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Hall of Famer visits Valley to raise funds for Penguins
By Steve Wilaj
YOUNGSTOWN
Fresh off his first National League MVP award in 1970, Johnny Bench returned to his hometown of Binger, Okla. — population 661 — for his five-year high school reunion.
There would be a parade, Bench was told. He assumed it was to celebrate his monumental accomplishment that came in just his third full season with the Cincinnati Reds.
“I go and I’m sitting in the back of this car,” Bench said. “Pretty soon I realize everybody is in the parade. We all waved at each other when we turned the bend and that was it.”
Drawing laughs from the crowd of more than 500 people at the YSU baseball First Pitch Breakfast on Saturday, it was just one story the Hall of Fame catcher told as the event’s headline speaker.
While Bench wasn’t exactly the center of attention of that parade 45 years ago, he certainly stole the spotlight inside the Maronite Center.
During his half-hour speech, the 14-time All-Star and 1976 World Series MVP gave advice, joked with the crowd and shared stories of his playing days.
“It’s been a lot of fun,” said Bench, who arrived in town Friday. “It’s an opportunity for me to come in and it’s very impressive to see what’s happened with [YSU head coach] Steve Gillispie and the Penguins just in the last year.”
YSU alum Mitchell Joseph — CEO of Joseph Company International Inc. based in Irvine, Calif. — brought in Bench, a longtime friend, for the benefit breakfast.
Another friend of Joseph’s, YSU president and recent College Football Hall of Fame inductee Jim Tressel, was the event’s other featured speaker.
“Our community turns out for great opportunities, which this is,” Tressel said. “It’s great to have Johnny here. That’s my era — growing up watching Johnny Bench. I was a Tribe guy, but the Reds were my National League team.
“So it’s exciting.”
The event — which featured a breakfast buffet and the chance to bid on autographed MLB memorabilia and YSU baseball gear — was held to raise funds for the Penguins’ baseball program. Gillispie spoke to the crowd first.
“It’s a grand slam,” said Gillispie, who led YSU to a Horizon League tournament championship and an NCAA Regional victory in 2014. “It’s such class in both of those gentlemen that they’ve been so gracious to do this.
“I don’t think there’s many breakfasts, banquets or fund-raisers around the county that have that kind of lineup.”
Bench, who Gillispie called his “boyhood idol,” also spoke to the YSU baseball team for about 30 minutes on Friday inside the WATTS training facility on campus.
“The numbers are totally against you making professional baseball,” Bench said he told the team. “But the opportunity to share these times with your teammates and get a great education during your life is going to be the most important.
“Go out and enjoy the game, improve your game and walk away from this university with a great degree.”
Sporting one of his two World Series rings, the man who many call the greatest catcher in baseball history had plenty of compliments for Youngstown.
“The one thing that impressed me was that on all the poles and all the flags and everything else, it mentions Youngstown and Youngstown State,” Bench said. “That’s pride in what you’re doing.
“The city’s behind it. [YSU]’s part of the culture of what Youngstown is and I like that.”
To conclude the event, a white Reds “Bench” jersey was auctioned and sold for $2,100. Gillispie said attendance was about 100 more than the past few years.
“It’s a special thing for our community,” Tressel said.