Legendary Cincinnati Reds catcher Johnny Bench is under fire for what many feel was an antisemitic remark he made at a team ceremony on Saturday.
Bench was speaking at the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame induction ceremony for the team’s 1950s-era general manager, the late Gabe Paul, and others, Fox News reported.
Jennie Paul, Gabe’s daughter, was speaking about her father on the dais and mentioned that he was Jewish and became a champion for minorities in Major League Baseball.
“He was a minority himself. I don’t know if many of you know that he was Jewish,” Jennie Paul said of her father, according to The Athletic. “He was a very big proponent for the underdog because he was an underdog himself. He went into the Latin leagues and the Negro leagues and he signed as many minority players as he could, which strengthened the Reds.”
Former Cincinnati Reds player Johnny Bench attends the game against the Chicago Cubs at Field of Dreams on August 11, 2022, in Dyersville, Iowa. (Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
According to reports, Reds great Pete Rose reminisced that “I was right out of high school in 1960. Gabe Paul signed me to a contract. For 400 bucks a month.”
Jennie Paul then joked, “That cheap … never mind”
That is when Bench chimed in with the controversial quip, “He was Jewish.”
Hall of Famer Johnny Bench attends the Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony at Clark Sports Center on July 24, 2022, in Cooperstown, New York. (Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)
After the event, some began to criticize Bench for the comment, but Paul said she was not aware he even said it.
“I didn’t even hear him say that,” she told the media. “Johnny came up to me and said, ‘Were you offended?’ I was like, ‘For what?’ I didn’t even hear him say that. I suppose if I had heard him say that I might have said something, but I didn’t even hear him say that.”
Paul added that her father was born in modern-day Ukraine, which was then part of the USSR, but she was raised by her mother as an Episcopalian.
Gabe Paul was the Reds’ general manager from 1952 to 1960. He was named Sporting News Executive of the Year in 1956 and is credited with building the team for its 1961 appearance in the World Series.
Bench later apologized in a statement released through the Reds.
“I recognize my comment was insensitive,” the statement read. “I apologized to Jennie for taking away from her father the full attention he deserves.
“Gabe Paul earned his place in the Reds Hall of Fame, same as the others who stood on that stage, I am sorry that some of the focus is on my inappropriate remark instead of solely on Gabe’s achievement.”
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