Celebrity Name : Johny Bench

Celebrity Real Name : Johnny Lee

Date of Birth : December 7, 1947

Birth Location : Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Biography of Johnny Lee :
John Lee Bench (born December 7, 1947 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma), is a former baseball player for the Cincinnati Reds from 1967 to 1983, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest catchers in Major League Baseball history. He is also currently on the Board of Directors for the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame.
Bench was a key member of the Reds’ 1975 and 1976 World Series championship teams known as “The Big Red Machine”‘.
Bench was a standout basketball player for Binger High School, in the small Western Oklahoma town of Binger, in addition to his baseball talents. His father advised him that the fastest route to the majors was being a catcher. He was drafted in the second round of the 1965 amateur draft and was called up in August, 1967 where he hit just .163, but impressed many with his defensive prowess and strong throwing arm. Among those he impressed during his first taste of Major League ball was Baseball Hall of Famer Ted Williams, who signed a baseball for him: “A Hall of Famer for sure!”
In addition to being an outstanding fielder, Bench was also a great hitter. In 1970, his finest statistical season, Bench hit .293 with 45 home runs and 148 RBIs. He hit .267 with 389 home runs and 1,376 runs-batted-in during his 17-year Major League career, all spent with the Reds. His career home run by a catcher record stood until surpassed by the Chicago White Sox’s Carlton Fisk. The San Diego Padres’ Mike Piazza has since broken the record and is still an active player.
He won the 1968 National League Rookie of the Year, batting .275 with 15 home runs and 82 RBI’s, and the honors and accomplishments only continued to pile up. In his career, Bench earned 10 Gold Gloves, was the 1970 and 1972 Most Valuable Player and was named to the National League All-Star team 12 times. He also won such awards as the Lou Gehrig Award (1975), the Babe Ruth Award (1976), and the Hutch Award (1981).

Trivia :
* Valedictorian of Binger High School.
* His autobiography is called “Catch You Later”
* Starred, with Tommy Lasorda and the San Diego Chicken on a syndicated baseball show called The Baseball Bunch in the early-1980s. A new version of the show is set to debut on ESPN in 2006.
* When the Reds retired Bench’s uniform number 5, it was the second time the number had been retired. In 1940, the Reds retired number 5 in honor of catcher Willard Hershberger, who had committed suicide during that season. They reactivated it in 1942.
* Has the unique ability amongst baseball players to hold seven baseballs in one hand simultaneously.[wikipedia]