Johnny Bench never had it easy.
The former National League Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player played the rest.
In September 1972, doctors discovered a spot on Bench\'s lung.
Two of his friends were killed.
Bench escaped with a gash on his elbow.
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.
When he was 6 years old, he picked cotton for two cents a pound, to afford a pair of new blue jeans.
Johnny Bench never had it easy