Reds legend Johnny Bench apologized Sunday for an antisemitic comment he made Saturday during a team event.
Bench was in attendance as the team inducted former general manager Gabe Paul and former pitchers Danny Graves and Bronson Arroyo into the Reds’ Hall of Fame. At one point, Bench made a joke about the late Paul, who was Jewish.
“I recognize my comment was insensitive,” Bench said in a statement. “I apologized to Jennie [Paul] 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.”
During the Reds Hall of Fame ceremony, Reds great Pete Rose recalled his first contract negotiation with Paul, saying: “When I got out of high school in 1960, Gabe Paul signed me to a contract for 400 bucks a month.” Paul, who died in 1998, was represented at the event by daughter Jennie. After Rose told the crowd the story, she could be heard saying, “That cheap … never mind.”
Then, Bench loudly interjected, “He was Jewish,” which evoked laughter from some in the room.
After the incident, Jennie said she didn’t hear what Bench said at the time.
“I didn’t even hear him say that,” she said, per The Athletic. “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.”
