Baseball Hall of Famer Johnny Bench transformed the catcher position.
Babe Ruth’s 1927 Yankees? Forget it, Cincinnati Reds legend Johnny Bench says. The 1975 Big Red Machine was better than any of them.
By now everybody knows that Dan Driessen was the first designated hitter in World Series history (1976), that Will McEnaney recorded the final out of both the 1975 and 1976 World Series and that the Big Red Machine remains the last National League team to repeat as MLB champs.
But in the aftermath of a four-day, 50th-anniversary reunion celebration of the Big Red Machine, here are 10 things you probably didn’t know about one of the most storied dynasties in baseball history:
1. Cesar Geronimo’s right arm of God – and the Yankees
Center fielder Cesar Geronimo studied in a seminary in the Dominican Republic to become a priest before he found the path that led him to professional baseball. When he eventually participated in a tryout camp for the Yankees at the urging of his father, the Yankees liked his powerful arm so much they signed him as a pitcher and outfielder.
“After I came out of the seminary when I was 18 years old, I started playing softball,” said Geronimo, who played mostly basketball during his four years studying religion, only playing baseball once or twice a month in that span. “I never pitched. But the scout that got me knew I had a good arm.”
2. Ken Griffey’s baby bonus
Outfielder Ken Griffey, a three-time All-Star and career .296 hitter with 200 stolen bases, was the last player drafted by the Reds in 1969, in the 29th round.
His bonus?
“Jock strap and a pair of sanitary socks. That was it,” Griffey said. “That was my bonus. And I never wore a jock.”
3. 20 teams passed on Johnny Bench in draft – including Reds
Johnny Bench was the valedictorian at Binger High School in small-town Oklahoma, where he also starred on the basketball team in addition to baseball.
He was then drafted in MLB’s first draft in 1965 — but was not the Reds first pick. That was Bernie Carbo (16th overall). Which means all 20 big-league teams at the time passed on Bench, including the Reds, before they made him their second-round pick.
4. Don Gullett was not a very good placekicker
Don Gullett, a three-sport high school star who debuted for the Reds less than a year after being drafted 14th overall out of McKell High School in northeastern Kentucky, once struck out 20 of 21 he faced in a perfect game for McKell and another time scored 72 points in a football game.
The 11 rushing touchdowns and six extra-point kicks came after his coach unleashed him on a smack-talking rival had boasted about shutting him down.
“Of course, we razzed him about missing the other five kicks,” Bench said.
5. George Foster’s head games
George Foster was one of the first players to employ a sports psychologist early in his career to get past a fear resulting from twice getting hit in the head by pitches.
“I got the idea from Maury Wills because he had created some fear in sliding because he was constantly getting hurt,” Foster said. “But it was more of being able to talk through it. It helps with your focus. I encourage kids today to use a sports psychologist, because sometimes if they’re not playing well they get too much into their own head instead of focusing on their mechanics.”
It worked for Foster, who went on to earn five All-Star selections and the 1977 NL MVP award.
“They help you focus on the cause and not the result,” he said. “Once you change the cause your results change.”
6. Tony Perez had one very big thing in common with Babe Ruth
Don’t try to get Tony Perez to weigh in on the so-called torpedo bat — or any other flavor-of-the month style of bat that might be trending in the moment.
“Stupid,” he said. “I used only one bat. Never changed my bat. I used it in the big-leagues, and I used it in the minor leagues. One bat.”
That was Model R43, he said.
“That’s the one Babe Ruth used to use,” Perez said.
In other words, a lathe-turned tree trunk.
7. Hey, Johnny Bench, how ‘bout another lemonade over here!
The Reds were such big stars on the field that popular TV shows took advantage.
Bench, in particular, made several appearances on Hee Haw during his career in addition to his well-known gig hosting the Saturday morning kids show The Baseball Bunch with the famed San Diego Chicken. But did you know he also made a cameo as a waiter on a 1973 episode of The Partridge Family?
Even the manager, Sparky Anderson, co-starred in a 1979 episode of WKRP in Cincinnati written around Anderson’s terrible job at hosting a radio show, playing himself as the recently fired Reds manager.
When he eventually loses the radio job, too, he says, “I must be nuts. Every time I come into this town, I get fired.”
8. Nepo baby Pete Rose?
Five years before MLB’s first draft, Pete Rose was signed out of Western Hills High School by his hometown Reds – but not as the result of any high-demand bidding war or extra effort by the local club.
Mostly, it was a favor to local Reds bird-dog scout Buddy Bloebaum, who strongly urged the Reds to sign his nephew Pete.
9. The three-generation MLB Griffey family that might have been
Speaking of important guys named Buddy, Griffey’s father, Buddy Griffey, was a high school sports teammate of Stan Musial at Donora High School in western Pennsylvania.
The Hall of Famer more than once said the elder Griffey was good enough to play major-league baseball, and was even reputed to have said Buddy Griffey was better than himself.
“They said they were actually scouting him,” Ken Griffey said. “But what happened was, the last name was Welsh-related, so they thought he was white.”
Not much MLB future in the 1930s for a Black player, no matter how talented.
“He ended up going to Kentucky State on a football scholarship,” Griffey said.
Imagine the comparisons Buddy, Ken and Ken Jr. might have been able to make to the three-generation likes of the Boones and Bells.
10. Joe Morgan owned these guys
Joe Morgan, the man Bill James determined was the greatest second baseman in history, owned trademark rights to the “Big Red Machine” for specific merchandising after his playing days, securing the rights in 1997.
The rights through J.L. Morgan Enterprises Inc., covered, among other things, board games, card games and athletic bags, backpacks and book bags.
The rights have since lapsed. Morgan, who was the league MVP during both the BRM’s World Series championship seasons, died in 2020.