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Never shy about his talents, Johnny had blithely announced that he would be the first catcher in history to win Rookie-of-the-Year honors, and that is just what he did. He won the Golden Glove award as the outstanding defensive receiver in the National League and set a major-league record for the greatest number of games (154) caught by a rookie. The praise rolled in like panegyrics by 19th century Romantic poets. Chicago Cub Manager Leo Durocher: "Bench is the greatest catcher since Gabby Hartnett." Montreal's Gene Mauch: "If I had my pick of any player in the league, Johnny Bench would be my first choice." Los Angeles' Walter Alston: "He'll be the All-Star catcher for the next ten years." Oakland's excitable owner Charlie Finley saw Bench hit a home run in an All-Star game and promptly wrote out a check to Cincinnati for $1,000,000—an offer that was instantly rebuffed. Even Ted Williams, the finest student of hitting in history and a man not given to paeanizing, presented Bench with an autographed ball during John's rookie year; it bore the inscription "A Hall of Famer for sure."
Bench calmly accepted all this as his due, and in 1969 went on to sock 26 home runs and drive in 90 runs. But his first two seasons of play were merely a loosening up for 1970. That was the coming of age for Bench and his I murderously powerful Redleg teammates. Bench walloped 45 home runs and collected a whopping total of 148 RBIS to lead the Reds to their first National League pennant since 1961. He became, in the bargain, the youngest catcher in either league ever to win the Most Valuable Player award.
Then came 1971, a black year for Bench and the Reds. Straining to keep pace with a reputation that was already greening into myth, Bench hit only 27 home runs, and his batting average tailed off to an asthenic .238. His teammates caught similar bugs and the dreaded Big Red Machine wound up in a disappointing third-place finish in the league's rugged Western Division, behind the San Francisco Giants and the Los Angeles Dodgers. For the first time in his career, Johnny Bench heard boos in thundering waves, and he did not like it. He heard them again at the start of this season as he opened with a single in 22 times at bat. By May 28 "the Little General," as his teammates had dubbed him, was batting a subaltern's average of .246, and the Reds were in third place in their division, 4½ games behind the feisty Houston Astros.