Cinergy countdown - Sept. 17, 1983 (Johnny Bench last Home Run)

Cincinnati Enquirer ^ | August 11, 2002 | John Erardi

[anncoulteriscool]

Cinergy countdown - Sept. 17, 1983

By John Erardi, jerardi@enquirer.com

The Cincinnati Enquirer

Former Reds teammate Joe Morgan once described Johnny Bench as “bigger than life.” On Sept.17, 1983, Bench lived up to the billing once again.

It was Johnny Bench Night at Riverfront Stadium. There were 53,290 fans in the stands, the biggest regular-season crowd in Reds history. His father, Ted, threw out the ceremonial first pitch. Johnny remembered that when he was a boy, the longest home run he ever saw was hit by his father; the ball just kept going and landed in a cornfield.

As a player, J.B. had a lot of the mythical in him, too.

On Johnny Bench Night, the soon-to-be-retired star hit a game-tying, two-run home run and a single and threw out a would-be base stealer.

It was the 389th and final home run of Bench's career.

“I swung at a changeup (on the) first pitch and about fell on my head — I missed it (by) so far,” Bench later reminisced. “And then (came) a fastball (for a home run) ... Nothing gets bigger than that.”

Twelve days later, he hit a two-run, pinch-hit single in his last at-bat at Riverfront and was gone.

[anncoulteriscool]

I was at this game!

[vetvetdoug]

Bench's first cousin was one of my HS football coaches. JB used to come to our practices and give we defensive linemen and linebackers football pointers. He was very personable and a lot of help and became a welcome sight to the team. I didn't realize how lucky I was until years out of HS that I had such an icon as a visiting "coach". JB would make a great HS school football coach IMHO.

[timestax]

bump

[Dems_R_Losers]

Big Red Machine bump!!!!!

[foreverfree]

I half jokingly contemplated suicide there (when it was Riverfront Stadium) on my 16th birthday, 8/27/77. :-(

For my birthday present I flew from Philly to Cincy in time to see the Phils/Reds game on a Saturday afternoon (NBC's Game of the Week). Bottom 9th, Tug McGraw has a 1 run lead, Driessen hits an inside the park HR because Jay Johnstone misses the relay man, then Bench, the next batter, parks one over over the LF wall, and as Marty Brennaman would say, "this one belongs to the Reds."

On the way downtown to tour same afterwards, I tell my mom, "I think I'm gonna jump in the freeway [I-71]." Fortunately I didn't! Shows how much I "worshipped" the Philly teams more than the Lord back then. [blush]

That's my memory of Riverfront/Cinergy.

And as I type this, FNC is reporting the Eagles' shocking loss to Big Blue yesterday.

foreverfree