you know,
Speaker 4: and they do. And then the first grade, second grade,
Speaker 4: Missus Rosser, asked what do you want to be in?
Speaker 4: I said, I want to be a major league baseball player,
Speaker 4: and all the kids laughed. In the eighth grade, they asked,
Speaker 4: what do you want to be in? I want to
Speaker 4: be a major league baseball player, and they laughed because
Speaker 4: in the eighth grade, I got in school a year early.
Speaker 4: So I was five foot two, same size hands, same
Speaker 4: sized feed, same size head. So nobody so the only
Speaker 4: people scouting me at that time was Barnum and Bailey.
Speaker 4: I wasn't. I wasn't, so nobody believed it. Then I
Speaker 4: grew nine inches the next two years and my junior year,
Speaker 4: they didn't laugh so much.
Speaker 2: Is that right? Yeah, let's just finish up with you.
Speaker 2: Also came to our party that night. You were the
Speaker 2: only player that came to our.
Speaker 4: Nobody else likes you too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Johnny, you stayed there for ninety minutes. It was unbelievable,
Speaker 2: and all my friends met you was like the biggest
Speaker 2: thrill that they've ever had.
Speaker 4: But before well, the family was there. I mean, you
Speaker 4: brought a whole family. It was cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah, if you remember at the party the night before,
Speaker 2: I go to Johnny so I can introduce him to
Speaker 2: my two brothers, Matt and Annie, and I said, Johnny,
Speaker 2: we want to get some pictures. Could could you help
Speaker 2: us with some pictures? So we wanted to take a
Speaker 2: picture with you instead.
Speaker 3: What did you do?
Speaker 4: I took the family?
Speaker 1: Even better, He's dragging chairs across the venue to set.
Speaker 3: Okay, you sit here, Matt, you're here, Tim, you're here.
Speaker 3: It was it was beautiful.
Speaker 2: And then finally after ten minutes, I say, Johnny, we
Speaker 2: need a picture of you with the family. So he
Speaker 2: hands his camera to this other gentleman and says, can
Speaker 2: you take pictures of me with the Kirkchen family? And
Speaker 2: you handed the camera to Paul Ballader, who had more
Speaker 2: hits than the Willy Bays, which I mean one night
Speaker 2: that was for us.
Speaker 4: But we're all Hall of famers and that was a
Speaker 4: fun part of it. Did the pictures turn out?
Speaker 2: Oh? They were great. No, Johnny. I have a digital
Speaker 2: photograph machine at my home which runs twenty four hours
Speaker 2: a day, and you're in about ten of the pictures.
Speaker 2: Like snapping pictures of us. It was absolutely priceless.
Speaker 3: In spirit of this podcast.
Speaker 1: It's just a digital frame, a digital photograph machine.
Speaker 3: Sounds like something from nineteen sixty.
Speaker 4: Leave us alone if you want to be smart, okay, fine,
Speaker 4: but leave us alone at lone.
Speaker 2: So, Johnny, I'm not sure you remember this. What happened
Speaker 2: after the big party? Tell us jes So.
Speaker 1: Dad has this great weekend in twenty twenty two, and
Speaker 1: we had this party after his speech, and you were there,
Speaker 1: as Dad mentioned, But I don't know if you realized
Speaker 1: we had a bus coming. But you had gotten in
Speaker 1: the car to head back towards the Oda Saga and
Speaker 1: hitched a ride with my cousin, his niece.
Speaker 3: That's right, and you sat do you remember, well, there were.
Speaker 4: You couldn't you couldn't avoid getting in a car with
Speaker 4: a kirch and everybody was in. Everybody in the family,
Speaker 4: everybody in the state, everybody in the country were all there.
Speaker 3: And you sat in the back of their mini van.
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, that's right, with their.
Speaker 3: Two children under two and children, and you didn't just
Speaker 3: sit there and squeeze and you were singing.
Speaker 4: We had to do the stuff, we had to keep
Speaker 4: them happy.
Speaker 2: Johnny, You're the greatest catcher of all time? Why would you.
Speaker 4: Do something like it? Was? I'm a used to was?
Speaker 2: We were so Johnny. I told my niece Anna, I said,
Speaker 2: do you know who? You who? You drove back to town.
Speaker 4: You got to be fifty years old and even heard
Speaker 4: of me.
Speaker 2: I said, he's the greatest catcher ever. And she waid, what,
Speaker 2: I had no idea. So we learned something. So, Johnny,
Speaker 2: let's pivot to baseball. Your induction was in nineteen eighty nine.
Speaker 2: You went in with Karl Streemsky, Al Barlck and Red SHANDEANSTI. Okay,
Speaker 2: I did What was that day like for you?
Speaker 4: Well, the thing I remember with most is that we
Speaker 4: flew it. They flew us in from Cincinnati on a
Speaker 4: charter and my mom and dad and we got the
Speaker 4: limo picked us up. We drove to the front of
Speaker 4: the hotel and I said, checked in. I said, I'm
Speaker 4: going to go unpack. I went upstairs. I came out
Speaker 4: of the room walking down the hall, and here's nas Slaughter. Hey,
Speaker 4: I just met your dad. I get the elevator. Pee
Speaker 4: Reese comes off the elevator. Hey, I just met your dad.
Speaker 4: I get down in the lobby. Ted Williams said, Hey,
Speaker 4: I just met your dad. My dad's got Roy Campanella
Speaker 4: around the neck in the wheelchair talking to me. So
Speaker 4: in my induction speech, I introduced the family except my dad,
Speaker 4: and I said I would introduce my dad, but I'm
Speaker 4: sure most of you have met him by now. So
Speaker 4: my dad had wanted to be a major league catcher,
Speaker 4: and the war came along. He served two hitches, so
Speaker 4: when he came out it was too late. He had
Speaker 4: the family, and so I always say I didn't go in,
Speaker 4: my dad went in at first.
Speaker 1: That's amazing, and that's what we this father son podcast.
Speaker 3: It's the greatest thing in the world.
Speaker 1: The relationship you've had with your father and that I
Speaker 1: have with mine is incredible.
Speaker 3: Now being a dad, I appreciate it even more.
Speaker 2: Tell us about your first All Star Game in sixty eight.
Speaker 4: Well, I was chosen as an ultranatet. You know, I
Speaker 4: think it was Tom Haller and Jerry Grody or Rudney Hundley,
Speaker 4: and I was chosen as a third catcher. And I'm
Speaker 4: sitting in his locker in the astronome and I'm just watching,
Speaker 4: you know, everybody go by. You know, here's Bob Gibson,
Speaker 4: here's Willy McCovey here, and Willie is sitting straight across
Speaker 4: from me in the locker room. I mean he right
Speaker 4: over to that, and he got up and walked over
Speaker 4: and said, you should have been to start and catch it.
Speaker 4: I didn't need anything else in my life, right. That
Speaker 4: meant everything to me. And they almost it was a
Speaker 4: ninth inning and they're telling Red to put me in. Well,
Speaker 4: I don't have any other catchers. He said, he's not
Speaker 4: gonna get a hurt, punny man. So I caught the
Speaker 4: ninth inning of that ballgame, and I you know, it
Speaker 4: was a just unbelievable moment for me. But really from
Speaker 4: that time on, and you know, I was even more
Speaker 4: proud that he asked for me to present the Lifetime
Speaker 4: Achievement and Gold Glove Awards to him on New York.
Speaker 4: So we had a wonderful, wonderful history and I was thankful.
Speaker 4: But you know, you don't you never you know, I
Speaker 4: always learned him when I was young, and never expect
Speaker 4: expect people to be impressed with who you are, what
Speaker 4: you've done, because if you go through that, don't expect
Speaker 4: it because it's you know, there are people out there.
Speaker 4: Fifty thousand people go to a baseball game, twenty five
Speaker 4: thousand leave happy, twenty five thousand leave upset, and they
Speaker 4: saw the same thing. I go two for five, I
Speaker 4: had two home runs, drive than five runs. I go
Speaker 4: out to the restaurant after the game. Bar guy walks
Speaker 4: up and says, hey, I saw you strike out and
Speaker 4: pop up. So if you go out there and believe
Speaker 4: everybody's supposed to be impressed with who you are, what
Speaker 4: you've done, you know you're still you. You know, I
Speaker 4: grew up in a town of six hundred and sixty
Speaker 4: one people. We had to go look for a ninth
Speaker 4: player some days just to finish Little league. And so
Speaker 4: I grew up pulling cotton and chopping peanuts, or chopping peanuts,
Speaker 4: combining peanuts, bailing. Hey, So I'm just I'm just the
Speaker 4: same guy, and I'll always be my mom and dad's son.
Speaker 2: So cool. Tell us more about your your dad, Johnny,
Speaker 2: and tell us please the Bob Gibson story that you
Speaker 2: told me, because if you don't tell it, I'm gonna
Speaker 2: tell it.
Speaker 4: Well, my dad, my dad served the two inches in
Speaker 4: the war. He came back and we started. He started
Speaker 4: working for his uncle who had a propane business. We
Speaker 4: delivered propane to the houses and to the farms for
Speaker 4: irrigations in the tanks and stuff. I did that when
Speaker 4: I was fifteen. But my dad and I would watch
Speaker 4: the Game of the week every Saturday with Geene Kirby,
Speaker 4: Pee Wee Reesing and Dizzy Dean. But we would go
Speaker 4: down to Helms Grocery. We'd get a half gallon neapolitan
Speaker 4: ice cream. We'd fill our bowls up and we'd sit
Speaker 4: there and eat it while we watched the game. Now, Dad,
Speaker 4: he had actually batted against Satchel Page in little sandlot stuff.
Speaker 4: After he did and I watched him playing. He could
Speaker 4: do lots of stuff. But he'd sit there and like
Speaker 4: all every fan you know, how and hell could he
Speaker 4: watch it? How can he miss that? Hell? I can
Speaker 4: hit that guy? Good hit him? Alchemy, Ralph thirty throwing Kirby,
Speaker 4: Hell I can hit that guy. So it was embedded
Speaker 4: to me. And so I get called up by the
Speaker 4: Reds to Saint Louis, up to Cincinnati, and we go
Speaker 4: to Saint Louis and I called Mom and Dad, I said,
Speaker 4: I can get you tickets I'll get you a room,
Speaker 4: come on up to Saint Louis and watch. So I said, okay,
Speaker 4: So they up they come, and so at first night,
Speaker 4: I'm going to really impress the hell out of them.
Speaker 4: But we faced a picture of the name of Bob
Speaker 4: Gibson that first time. And I don't know if the
Speaker 4: dr was one one two that year or what, but
Speaker 4: all of a sudden, I'm up there and I strike out,
Speaker 4: and I go up the second time and I strike out,
Speaker 4: and I go up the third time and I strike out.
Speaker 4: And I'm coming back and I'm walking by the battery
Speaker 4: on deck circle and just before I get to the
Speaker 4: dug and our manager was Dave Bristol. Dave was kind
Speaker 4: of like Sergeant Carter on Gomer Pyle USMC. You didn't
Speaker 4: think of anything but baseball. There was nothing but baseball.
Speaker 4: And I start to smile as I get to the
Speaker 4: on deck circle. And by the time I reached the dugout,
Speaker 4: I'm grinning and he's down here. It's took three or
Speaker 4: four steps in, so you had to walk down around.
Speaker 4: He looked up me and said, what hell, it's so funny.
Speaker 4: I was just thinking, I don't think Dad can hit
Speaker 4: this guy. That's what you do.
Speaker 2: How great Bob gives. Yeah, even your dad good to
Speaker 2: hit it?
Speaker 4: Goodn't all?
Speaker 2: I said, Johnny, you, over the years have become don't
Speaker 2: be humble about this MC of the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 2: When a new player comes in, you're always the first
Speaker 2: one to welcome him. You are the ringleader. Where did
Speaker 2: that come from? Did you take that mantle on yourself
Speaker 2: or did someone pass it to you?
Speaker 4: No, no, no, no, I'm just I'm a welcomer. I'm
Speaker 4: just a guy who greets people and likes people and
Speaker 4: befriends people. And I think they deserve a call. I
Speaker 4: don't know if anybody else calls or not. I don't
Speaker 4: worry about it. They don't ask me to do it.
Speaker 4: That's just who Johnny is. You know, my mom and
Speaker 4: daddy and all, we'd be proud of it. But I
Speaker 4: I like to be personal. I like to be respectful.
Speaker 4: I like to congratulate people on the awards that they win.
Speaker 4: And so when I call them, I told them then
Speaker 4: I give them my advice keep a diary right, and
Speaker 4: I tell you you know after if it's the induction,
Speaker 4: when the announcement is made, I tell him start now.
Speaker 4: But I talked to all three last week and I said, now,
Speaker 4: this is going to start, so I want you to
Speaker 4: I want you to keep your diary, and I want
Speaker 4: your wife to keep a diary because this is going
Speaker 4: to buy so fast, and you're going to think on
Speaker 4: Monday or Tuesday, what the heck happened? All three of
Speaker 4: them say, come up to me, and I say, I'm
Speaker 4: a diary going.
Speaker 2: Did you keep a diary?
Speaker 4: I didn't. That's why I wanted to learn.
Speaker 2: I learned.
Speaker 4: I learned.
Speaker 1: So one of the highlights for my dad in back
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty two when we were here was right
Speaker 1: pretty much above us was the verandah and you pulled
Speaker 1: him aside, and what advice did you give him on
Speaker 1: his weekend joining this club.
Speaker 4: Well, I'm not I have another ritual that I do afterwards.
Speaker 4: But you know, to enjoy the moment, But you're going
Speaker 4: to spend so much time trying to accommodate everybody else,
Speaker 4: and you're going to forget the moment of what you achieved.
Speaker 4: So you have to take a minute and think about
Speaker 4: who you are and where you are. This isn't all
Speaker 4: about them anymore. It's about me and so I hope
Speaker 4: that's what I share.
Speaker 2: Exactly what you did, Johnny, was the highlight of my
Speaker 2: Hall of Fame weekend. That I sat on that varana
Speaker 2: with the greatest catcher of all time. You told me
Speaker 2: to look at that lake for one minute. I did
Speaker 2: do not say a word, think about where you are,
Speaker 2: how you got here, and how many people helped get
Speaker 2: you here. And I'm sorry I teared up because it
Speaker 2: was the most emotional moment of that weekend for me.
Speaker 4: And I've done it for years, and you know, it
Speaker 4: seemed odd to some of the guys. Right then I
Speaker 4: had cal rippinkins, Can I get them? Can I help
Speaker 4: you get them in their chair? I mean, it's like,
Speaker 4: you know, you always think somebody's you know, oh it's
Speaker 4: kind of corny and everything else. But and then I
Speaker 4: have every almost year after year they said they come
Speaker 4: to men said thank you for doing that. That meant
Speaker 4: so much to me and the guys that you called
Speaker 4: just to say, hey, congratulations, well deserved, you deserve to
Speaker 4: be here. You're going to have a great week. We'll
Speaker 4: welcome you in and do all this stuff. And when
Speaker 4: they get here they say, thank you. That was a
Speaker 4: great call, and it's not for my own glory. I
Speaker 4: don't do it, but it's were there because I was.
Speaker 4: I was the guy. And when Pee Wee Reese put
Speaker 4: his arm around me after my speech, after I gave
Speaker 4: my speech induction speech, he put his arm around me
Speaker 4: and whispered in my ear that was great. You're a
Speaker 4: Hall of Famer.
Speaker 2: How'd you do on your speech, Johnny? Were you scared
Speaker 2: to death before you went up there or being you?
Speaker 2: Were you ready to go?
Speaker 4: I did not. All I had was a few ideas
Speaker 4: and then you kind of winged it from there. Well,
Speaker 4: I didn't have any notes. No, no, no, I mean.
Speaker 1: This man walked around the Harris Theater local grocery store
Speaker 1: memorizing his ten page speech.
Speaker 4: Is Ohidrin Beltray and he's got his folder, you know,
Speaker 4: right under his arm. And I said, could I see that?
Speaker 4: And he said, no, you can't see that. I already
Speaker 4: heard about you because I took a couple of a
Speaker 4: couple of money here. I took, you know, his notebook,
Speaker 4: one of our inductees' notebooks.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, wait, you took a notebook, the notes
Speaker 2: away from a guy was going in the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 2: And it was he.
Speaker 4: Was going ready to go out for the speech, and
Speaker 4: oh my god, he's good and we'd laugh when he's
Speaker 4: walking around the room. And then first thing he says,
Speaker 4: I heard about you guys. Come up. Now, I heard
Speaker 4: about you. Stay away. Can't you imagine people who don't
Speaker 4: like to talk to begin with. I mean, you know
Speaker 4: how public speaking is for people. It's not doing it.
Speaker 4: But no, I had it all. I didn't have anything, really,
Speaker 4: I just got up. I was eighth grade. I was
Speaker 4: Johnny Bench from the Binger four h club and for
Speaker 4: my speech, I have chosen birds of the World. I
Speaker 4: mean it was interesting because I just got a note
Speaker 4: from a uh from back home. It was he's going
Speaker 4: to be night Leland's going to be ninety six years old,
Speaker 4: and he was the four age leader of Kato County
Speaker 4: and back in those days. And I'll be forever grateful
Speaker 4: that I learned to stand up and speak, you know,
Speaker 4: and memorize. I never had a problem memorizing anything. I
Speaker 4: could each would have a poem. I would do it
Speaker 4: before class was over.
Speaker 1: It sounds like if you didn't make it to the
Speaker 1: ball field, you could have made it to the stage.
Speaker 1: Because I've heard you have a great singing voice.
Speaker 4: You know, I know the words and sometimes and you're
Speaker 4: a performer. I sang with a symphony with Eric Knsel
Speaker 4: in the Cincinnati Pops. I played professional golf. I played
Speaker 4: nine senior Toure events. I bowled professionally. I used to
Speaker 4: play tennis once a year and gave it up. It
Speaker 4: just got to be too much work. So I love music,
Speaker 4: you know, and I wish i'd had. I had a
Speaker 4: thor ecotomy, which is a lung. I had lung surgery
Speaker 4: four days after I turned twenty five. I had developed
Speaker 4: a Cox City o yd micosis, which is called the
Speaker 4: Valley fever. And so a lot of people, I know,
Speaker 4: they are not aware of it. But four days after
Speaker 4: the seventy two playoffs in the World Series, I went in.
Speaker 4: They cut me from here all the way back to here,
Speaker 4: and it was a brand new surgery. It was used
Speaker 4: with taples that they had never done before because usually
Speaker 4: they open up your back and my doctor Gonzalez was
Speaker 4: trying to avoid that. And so you know, when you
Speaker 4: tell people, how what do you think of your career?
Speaker 4: And I said, well, it wasn't as good as it
Speaker 4: would have been because the difference the difference in greatness
Speaker 4: is about five to six inches because that's where you
Speaker 4: hit the ball. So in my physical ability and I
Speaker 4: had twenty five vision, I could actually get to the
Speaker 4: ball out there. So hitting the ball out here as
Speaker 4: opposed to hitting it there. You know, now things are slower.
Speaker 4: I mean your reaction in a baseball you have a
Speaker 4: ninety mile on hour base fastball, you have point four
Speaker 4: to two seconds from the time it leaves the pitcher's
Speaker 4: hand till it crosses home plate. Yeah, point one seven
Speaker 4: seconds reaction time. So the brain the cameras are the
Speaker 4: eyes the cameras. The brain sees the camera and so
Speaker 4: it has to identify location, speed, spend and then send
Speaker 4: them send the signal to the nerves and muscles and
Speaker 4: they react. And that after they cut the nerves and
Speaker 4: cut the bone and cut the muscle, then I was
Speaker 4: I was down to probably a little less and I
Speaker 4: so I never had the career that I think I
Speaker 4: could have had.
Speaker 2: Johnny, you don't play golf anymore? Is that correct?
Speaker 4: Warranty ran out I had when I was eighteen, I
Speaker 4: was driving back from I had broken my thumb in Buffalo,
Speaker 4: and I went to I went back to Oklahoma City.
Speaker 4: And when I drove up to Witchdall see my American
Speaker 4: Legion teammates play. And I drove back to Oklahoma City,
Speaker 4: stayed with my brother Orlan highway. Pulled out to pass
Speaker 4: the bus. Here's the drunk driver on the wrong side.
Speaker 4: I hit the brakes, hit me right in the door.
Speaker 4: I didn't regain conscious. I gained conscious getting into the ambulance,
Speaker 4: and then when I got I don't remember anything about it.
Speaker 4: I think I remember the sort of going into the
Speaker 4: emergency room, and then the doctor came in afterwards. He said, son,
Speaker 4: you got the biggest bones I've ever seen in my life.
Speaker 4: He said, nobody but you would walk out.
Speaker 2: Of here by that build.
Speaker 4: I had the thing and I and he said, but
Speaker 4: you know, later on you'll have larth ryders, you'll have problems,
Speaker 4: you'll have all the stuff. And so I've had both
Speaker 4: hips replaced. These are still perfect shave, but the back,
Speaker 4: the shoulders and all the stuff and everything else. It's
Speaker 4: almost like being a catcher every day.
Speaker 1: Well, it's worth noting the fifty percent of the hips
Speaker 1: on this podcast right now have been replaced.
Speaker 3: Dad has won two over there.
Speaker 1: I still have the originals at age thirty, Thank goodness.
Speaker 1: And speaking of golf, my dad wanted to play golf
Speaker 1: at Leatherstocking for Father's Day last year, and we took
Speaker 1: a picture on is it the the seventh hole right
Speaker 1: right at your plaque? And Dad sent you the photo.
Speaker 4: He did, right, and it was lying three or four.
Speaker 1: I don't remem he laid up twice to get there
Speaker 1: at three hundred and forty six yards. As little guys,
Speaker 1: we're not getting there, maybe even too right.
Speaker 2: Remember what you wrote to me when I sent you
Speaker 2: the picture. Oh no, here's what you wrote.
Speaker 4: How many foul balls did you take?
Speaker 1: Him?
Speaker 4: Ahead? You? I remember?
Speaker 2: Actually you were kind for once you said you out
Speaker 2: drove me again, And I wrote, and I hit a
Speaker 2: three wood, Johnny, you hit a golf ball three hundred
Speaker 2: and forty six yards in nineteen ninety two. That's impossible.
Speaker 2: You can't do that, but you did well.
Speaker 4: I drove. I drove a four hundred and three yard
Speaker 4: part four in Vegas, and then I three put it.
Speaker 4: I don't really I mean, but it was like there
Speaker 4: was a plaque there at the Sarah Golf Yeah, at
Speaker 4: the golf course at Sarah, and I had a plaque air,
Speaker 4: So Johnny Bench drove this grain.
Speaker 2: Johnny seven here on this diabolically difficult course, isn't uphill?
Speaker 4: I hit it good, right, Johnson? I hit it good.
Speaker 2: John Smolts told me on an airplay once he said,
Speaker 2: Johnny Bench hit the cart path on that hole. I'm
Speaker 2: sure of it. Have you heard that before?
Speaker 4: Oh gosh, especially from Smoltzy, You can't. You know, he's
Speaker 4: gotta be the greatest golf forever, and he's gonna He's
Speaker 4: got that drive and his spirit and he just nobody
Speaker 4: can hit it that far.
Speaker 2: Right, Johnny, you talked about how big your hands were
Speaker 2: even when you were five. Yeah, my dad was like,
Speaker 2: where did they come from?
Speaker 4: That dad? My dad was only five nine and his
Speaker 4: was about that much shorter as all. It was, right,
Speaker 4: And now we've you know, we've got I've got to
Speaker 4: be known for something, right.
Speaker 2: And we have a picture of you, of course, the
Speaker 2: famous picture of you holding seven baseballs at one time. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I was that you just messing around one day and
Speaker 2: say I could do this.
Speaker 4: You shag in the outfield when they're batting practice, and
Speaker 4: so you pick up four balls and you just put them.
Speaker 4: I could pick up four balls and put them in
Speaker 4: the bucket because they take it up to the batting
Speaker 4: practice picture and they said, now making to get I
Speaker 4: saiding to get another one? I said, yeah, I think
Speaker 4: I could got one. Then all of a sudden it
Speaker 4: became six, and then it became seven, and then all
Speaker 4: of a sudden it was like, we're you know you
Speaker 4: like you do? You know you like today you'd send
Speaker 4: it out on social media Johnny Ben's you know, grabbing
Speaker 4: six baseballs or five baseball? There are seven baseballs and
Speaker 4: all of a sudden it's for some reason people.
Speaker 1: Love that it's a great photo and we're gonna we're
Speaker 1: gonna pull it up on the YouTube channel so people
Speaker 1: can see it as well. Joe Mauer is getting inducted
Speaker 1: this year. Is there ever a special tie for you
Speaker 1: when when a great catcher goes into the hall.
Speaker 4: Well and catcher is the word. You know that that
Speaker 4: was a question as to you know Joe Mauer. Yeah,
Speaker 4: you know when I was in I was playing in
Speaker 4: the senior event in Buffalo, I mean in Minnesota, in Blaine, Minnesota,
Speaker 4: I was playing in the three senior championship and the
Speaker 4: reporter came out and said, have you heard about this?
Speaker 4: Kid Maer and I said, yeah, it's very, very impressive
Speaker 4: right now. And he said, well, what do you think
Speaker 4: is he going to be? They're going he's going to
Speaker 4: be the next you. And I said, well, let's wait
Speaker 4: six or seven years and then we'll see. You know,
Speaker 4: can he maintain it? Can't he do it without getting hurt?
Speaker 4: Can he? You know, it's just a how's your sustainability?
Speaker 4: So he wound up, you know, seven years after that
Speaker 4: he got the hamstring, he had to go to first base,
Speaker 4: he had to do stuff and everything else. The batting
Speaker 4: titles nicest kid you'll ever meet. I mean, just a
Speaker 4: wonderful man, great catcher. But again, you know, you judge
Speaker 4: someone for their hole, you know, their whole effort in baseball.
Speaker 4: So the batting title's MVP and everything else carried him
Speaker 4: through the catching I mean at seven years. I mean,
Speaker 4: you guys know whatever HOI however, you're going to rate
Speaker 4: them right?
Speaker 2: And your knees are so okay after all.
Speaker 4: These years, I got big bones, Tim, Can you.
Speaker 2: Get down in a catcher's stance right now?
Speaker 4: Why?
Speaker 2: I'm not what you should do?
Speaker 4: You want to show me? Can you?
Speaker 2: I can? And it hurts and I'm only sixty seven
Speaker 2: years old, and I never caught a day in my life,
Speaker 2: and I still have trouble.
Speaker 4: If you touch the stove and it was hot, you
Speaker 4: didn't do it again, so you don't squat again, you know, No,
Speaker 4: I don't. I don't have any need to go Yah.
Speaker 2: Right, good, good for you. Do you watch a lot
Speaker 2: of baseball these days? And do you like what you see?
Speaker 4: I don't have the time to watch a whole game.
Speaker 4: I'll watch certain games, I'll watch certain deals. I'm a
Speaker 4: box score man. I've always been a box score man.
Speaker 4: I can't wait for I got MLB app I go in.
Speaker 4: I watch every back score. Look, I go through every
Speaker 4: almost every team every day, every team, Yeah, every day.
Speaker 1: Is there anything like My dad's a nut with box scores,
Speaker 1: and I've become the same way. He's looking to see
Speaker 1: if if a score line makes a phone number, or
Speaker 1: looking for.
Speaker 3: The you know, all of these little quirks. It is weird.
Speaker 1: Is there anything that you like to see in a
Speaker 1: box score that excites you?
Speaker 4: No? We have the Johnny Bench Catchers Award, which is
Speaker 4: the college Catcher of the Year. I've included now women
Speaker 4: as softballs, so now we have the Women's Softball Player
Speaker 4: of the Year. And we have four states around Red's
Speaker 4: Country Kentucky, Ohiowa's, Virginia, Indiana, so we honor those kids. So,
Speaker 4: I mean, we've got like fifteen twelve to fifteen guys
Speaker 4: that have won the award or have been nominated for
Speaker 4: the award that are in the major leagues. And so
Speaker 4: I go in and see how they're doing. And Lattle Rushman,
Speaker 4: you know, and then you got even Schober was a
Speaker 4: nominee at the time. Then you had Garrett Stubbs, and
Speaker 4: then you go to Suzuki and then you go But
Speaker 4: I love to see how they're doing. I mean I
Speaker 4: try to follow their careers and what they're up to
Speaker 4: and all the stuff, like to see who the pictures
Speaker 4: are winning pictures. I like to go and see the stats,
Speaker 4: who's got the RBIs, who's doing stuff. I just I
Speaker 4: just think it's it's really really fun for me. And
Speaker 4: then I'll check the on the Reds and see and
Speaker 4: what's the averages, what's all the stuff. So you know,
Speaker 4: I try to stay involved. I mean, I still have
Speaker 4: a connection.
Speaker 2: That is so good. I just finished Johnny. When people
Speaker 2: ask you, like, what is Cooper's Town like, especially on
Speaker 2: a weekend like this, how do you describe what this
Speaker 2: is like?
Speaker 4: Well, first of all, it's Norman Rockwell you know, it's
Speaker 4: it's a town that had a when I first came
Speaker 4: here and now it's been inundated with a lot of
Speaker 4: sports show, sports shops, everything else and used to be
Speaker 4: a lot of mom and pops and stuff and everything else.
Speaker 4: It's I don't know, it's it's a hallowed ground place
Speaker 4: that you know, you in your imagination, you think about
Speaker 4: where would you go, I mean into in the magical
Speaker 4: and the Magical fairy Tales, you would go to Cooperstown
Speaker 4: or what would it be like? And you can't imagine
Speaker 4: driving into the town and then seeing how quaint it
Speaker 4: is down the street it is the main street, little
Speaker 4: tiny houses on the way, And then you think about
Speaker 4: and you start it starts to grow on you. As
Speaker 4: the fans start to come, and they come with this
Speaker 4: full of emotion, full of excitement. You know, they've got
Speaker 4: a player, they've got ten players that they've always followed
Speaker 4: and known, and they want to see them. They want
Speaker 4: to catch a glimpse of them. More than anything. They
Speaker 4: want to share it with their child, their grandson say
Speaker 4: you should have seen him. This guy was here, this
Speaker 4: guy was there. I was in that stands when he
Speaker 4: saw it. I did that. I saw it. I was there.
Speaker 4: And they love to pass on their little midment for
Speaker 4: for them, it doesn't have to be one. It's all,
Speaker 4: you know. It's not like going to see one a
Speaker 4: game and watch one particular player. You've got everybody here
Speaker 4: and it's tope.
Speaker 1: It is magical. And I think the fans everybody has
Speaker 1: a childlike look in their eyes, no matter how old
Speaker 1: they are, seeing their heroes. It's like you're transported back
Speaker 1: to being eight years old eating a hot dog at
Speaker 1: you know, Shay Stadium. For you, my dad's a three
Speaker 1: time grandfather now and you just recently became a grandfather.
Speaker 3: Congratulations, thank you. How is that for you? Is it
Speaker 3: the most incredible thing like it is for my dad?
Speaker 4: Well, I'm you know, I never thought my oldest son.
Speaker 4: I wasn't sure he would get married, and then I
Speaker 4: wasn't sure he'd ever want children and everything else. So
Speaker 4: you know, to have that child for the first time
Speaker 4: and hold it and everything else, and you say, you know,
Speaker 4: and you know you're not going to be there for
Speaker 4: his entire life. You know, how do we? You know?
Speaker 4: And you and you think, Okay, they're gonna be great parents,
Speaker 4: and they're gonna give them an education, and they'll they'll
Speaker 4: be strict, probably too strict in some ways. Know, ain't
Speaker 4: my son? And is it? But that's that's what discipline is,
Speaker 4: and that's what you need and that's the way you
Speaker 4: need to learn. So you know, it's the same thing.
Speaker 4: Let me watch my children grow to see what they become. Lord,
Speaker 4: don't let that cold wind blow till I'm too old
Speaker 4: to die. Young and so I got a kid going
Speaker 4: into college. You got a kid going into sophomore. That's
Speaker 4: the love I just got married. I mean, my life
Speaker 4: couldn't be better right now. And the top it off,
Speaker 4: I get to be on the tim Kirchen, I mean,
Speaker 4: how can it get any better than this? I'm talking
Speaker 4: about the cherry on top. We gotta leave right there.
Speaker 4: Watch my children grow to see what they become. Lord,
Speaker 4: that cold wind blow till I'm too old to die.
Speaker 3: Wow, I knew I could say, right Johnny Bench, thank
Speaker 3: you for.
Speaker 4: Joining always for Timmy anything YouTube. Jeff, nice to be
Speaker 4: with you, and uh gosh, I hope this show goes.
Speaker 4: I hope you make some money because this is because
Speaker 4: I didn't get anything from where. I can tell you
Speaker 4: that I didn't get a shirt a T shirt. It's
Speaker 4: a hat or shirt. But maybe I'll get you to
Speaker 4: sign a baseball later on. Nice try.
Speaker 2: We didn't get paid either.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, yeah, I mean I love that. I'm gonna
Speaker 4: believe that one too. Yeah, well you wrote think I
Speaker 4: wrote in there with the head to let us.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, our chief investor, my dad's wife, my mom,
Speaker 1: she's we keep saying we need more money for travel.
Speaker 4: Get your get your I'm trying to get in. Get
Speaker 4: him an agent. I mean, my gosh, he wants to
Speaker 4: go up to the shop and and help them out,
Speaker 4: you know, let him pay you for being here. Now
Speaker 4: you gotta pay for gas to get from Baltimore to Philadelphia.
Speaker 4: I just really feel bad now. I feel like I
Speaker 4: want to put something. If you'll leave a tip camp,
Speaker 4: maybe I'll yeah, I'll put something in it for you.
Speaker 4: I'm worried about you. I'll talk to Dan next to
Speaker 4: if I ever see whoever's on this program.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, thank you, welcome, it was, Thank you
Speaker 1: thank you so much, Thank you to Johnny Bench. We
Speaker 1: had so much fun for that in person interview. So
Speaker 1: if you're listening right, make sure you subscribe and follow
Speaker 1: wherever you're listening, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, all of that stuff.
Speaker 1: But if you want to see it because we were
Speaker 1: in person with Johnny Bench, which is so cool, you
Speaker 1: can go to our YouTube channel Great Game or what Dad.
Speaker 1: I think there's one thing that I wanted to thank
Speaker 1: him during that interview that I didn't have the opportunity to.
Speaker 1: For those who have listened to the podcast, you know
Speaker 1: that my dad's brother, my uncle Matt, passed away from
Speaker 1: ALS last year on Labor Day, and before his passing,
Speaker 1: we were looking to do a charity event to bring
Speaker 1: awareness to ALS, and I remember talking to my and
Speaker 1: his first call was to Johnny Bench to do a
Speaker 1: little bit of a fireside chat with you Dad on
Speaker 1: a stage, sell tickets, and every.
Speaker 3: Cent was going to go back to the cause.
Speaker 1: He without hesitation said yes after him, I will absolutely
Speaker 1: do that, And I think it speaks to the amazing
Speaker 1: relationship that you've had with him, but also to his heart.
Speaker 1: He has such a big part and unfortunately we weren't
Speaker 1: able to put that event together in time.
Speaker 3: Before his passing.
Speaker 1: But I just want to say a big thank you
Speaker 1: from the Kirchen family to Johnny for being so gung
Speaker 1: ho and game to help out with this cause, and.
Speaker 2: Thank you for bringing that up.
Speaker 4: Jeff.
Speaker 2: I remember calling Johnny about that and I got about
Speaker 2: ten seconds into the discussion and he interrupted me and
Speaker 2: he said, I'm in Just tell me when that's who
Speaker 2: Johnny Bench is.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening. Thank you for enjoying
Speaker 1: our interview with Johnny Bench. We had a great time
Speaker 1: at Cooper Down, and we can't wait the brand new
Speaker 1: episode next Tuesday on Is This a Great Game or what?
Speaker 3: Follow?
Speaker 1: Subscribe for free wherever you're listening right now, and as always,
Speaker 1: thank you for being a part of our family.