In the history of professional baseball, which spans almost 150 years and thousands upon thousands of players, there has been exactly one catcher to reach the National Baseball Hall of Fame in his very first year of eligibility.
He thinks now there should be two.
With a little more than 10 days to go before the election results are announced on Jan. 18, it's all fairly simple for Johnny Bench when the subject is former Ranger Ivan Rodriguez.
"He should be a lock," Bench said last week. "Thirteen Gold Gloves. As complete a catcher as I've ever seen.