Johnny bench biography family life

Johnny Lee Bench was born on December 7, 1947, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and raised nearby in the small town of Binger. With his father, a truck driver and one-time semiprofessional baseball player, homemaker mother, two older brothers and a younger sister, Bench formed a close-knit family.

Like many boys around Binger, he picked cotton, delivered newspapers, and played sandlot baseball. Unlike the other boys, though, Bench consistently expressed his desire to play ball professionally, a revelation that earned guffaws from his classmates.

How old is johnny bench

Yet his father took him seriously. He coached and financially supported Binger's Little League team for several years. The Bench family liked to watch "Game of the Week" on Saturdays. Johnny listened to players give tips and dreamed about being a professional ballplayer like Oklahoma native Mickey Mantle.

Bench was a serious student, earning good grades in high school, and he played both baseball and basketball, for a time prefer