Catching and Power Hitting

With photographs by Melchior DiGiacomo. First edition, first printing. Signed by Bench on the half-title page. With CAS Certificate of Authenticity. Publisher's black cloth-backed red paper-covered boards, with spine lettered in gilt; in its original black dust jacket with two photos of Bench taken by Tony Tomsic to front panel, lettered in red and white. Good book, with some fading to spine, light toning to board edges, some staining to bottom right of front boards, lean to spine, corners rubbed to boards, and a few pages with creased corners; good or better unclipped dust jacket, with light wear to head of spine, and a few closed tears to top edges of panels. Overall, a decent copy. In this book, Johnny Bench provides "an exhaustive analysis of the position he plays so well, isolating and examining each technique involved in successful catching and power hitting." Bench is regarded by many as the greatest catcher in MLB history. A member of the Cincinnati Reds for his entire career (1967 - 1983) and one of the "Great Eight" during the team's Big Red Machine era, Bench was selected as an All-Star fourteen times and won the Gold Glove award ten times. He also won two NL MVP awards (1970, 1972) and a World Series MVP award (1976). Bench was the highest ranked catcher on The Sporting News' list of the 100 greatest baseball players (#16) and was selected to the prestigious Major League Baseball All-Century Team in 1999. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1989.…