Baseball royalty visited Great American Ball Park Tuesday as the man who wore retired Reds No. 5 was in town to hand out the Johnny Bench Awards.
Bench was in town with his sons Bobby, Justin and Joshua for the awards which began in 2000 as a way to honor the NCAA's top Division I catcher. With the help of oldest son, Bobby, the awards since 2019 have included high school catchers as well as high school and college softball catchers in "Reds Country".
Among the winners was the first-ever Greater Cincinnati recipient, Jimmy Nugent of Badin High School.