Who is the man: Johnny Bench was coming off probably the most bananas season of his entire major league career when this card hit packs. He would never hit more home runs (45), drive in more runs (148), register a better OPS (.932) or accumulate more total bases (355) in a single season than in 1970. And he was named NL MVP.
Can ya dig it: Bench has a wistful, off-camera look to him. It's probably my least favorite Topps Bench card of the '70s.
Right on: The card is so off-center that it's corroding on the right side.
You see this cat Bench is a bad mother: He's widely considered the best catcher to ever play major league baseball. Can't be more bad than that.
Shut your mouth: I wonder how many people come up to Bench in a given week and say "no runs, no drips, no errors" to him? I don't know if Krylon paid him enough to put up with that.
No one understands him but his woman: Bench has been married four times but his latest wife, Lauren, has been married to him longer than any of the others -- nine years. So maybe he's finally found a wife who understands him.
(A word about the back): A future Hall of Famer at 23!!! OK, it's Johnny Bench and he did make the Hall on the first ballot, but really the guy could've gotten run over by a truck at age 24.
For the longest time this was my favorite Johnny Bench card because it was the photo that Baseball Cards magazine used for their 1971 Topps price guide. I never collected vintage cards when I was starting out, unfortunately, so this was about the only 1971 Topps card (along with the Willie Mays from 1986 Topps Turn Back the Clock) that I saw on a regular basis. I really grew to appreciate it.
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