Baseball Hall of Famer Johnny Bench transformed the catcher position.
Babe Ruth’s 1927 Yankees? Forget it, Cincinnati Reds legend Johnny Bench says. The 1975 Big Red Machine was better than any of them.
The most conspicuously absent member of the Big Red Machine during Thursday’s downtown celebration of the team made a sudden, unannounced – and very welcomed – appearance.
The Gold Glove, All-Star shortstop of that storied team, Davey Concepcion, had been hospitalized for months because of heath complications in the aftermath of a lung transplant.
He turned a corner recently and returned to strong enough health that he was released from a Miami hospital and was recuperating at his temporary home in Miami, with his wife, before eventual plans to return home to Venezuela.
“Davey’s much better. I just talked to him two hours ago. He’s doing good,” Hall of Fame teammate Tony Perez said. “He was sitting at the swimming pool.
“He just needs time now, and therapy.”
Perez no sooner got the words out during a media event Thursday afternoon with the 1975 and ’76 Big Red Machine players than Concepcion FaceTimed Perez on his phone.
Looking like he might have been outside at that pool, shirtless, Concepcion seemed relatively energetic with a healthy tone to his complexion.
It was already the most important, uplifting, heartfelt part of a golden anniversary of one of the greatest teams in baseball history that the participants expected to experience through the weekend.
“I’m feeling pretty good,” Concepcion said when Perez held up the phone to a reporter.
Perez then excused himself and took Concepcion with him around the room to let him chat with all the former teammates in town for the 50th anniversary celebration of the dynasty.
Concepcion, a nine-time All-Star and perennial Gold Glove shortstop, was one of just three living members of the Big Red Machine unable to attend this weekend’s events.
“I told him, ‘Hey, miss you. I miss you a lot,’ ” Big Red Machine pitcher Fred Norman said. “I didn’t know he wasn’t here. He’s the best shortstop I ever saw.”
Make no mistake: He was there. From the start in teammates hearts and thoughts. And then in real-time FaceTime with all his old championship pals – his presence and turn of good health as big a reason for celebration this weekend as anything else they’ll talk about.
“He’s doing good,” said Perez, who lives in Miami and had visited Concepcion in the hospital. “Really good news.”