JOHNNY BENCH: BASEBALL HALL OF FAMER TO VISIT CAPE GIRARDEAU

"No runs, no drips, no errors," was a common phrase heard by baseball Hall-of-Famer Johnny Bench in the 1980s during his television commercials for a spray paint company.

When Bench comes to Cape Girardeau next month, as guest speaker for Friends of the Cape Public Library Foundation, he could be saying, "No funds, no books, big error."

Bench, who was a major cog in the Cincinnati Reds "Big Red Machine" World Series championship teams, will be in Cape on Oct. 11 to help the Cape Public Library Foundation in its second annual fund-raiser.

Last year's speaker, Apollo 13 astronaut Jim Lovell, drew an audience of 500. This year's organizers are hopping the broader name-recognition of a Hall of Fame sports' figure will pack the 1,500-seat capacity of Academic Hall on the campus of Southeast Missouri State University.

"We like our guest speakers to appeal to all ages and be a hero-type person," said Martha Kinney, Income Development Committee chairwoman for the foundation. "Like Jim Lovell, Johnny Bench has been a hero to many people and has great appeal. He has been involved in literacy programs and he's a hero to both adults and children."

Bench's evening in Cape will start at 5 o'clock, with a half-hour children's meeting in the library. Because of space limitations, all children must have a ticket to attend. Tickets will be offered free at the library.

Bench will then speak for an hour at Academic Hall, with a private reception for corporate sponsors following. Tickets for the speech are $5 if purchased early at the library or $7 at the door on the night of the event.

All tickets for both the children's event and the speech will be available at the library beginning Sept. 15.

The goal of the fund-raiser is to generate interest, enthusiasm and money for the Cape Girardeau Public Library. Cape Girardeau Library Director Betty Martin said the annual fund-raiser is an important event for the library.

"This helps fund special services that we can't afford out of our regular budget," Martin said. "Last year, it helped with our summer reading club. Over 1,300 kids participated this summer and (the fund-raiser) helped purchase two computers when we wanted to get on the Internet."

Bench, who played his entire career from 1968-83 with the Reds, was arguably the best catcher of all time. He was a 14-time All-Star and 10-time Gold Glove recipient. In his career, he hit more home runs than any other catcher in history, retiring with 389. In 1989, Bench was inducted into Baseball's Hall of Fame.