{PDF EPUB} Chief Bender's Burden the Silent Struggle of a Baseball Star by Tom Swift Chief Bender

Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Chief Bender's Burden The Silent Struggle of a Baseball Star by Tom Swift Chief Bender. Hall of Famer Chief Bender won 212 games in sixteen years in the majors and is best remembered a member of the great Philadelphia Athletics rotation of the early 1900s that also included Rube Waddell, Eddie Plank, and Jack Coombs. His brother, John Bender, played professionally as well. Bender was a half-Chippewa Indian from Minnesota and attended the Carlisle Indian School. He debuted in the majors with the Athletics as a 19- year-old in 1903 and threw a four-hit shutout versus the New York Highlanders to win his first game. He later threw a no-hitter on May 12, 1910, against the Cleveland Naps. In a dozen years with the Athletics, he twice won 20 games and three times finished the season with an ERA below 2.00. Philadelphia reached the World Series five times with him on the club and won three world championships. In the postseason, Albert (as manager Connie Mack always called him, though Bender himself signed autographs as "Charley") won 6 of 10 starts, throwing complete games in 9 of them. Bender jumped to the Baltimore Terrapins of the Federal League in 1915 but did not find much success, going 4-16 in one year. He returned to Philadelphia in 1916, this time as a member of the Philadelphia Phillies, but he did not duplicate his earlier success, going 15-9 over the course of two seasons. According to the book The Pitcher , Ty Cobb called Bender the "brainiest pitcher" he ever saw. In 1906, he homered in a win on May 5th, then on May 8th, replaced LF Topsy Hartsel midway through a game against the Boston Americans and proceeded to hit two more homers. That gave him a share of the American League lead with teammate Harry Davis, until May 17th, when Davis hit his fourth long ball of the year. As for Bender, he wouldn't hit his next homer until 1914. In 1907, he umpired one American League game. After his playing days, Bender was a coach for the Chicago White Sox in 1925 and 1926 while former teammate Eddie Collins was the club's manager, and he also pitched one inning of one game for the Sox in 1925. He was later on the staff of the New York Giants in 1931 and the Athletics from 1951 to 1954. He was also the head coach at the United States Naval Academy from 1924 to 1928 and a scout for the Athletics from 1945 to 1954. Additionally, he spent several seasons as a minor league manager. Off the diamond, he was a champion trapshooter at a time when the sport was very popular among ballplayers. He was often pitted in lucrative shooting exhibitions in the offseason and, in November 1915, performed a tour of 18 cities in 20 days in which a team of four ballplayers was pitted against the best local shooters from each location. Bender teamed up with Doc Crandall, Christy Mathewson and Harry Davis and easily outperformed all of them. The tour was extremely successful and drew record crowds at its various stops. He took an offseason off from trapshooting in 1911 while he performed in a vaudeville show entitled Learning the Game alongside teammates Jack Coombs and Cy Morgan. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in its 1953 election as one of the first candidates enshrined by the Committee on Baseball Veterans. However, he died a few months before his induction, which took place in August 1954. In 1991, Bender was posthumously added to the Philadelphia Baseball Wall of Fame. Discrepancies persist about Bender's birth year and birth date. His sister produced a birth certificate (obtained in 1942) which said he was born on May 3, 1883 (as described in the SABR 1983 Research Journal), and his obits in 1954 said he was 71. Also, SABR elected him as the Centennial Celebrity of 1983 (best baseball player or figure born in 1883). Local Author Talks Racism, Baseball At Apple Valley Book Signing. Local author Tom Swift talked about his book, "Chief Bender's Burden," during a book signing in Apple Valley on Saturday. A local author took the chance to talk about his book and meet some fans in Apple Valley on Saturday. Northfield-based author Tom Swift signed books at Apple Valley's Barnes and Noble and spoke to readers about the compelling story of Charles "Chief" Bender. The book, "Chief Bender's Burden: The Silent Struggle of a Baseball Star," earned Swift the 2009 Seymour Medal for outstanding baseball research. He also was a finalist for the 2009 Larry Ritter Award. In the book, Swift explores a little-known figure from Major League Baseball. Charles Albert Bender wasn't the Jackie Robinson of American Indians, and he wasn't the greatest pitcher of all time. But his story still helped change people's minds and his skill on the mound got him a place in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. The story of Charles Albert Bender isn't well known outside of baseball history, Swift said. "I wouldn't have known about Bender if I wasn't a baseball fan, but I can't say I would have written the book if he had been just a baseball player," Swift said about his book. "His human story is really what kept me going, kept me wanting to tell his story." The desire was there, but writing a book about a captivating but little-known, turn of the century baseball player was a difficult task for a number of reasons. "First of all, I had to learn what research was about," Swift said. He said he built upon his longtime journalism skills, but had never worked on something of such scope. "Quite frankly, I didn't know what I was getting myself into when I started." One hurdle was a serious lack of living sources. "The number of people who remember being in the same room with Bender might fill a telephone booth," Swift said. And of those, most knew Bender long after his baseball days. "There wasn't a lot of information from them that went into the book." So, with few people around to tell the hall of fame player's story, Swift looked to the newspapers of the time; which provided a wealth of historical knowledge. "A major city would have anywhere from six to 10 newspapers who would have a writer that would cover a major league team," said Swift. His research quickly became a baseball historian's dream job. "I had to read sports sections day after day," he said. He said reading numerous papers on microfilm and in archives gave him the window on Bender's experience he was searching for. He said his research prompted many surprises about the bigotry that Bender and other American Indians dealt with. "The level of racism and the prejudice was quite staggering," said Swift. He said Bender never really escaped that racism. "There was seldom a time when Bender's race was not part of the story—even after some of his greatest performances, lead paragraphs mentioned that he was 'the child of the forest,' " Swift said. "It was eye-opening to me to see what he had to go through just to play baseball." He said unlike Jackie Robinson, who struggled publicly to break the racial barrier, Bender's struggles were not well known because he was allowed to play from day one. "In Bender's case, we didn't have any of that understanding. It wasn't common knowledge that he had to withstand what he did. So that was a big surprise," said Swift. But through all his trials, Bender never seemed to want to be a part of a sea change. "I don't think he was leading an 'ism,' if you will," Swift said. "He wasn't trying to be leader of a cause. I think he changed things for the better for people just by the things that he did and conducting himself like he did." Off the diamond, Bender was known as an intelligent person and renaissance man. He read books, spoke well and even had a side career as a nationally renown trap shooter. His greatest lessons, Swift said, were taught by example. "I think over time, you couldn't see this guy who conducted himself professionally and pitched at such a high level and not think a little differently," said Swift. After writing the book, Swift said his interest in the game of baseball has waned some. But he still thinks the Twins stadium is astounding. "It's amazing; it's hard to imagine a bigger change from what we had to what we now have," said Swift. "It's a great way to spend an evening." As for the author's next project, he is taking a bit of a break from the research-heavy endeavors. "I'm working on what I think will be something of a memoir," said Swift. "That's what I'm trying to do." And despite his quick rise to becoming an accomplished author, he has no plans to leave the Northfield home he shares with his wife. He said work brought him there, and the community kept him around. "Years ago, I was the editor of the paper here," he said. "I just really love living here. I think the only thing I don't like about living here is that every year the winters seem to get a little worse." Chief Bender's Burden : The Silent Struggle of a Baseball Star.

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