Johnny Bench quotes:

Slumps are like a soft bed. They're easy to get into and hard to get out of.

You know, when you can play with the greatest players of that particular era, you look forward to going to the ballpark. I mean, you thought it was great to be there in the clubhouse. You thought it was great to be on the field.

They're like sleeping in a soft bed. Easy to get into and hard to get out of.

You have to be the one setting your own goals, trying to achieve those goals.

Jimmy Connors plays two tennis matches and winds up with $850,000, and Muhammad Ali fights for one bout and winds up with five million bucks. Me, I play 190 games--if you count exhibitions -- and I'm overpaid!

A catcher and his body are like the outlaw and his horse. He's got to ride that nag till it drops.

The most validating thing was when my picture was on my first bubble gum card. That was in '68 for me. I was finally on the Topps card.

Joe Morgan was the one guy that absolutely put our team really over the top. ... Then we had George Foster come in; Ken Griffey Sr. was as good a two-place hitter as there has ever been in the game, and Cesar Geronimo won four Gold Glove awards. I mean, how could you ask for a better team?

Well, you know, Pudge Rodriguez, obviously is as good as it gets.

They only delivered the newspaper once a week where I lived in Oklahoma, and those people lived and died with the box score of my games. My biggest moment was winning the World Series because everyone in my town was able to feel he was a world champion.

My dad owned a propane company in Oklahoma.

I played American Legion ball starting when I was 14. But I didn't catch until I was 17. I was 75-3 as a high school pitcher, but it was like everybody knew that I was supposed to be a catcher. When the scouts would come around, and I was pitching, they'd make me take infield practice so the scouts could watch me throw.

I don't think you can set up a computer to do a strike zone on a guy who's 6-foot-5 and then a guy who's 5-8. Where does it draw the line? One guy stands tall, and another squats down, and it changes the lines. Nah. I still love the umpires; they do a great job. I don't have a problem with any of that.

These guys were the best. They were the best at their positions and made playing the game easier. And at the same time it made it so much more enjoyable.

I spent every bit of my money to try and get a Mickey Mantle card, and I don't have one. Growing up in Oklahoma, Mickey Mantle was my idol. And here I am, and I'd go pick cotton to have enough money, and I'd buy all of these packs, and I'd chew all of the gum, and I'd never find a Mickey Mantle card.

I've seldom seen a horny player walk into a bar and not let out exactly what he did for a living.

A catcher and his body are like the outlaw and his horse. He's got to ride that nag till it drops."

The catcher is in the middle of everything. He sees it best.

There are too many false things in the world, and I don't want to be a part of them. If you say what you think, you're called cocky or conceited. But if you have an objective in life, you shouldn't be afraid to stand up and say it. In the second grade, they asked us what we wanted to be. I said I wanted to be a ball player and they laughed. In the eighth grade, they asked the same question, and I said a ball player and they laughed a little more. By the eleventh grade, no one was laughing.

So, yeah, I can say I always set my expectations so high that I had a lot to live up to.

I was thinking about making a comeback, until I pulled a muscle vacuuming.