My Thoughts on Johnny Bench's Anti-Semitic Remark Directed Towards The Late Gabe Paul

Normally when I learn of a public figure making an anti-Semitic remark, I feel anger. 

However, when I learned that Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame catcher Johnny Bench had done so, I feel sadness, disappointment, disillusionment and despair.

Perhaps it is foolish to put athletes, musicians, actors and other public figures on a pedestal, but Bench is someone I put on a pedestal when I was a kid not only for his play, but as the host of The Baseball Bunch. More recently, I gave Bench kudos when he made a point of announcing he had been vaccinated against COVID-19 back in 2021.

I like to think that Johnny Bench is a good person and does not harbor prejudice against Jews. But evidently not.

Yesterday, the Reds held a team Hall of Fame induction and one of the honorees was the late Gabe Paul who had served with the team for nearly a quarter century including a near decade stint as GM between 1952 to 1960. Paul would later serve as GM for the expansion Houston Colt-45's, the Cleveland Indians and the New York Yankees. 

During the ceremony, Pete Rose noted that he had been signed by Paul for $400 a month (about $4,125 in 2023 dollars) to which Paul's daughter Gabbie said, "That's cheap." To which Bench quipped, "He was Jewish."

Evidently, Gabbie Paul did not hear Bench's remark and it was Bench who drew it to her attention and apologized. Bench then issued a public apology to her for taking the spotlight away from her father and his achievements with the club although not to the Jewish community at large. 

Apology or no apology, I see Johnny Bench in a much different light now. Keep in mind, Paul left the Reds five years before the club drafted him. The fact he would make a point of saying such a thing must mean he harbors some ill feeling towards Jews. Has he always felt this way? When did he acquire his negative attitude towards Jews?

What I find equally disturbing was the reaction to his remarks. You can see fellow Reds Hall of Famer Tony Perez laughing uproariously at Bench's remark along with chuckling from Rose and others on the dais and in the audience. I also see them in a different light as well.

Apart from further estranging me from baseball, what this tells me is this is yet another sign that anti-Semitism is socially acceptable and tolerated in this country.