‘I have good memories here’: All-Star catcher Buster Posey returns to Wichita for award

Wichita has always held a special place in the baseball career of Buster Posey, who went on to become a three-time World Series champion and seven-time All-Star with the San Francisco Giants.

Before he began what became a likely Hall of Fame career in the major leagues, Posey made a stop in Wichita following a superb junior season at Florida State in 2008 and won what was then called the Johnny Bench Award to honor the nation’s top collegiate catcher.

Little did he know then that a decade later, the award would be renamed in his honor. And for the first time since winning in 2008, Posey, who is now retired after a 12-year MLB career, is back in Wichita to present the award and be the guest of honor for the 24th annual Greater Wichita Sports banquet on Wednesday evening at Drury Plaza Broadview Hotel.

“I’ve been looking forward to being here,” Posey told local media on Tuesday. “It’s special to me because I was here 14 years ago. I have good memories here. My parents were here with me. My girlfriend, who is now my wife and we have four children together, was here with me. So yeah, it’s neat to be back here.”

Posey is in Wichita for less than 48 hours, but his schedule is jam-packed: on Wednesday alone, Posey will host a catcher camp for youth players at Wichita State in the morning, visit Wesley Children’s Hospital in the afternoon and then attend the banquet in the evening.

Headlining the camp was particularly surreal to Posey, who still remembers attending the camp as a finalist in Wichita in 2007 and 2008 and being in awe of Bench, a Hall of Fame catcher regarded by some as the best catcher to ever play the game.

Now he will be the legend that the finalists — Georgia Tech’s Kevin Parada, Fresno State’s Zach Morgan and Davidson’s Michael Carico — look up to.

“I remember I was really excited to meet Johnny Bench and get to spend some time with him,” Posey said. “I’ve stayed in touch with him over the years. And the kids’ camp is another thing that stuck out to me. I’m looking forward to doing that again and looking forward to getting to know the finalists. I’m really appreciative of the Wichita Sports Commission for recognizing catchers and it’s really cool that these kids get to be honored here this week.”

It was a short and uncomplicated process in 2019 when Bench decided to create his own national award, still named the Johnny Bench Award, for catchers and the Greater Wichita Sports Commission needed a new name.

After studying the statistics of all prior award winners, Posey became the unanimous choice.

“It was an easy decision, really,” said Tonya Atta, director of operations for Greater Wichita Sports Commission. “We reached out to Buster and he was honored that we thought of him. But he was the obvious choice when we pulled the stats of all of the finalists since 2000 and even through today, he still has the best statistics of all the college catchers. With it being a collegiate catcher award, it just made a lot of sense because he stands out above the rest.”

Once word spread that Posey would be in attendance for this year’s banquet, which also has awards for the area’s top high school, college and professional athletes, the Wichita baseball community has responded with enthusiasm.

According to Greater Wichita Sports president Kevin Jenks, close to 400 will be in attendance on Wednesday evening and will be treated to a lengthy interview session of Posey conducted by legendary Wichita State play-by-play announcer Mike Kennedy.

“We’re happy to have Buster here and see some of his family be here to be able to enjoy this experience with him,” Jenks said. “We hope this is a situation where he’s able to attend this every year and present his award. It’s been pretty cool seeing him interact with the finalists. He’s just a baseball guy talking baseball. We’re really fortunate to have him be the namesake of the award and we’re going to make sure we keep that relationship strong.”

Even though he retired at age 34, Posey said he has no itch to play the game again. During his 12 seasons, Posey was able to win five Silver Sluggers, a batting title, a gold glove and Rookie of the Year.

He’s more than happy catching as many games as he can on television.

“I still watch as many Giants games as I can,” Posey said. “I have a lot of friends on that team and I’m still very close to the front office and the ownership group, so I watch as much as I can.”

He’s also found an outlet to spend his new free time: coaching his 10-year-old son and daughter in baseball and softball.

“Being able to watch major-league games and college games with them now is even more fun since we’re out there on the field together,” Posey said.

Could he see a future in coaching baseball at a higher level?

“Maybe,” Posey said, laughing. “Right now I’m good with coaching the 10-year-old age group, but you never know.”

And no, there is not another catcher following in their father’s footsteps.

“We stuck my son back there one time and it lasted about a third of an inning,” Posey said. “He’s smarter than I am.”