Bench to be immortalized at GABP

We immortalize the greats and Johnny Bench will become one of the Reds legends to receive a statue at Great American Ball Park. The statue will be unveiled in front of the Reds Hall of Fame and Museum on September 17. Joe Nuxhall, Ernie Lombardi, Ted Kluszewski, and Frank Robinson currently have statues on Crosley Terrace near the main gate to the park, so Bench's will sit somewhat alone. If you visit the Reds HOF and Museum, inside the main entrance you'll find life-sized statues of Harry and George Wright, founding members of the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings (they were really small guys but probably typical for the time). Upstairs in the museum you'll see more statuary: managers Sparky Anderson and Fred Hutchinson, and the "Great Eight" of Bench, Rose, Perez, Morgan, Foster, Concepcion, Gereronimo, and Griffey.

The most unique thing about the Bench statue is, it will feature him in the motion of throwing out a would-be base stealer. Bench was, of course, known for his cannon arm and it's certainly appropriate to portray him that way, it's just that I've never seen anything like this. Most catchers are portrayed crouched behind the plate in position to receive (i.e. Lombardi at GABP and Campanella in Cooperstown) or those known more for their offense have a bat in hand (i.e. Josh Gibson at Nationals Park and PNC Park). This is such a great idea by sculptor Tom Tsuchiya to reproduce Johnny Bench in this way, it recognizes all the tools that a great catcher must possess and one of the reasons for why Bench is the greatest of all time.


Links:

• Toolz of Ignorance predicts that the Reds will finish 2nd in the NL Central behind the Brew-Crew but will get the Wild Card spot.
• Royals Review, the best SB Nation blog out there for pure entertainment value, has a bit of a caption contest going on.
• Seventh Inning Stache has a nice little piece (with links) about Blue Collar Baseball's favorite manager, Jim Leyland. Including a link to this video from Bugs & Cranks of a Leyland impersonator.
• At Home Plate comes up with some odds of which team will sign Albert Pujols and stricter off-field rules for players.