Johnny Bench, Cincinnati Reds
Image Source: Found on Pinterest, and believed to be in the public domain.
Image Subject: Hall of Fame catcher, Johnny Bench, selecting a bat. As stated on his Hall of Fame plaque, "Johnny Bench redefined standards by which catchers are measured during his seventeen seasons with 'Big Red Machine'."
Fun Fact: Many in baseball are convinced that pitchers, as a class, are all paranoiacs - they're sure everybody is out to get them. The pitcher thinks to himself, there is this group around home plate conspiring against him: hitter, catcher and probably the umpire's in it with them too. The pitcher often feels he is one poor lonely little man standing out there in the middle of the diamond. It takes an extraordinary personality to keep many pitchers at an acceptable level of manic anxiety. Johnny Bench was that kind of personality.
One extreme example and legendary incident happened with Reds relief pitcher Gerry Arrigo. Arrigo had a preference in throwing the curve, and as a result would dramatically ease off his fastball unless he was strongly motivated.
In one game, that was the pattern: Arrigo throwing a very soft fastball, putting more effort into the motion than into the pitch. Bench went to the mound repeatedly to get Arrigo to bust loose with the fastball. No success. He went out one more time and gave him the word, then went back to the plate, settled into his crouch and grimly called for a fast ball. Arrigo went into the big windup and fired the ball chest‐high and a little outside, without much speed. Bench barely moved to catch the pitch. He just casually stuck up his bare hand, caught the ball and snapped it back to the pitcher harder than it had come to the plate - all without moving out of the crouch. The Dodgers, and some of the fans, almost fell off their benches with astonishment.
No catcher since Victorian days had dared to catch bare‐handed. Even then, the catchers cautiously stood 20 to 25 feet behind the plate and caught the ball on the bounce. But Bench wasn't showboating; he was trying to communicate with his pitcher. The ploy worked. Arrigo, suddenly intent on throwing a pitch that couldn't be caught bare‐handed, began firing a genuine fastball that met Bench's specifications.
Painting Detail: Printed on 8 ½ ” x 11” canvas and painted using Schmincke Mussini and Marshall’s oil paints. Finer details, like uniform piping and Reds logo, were made using Prismacolor pencils.
Acknowledgement: “Johnny Bench: Supercatcher for the Big Red Machine”, William Barry Furlong, New York Times.