If you build it, he will empty out his house and dump off his memorabilia.
Johnny Bench will be honored in his hometown of Binger, Okla., with a museum. Renderings show the 5,500-square-foot museum — which will cost about $1 million — will be shaped like the number 5, Bench’s jersey number with the Cincinnati Reds.
“We’ve been talking about it for a long time,” Bench said at a recent fundraiser in Oklahoma City. “I’m really kind of downsizing everything. I’ve been planning on doing this for quite a while, and the people of Binger said, ‘Why don’t we build a museum?’ . . . That’s what I’ve wanted to do.”
Bench, a 14-time all-star, played for the Reds from 1967-83, winning two World Series titles, the 1968 NL rookie of the year award and two NL MVPs.
Binger businessman Dean Crain said people in the town had searched for a way to honor Bench, who starred for high school and American Legion baseball teams in the area in the mid-1960s.
“There’s no way that we can ever recognize what Johnny has done for the state of Oklahoma and the town of Binger,” Crain said. “This is just a drop in the bucket.”
