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FILE – In this March 28, 2019, file photo, former Cincinnati Reds catcher Johnny Bench walks up to the field before the team’s opening day baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates in Cincinnati. Bench has decided to sell memorabilia from his Hall of Fame career with the Reds. He plans to use the proceeds to help fund the future college educations of his two youngest sons. Among the items he’s parting with are his World Series trophies from 1975 and ’76, and his 1968 NL Rookie of the Year award.
The recent deaths of baseball greats Lou Brock, Tom Seaver and Al Kaline got Johnny Bench thinking about the future and the prospect of unloading memorabilia from his Hall of Fame career.
He had seen Bob Gibson and Ozzie Smith sell their collectibles. Bench checked out items from Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully’s recent online auction.
“You wonder, what is the best thing to do?” Bench said by phone Thursday. “Who does it go to?”
Bench reaped the rewards of a 17-year career catching with the Cincinnati Reds: two World Series titles, 14 All-Star selections, two National League MVP awards, multiple Gold Gloves. He was leader of the Big Red Machine that won six division tiles and four NL pennants in the mid-1970s.
“The memories are still there. I still am the MVP,” he said. “I’m blessed with what I’ve got and I’m enjoying my life.”
He lives in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, with 30-year-old son Bobby and sons Justin, 14, and Josh, 11, from Bench’s fourth marriage. The younger boys are with him 38 weeks of the year, keeping Bench busy as a single father cooking, grocery shopping, helping with homework and shuttling them to activities. They spend the rest of the time in California with their mother.
“How do you divide it up when you have three boys and you got two things?” said Bench, who turns 73 in December. “If they had said, ‘No, Dad you can’t sell those,’ it would have made a difference. They’re two generations removed from what I did.”
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