“Bench was pretty darned good. I bet he would have made the HOF had he been on almost any team.”
Johnny Bench is one of the greatest catchers of all time. Rose’s bitterness doesn’t reflect on Bench whatsoever.
I have a friend whose nephew is a backup catcher in Major League Baseball.
Given what an incredibly good college player he was, and how long and hard he had to work in the minors to even make it to the show, just to be able to ride the pine, it’s hard to even get your mind around how good Johnny Bench actually was.