Cincinnati Reds legend Johnny Bench apologized Sunday for an anti-Semitic joke he made during a team event the previous day.
The Reds held a press conference inducting former general manager Gabe Paul and pitchers Danny Graves and Bronson Arroyo into the team’s Hall of Fame. Pete Rose began telling a story about how Paul, who died in 1998 and was represented by his daughter Jennie Paul, dropped him out of high school for $400 a month, which caused someone to yell, “That’s cheap!”
Then Bench interjected, “He was Jewish!” Several people laughed out loud at the joke, although some others, including Rose, just looked stunned.
You can see the exchange here:
A day later, after a video of the joke was leaked, Bench apologized and called his joke “insensitive”:
“I realize my comment was insensitive. I apologized to Jennie for taking away from her father the full attention he deserves. Gabe Paul has earned his place in the Reds Hall of Fame, as have the others who stood on that stage, I’m sorry.” Some of the focus is on my inappropriate comment and not just Gabe’s performance.
Bench didn’t bring up Paul’s Jewishness by accident, as Jennie Paul previously stated in the press conference that her father was Jewish according to the WCPO.
Johnny Bench made a bad joke during a Reds event on Saturday. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)
When reached by the Cincinnati Enquirer, Jennie said she hadn’t heard the joke and that Bench asked her after the conference if she was offended:
“I didn’t even hear him say that,” Jennie Paul said. “Johnny came up and said, ‘Were you offended?’ and I said what for? I didn’t even hear him say that. I suppose if I had heard him say that I would have said something, but I didn’t even hear him say it.
While her father was Jewish, Jennie told the Enquirer that she was not and that her mother raised her as an Episcopalian. She also said that her father’s Judaism prevented him from becoming an MLB commissioner.
There was no crossover between Bench and Paul during his time with the Reds, as he was drafted by the team in 1965, five years after Paul’s retirement in 1960. Paul later became general manager of the Houston Colt .45s, the Cleveland Guardians and the New York Yankees while Bench remains a 14-time All-Star and Hall of Famer.