CINCINNATI — Gene Bennett isn’t from Ashland but he was very much a part of the first Ashland Community Night in Cincinnati.
“I call it the Valley,” the Portsmouth native said of the Tri-State area. “I spent a lot of time in Ashland.”
Bennett, who worked for the Reds for 57 years in various capacities, was recognized by the Ashland American Little League with a plaque and banner on the field prior to the Arizona-Cincinnati game on Wednesday night.
The list of players that Bennett has found for the Reds over the years reads like a who’s who — Don Gullett, Barry Larkin, Paul O’Neill, Charlie Leibrandt and Chris Sabo are among them.
It was 40 years ago this summer that Gullett, a senior at McKell High School, was a No. 1 draft choice of the Reds in 1969. Gullett spent the rest of that year in the minors and then made the Reds out of spring training in 1970. He went on to become one of the most dominant pitchers in baseball before a shoulder injury ended his career prematurely in 1978.
“I had him in a tryout camp as an eighth-grader over in Ironton,” Bennett remembered. “He looked like Cy Young. I told him don’t ever come back to one of my tryout camps. I didn’t want anybody to know about him. I said ‘I’ll see you when you’re a senior in high school.’’’
Bennett said Gullett threw harder than any high school player he had ever seen.
“He was one of the greatest total package athletes I’ve ever seen,” Bennett said. “He averaged 25 points a game in basketball and scored 72 points in a football game. If he hadn’t injured his shoulder, I believe he would have gone down as the greatest left-handed pitcher of all time.”
Bennett is proud to be from the “Valley” that has produced so much great baseball talent over the years. “Al Oliver, Larry Hisle, Gullett, (Brandon) Webb, (Drew) Hall, Gene Tenace and umpires like Charlie Reliford and Greg Gibson. I mean, the list just goes on and on up and down the valley.”
But Bennett is also proud of how those men from the Ashland area have represented themselves outside of baseball, too.
“Every single one of them are outstanding people,” he said. “That’s what it’s all about.”
Bennett said he’s asked often who the best player he ever signed. “I say all of them,” he said. “I mean that, too.”
Gullett meant a lot to him because he also got to know his family so well. “He was kind of like family to me,” he said.
Bennett said he spent many afternoons and evenings under shade trees in Central Park watching baseball games.
“That was and still is one of the great places,” he said. “The first time I saw Barry Larkin he was playing right in that park. He was playing for (Cincinnati) Midland’s junior team in a Fourth of July tournament.”
Bennett also remembers watching the Lynch brothers, Billy and Bobby, pitch in the park for the great Ashland teams.
“Those Ashland teams were real good and full of great baseball players,” he said. “I remember when Billy was a high school senior. Back then we didn’t have radar guns, but Billy and Don Gullett could bring it up there in a hurry. I’ve never seen high school pitchers throw it any harder.”
Bennett said he watched Gullett when he struck out 20 of 21 batters against Portsmouth Clay. “There was one ball in play and it was a bunt,” he said.
Bennett’s memories of a life in baseball are still razor sharp.
The Valley is proud to call him one of its own.
