1977 johnny bench

who better to feature on cinco de mayo than number 5 himself, johnny bench?  well, here is his all-star banner-less, unstacked facsimile autograph displaying, slightly differently cropped 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

bench was voted to his 10th straight all-star team in 1977 (he was 0 for 2 in the game) and also won his 10th straight gold glove.  that piece of hardware would be the last of its kind that bench would win in his career.  he also hit a couple of homers off of don sutton in a single game en route to his final 30+ home run season.  that was nothing new, of course, as bench hit more home runs off of sutton (and steve carlton) over the course of his career than he did against any other pitcher.

voici à vous, 1977 johnny bench!