The younger version of this guy has been getting a lot of press in the Monsters-Terribles Series. Johnny Bench may have been “Terrible” in his rookie year of 1967 but by 1970 he was an MVP. The Reds catcher won the award as well as getting an All-Star nod and winning a Gold Glove award.
In my book, any catcher who starts 147 games behind the plate and plays 158 overall on top of that is a Monster. Bench did that but also led the NL in 45 homeruns and 148 rbis. His batting average (.293) wasn’t too flashy until you consider his position and the era he played. Bench also stole five bases and scored 97 runs which was pretty awesome in the day of the slow-footed slugging catcher.
| Split | G | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | BB | SO | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1970 Totals | 158 | 671 | 605 | 97 | 177 | 35 | 4 | 45 | 148 | 5 | 54 | 102 | .293 | .345 | .587 |
Bench’s five numbers powers 1-1-4-5-5 are going to help Cincy recreate their 102 win season. His five steals nets him a 15-10.
Fun numbers: 44-5, 22-5, C-9
Bench is also rated at three other positions too. He is an OF-1, 1B-2 and a 3B-3. Accurate replayers will note that he played 24 games in the outfield and 12 games at first while making a token appearance at third.
man you gotta love the 5-5 cards but aren’t there a few bonuses considering he had only 4 triples and 5 sb’s with nearly 700 pa’s? maybe b/c he was league mvp?
would a 1-1-5-6-6 be more accurate and a 14* instead of that 10? a double column card would solve it all but i gotta admit there’s something powerful about those good old-fashioned single column guys.
His original card WAS 1-1-5-6-6. I don’t know why it was changed on the re-issue, but I guess they know what they’re doing. I replayed the 1970 season back in the early 70s, but I don’t remember how Bench did.
the only reference i had was my old ofas card but i can’t find the damn set this minute!! must check around again as i’m real curious now lol.
1-5-1-6-6 is what Bench had in the original set, the OFAS set, and what he should have in the re-issue. Growing up in Cincy in the late 60’s- early 70’s allowed me to witness this great many times. One of my all-time favorite cards and has reproduced his MVP season realistically in three of my replays (One with the stock set, one with all players on their originally drafted teams, and one with the players career year).