Johnny Bench
MLB career statistics
!Johnny Bench's number 5 was [retired by the Cincinnati Reds in 1984.](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e9/CincinnatiReds5.png/120px-CincinnatiReds5.png)
Personal life
Bench has been married five times. Once hailed as "baseball's most-eligible bachelor," he shed that distinction before the 1975 season when he married Vickie Chesser, a toothpaste model and the 1970 Miss South Carolina USA who had dated Joe Namath. Four days after they met, Bench proposed, and they were married on February 21, 1975. Quickly, the pair realized they were incompatible, especially after Bench suggested that his wife accept Hustler) magazine's offer for her to pose nude for $25,000. They broke up at the end of the season (Bench reportedly said to her, "Now I'm done with two things I hate: baseball and you"), divorcing after just 13 months. "I tried. I even hand-squeezed orange juice," Chesser told Phil Donahue in December 1975. "I don't think either of us had any idea what marriage was really like." After returning to Manhattan, Chesser said, "Johnny Bench is a great athlete, a mediocre everything else, and a true tragedy as a person."
Personal life
Bench was married for the fifth time in March 2024.
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