Catch Every Ball: How to Handle Life's Pitches

Johnny Bench never had it easy.

When he was 6 years old, he picked cotton for two cents a pound, to afford a pair of new blue jeans. When he was 17, the bus that carried him and his high school teammates home from a baseball game flipped over a guardrail on an Oklahoma highway. Bench escaped with a gash on his elbow. Two of his friends were killed.

In September 1972, doctors discovered a spot on Bench s lung. The former National League Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player played the rest of that season not knowing what was wrong with him. He won a second MVP Award.

Bench made Baseball s All Century Team and was the catcher on the Big Red Machine, two clubs that dominated the game in the 1970s. After his retirement, he launched a successful broadcasting career. More recently, he has made his living as a motivational speaker.

Catch Every Ball is an accumulation of wisdom gleaned from 60 years of living. Bench uses examples from his own life and playing career, as well as knowledge gathered from other successful people in all walks of life, to offer a guide to success anyone can relate to.

Follow his life through the cotton fields of Oklahoma to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Meet some of the people who have influenced him along the way: Bob Hope, Arnold Palmer, Sparky Anderson, Joe Morgan and Bob Knight, among others. Allow Bench s wisdom to help you... Catch Every Ball.