Baseball Hall of Famer Johnny Bench made an antisemitic comment during a pregame news conference to honor the three newest members of the Reds Hall of Fame, one of whom, former Reds general manager Gabe Paul, was Jewish.
Paul’s daughter, Jennie Paul, was in attendance to represent Paul, who died in 1998, along with former Reds pitchers Bronson Arroyo and Danny Graves.
During the event, Pete Rose started to tell a story about Paul, noting, “When I got out of high school in 1960, Gabe Paul signed me to a contract for 400 bucks a month.”
Jennie Paul responded, “That cheap … never mind.”
Bench then said, “He was Jewish.”
Several people in the audience laughed. Others did not.
