Johnny Bench Won Ten Straight Gold Gloves and Changed How Catchers Catch

Johnny Bench won ten consecutive Gold Gloves, two MVP awards and two World Series with the Big Red Machine. He also pioneered one-handed catching and the hinged mitt, which is why every catcher in every league now plays the position his way.

Bench hit 389 home runs, led the National League in runs batted in three times and in home runs twice, made fourteen All-Star teams and was World Series MVP in 1976. He won Rookie of the Year in 1968 and his first MVP in 1970, at 22. For a decade he was both the best defensive catcher in baseball and one of its most productive hitters.

The mechanical change is the part that outlived the statistics. Catchers had always received the ball with two hands, which left the throwing hand exposed to foul tips and broke a great many fingers. Bench caught one-handed, tucking the bare hand safely behind his back or thigh, using a hinged mitt that could close on its own. It reduced injuries, sped up throws to second and improved receiving on balls in the dirt.

It worked because he had hands large enough to hold seven baseballs at once and an arm strong enough that runners simply stopped going. Within a generation the technique was universal, taught at every level. Watch any catcher today, in any country, and you are watching a position that one player rebuilt.

Yogi Berra won ten World Series, more than any player in history, and was a three-time MVP on the greatest dynasty the sport has had. Mike Piazza hit 427 home runs, more than any catcher, and was a far better hitter than Bench, though a notably worse thrower. Ivan Rodriguez had the strongest arm anyone has seen behind the plate and thirteen Gold Gloves.

Berra has the rings and Piazza has the bat, and both arguments are legitimate. What separates Bench is that he was near the top in both halves of the job at the same time, and that he left the position itself permanently altered.

The verdict: Johnny Bench. He made every catcher after him better. Berra for the rings.