Cincinnati Reds legend Johnny Bench apologized on Sunday for an anti-Semitic joke he made during a team event the day before.
The Reds were holding a team hall of fame press conference for former general manager Gabe Ball and pitchers Danny Graves and Bronson Arroyo. Pete Rose began telling the story of how Paul, who died in 1998 and was represented by his daughter, Jenny Paul, signed him up for $400 a month from high school, prompting someone to yell “That’s cheap!”
Then Pinch interjected, “He was a Jew!” Many people laughed out loud at the joke, although a few others, including Rose, seemed simply dumbfounded.
You can see the exchange here:
A day later, after the video of the joke was leaked, Bench issued an apology and called his joke “insensitive”:
“I realize my comment was insensitive. I have apologized to Jenny for depriving her father of the full attention he deserves. Gabe Ball earned his place in the Reds Hall of Fame, like others who have stood on that podium, and I regret that some of the focus is placed on my inappropriate remark rather than on Focus only on Gabe’s accomplishment.”
Bench did not randomly bring up Paul’s Jewishness, as Jenny Paul had indicated that her father was Jewish earlier in the press conference, WCPO.
when i arrived before Cincinnati EnquirerJenny said she did not hear the joke and that Bench asked her if she was offended after the conference:
“I never heard him say that,” said Jenny Paul. “Johnny came up and said ‘Are you offended?’ And I said for what? I didn’t even hear him say it. I think if I had heard him say it, I would have said something, but I didn’t even hear him say it.”
While her father is Jewish, Jenny told The Enquirer that she is not and that her mother raised her as an Episcopalian. She also said that her father’s Jewishness prevented him from becoming an MLB commissioner.
Bench did not get along with Paul while on the Reds, as he was drafted by the team in 1965, five years after Paul resigned in 1960. Paul would go on to become the general manager of the .45 Houston Colt, Cleveland Guardians and New Jersey. York Yankees, while Bench is still a 14-time All-Star and Hall of Famer.
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