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| 11/4/2009 2:56:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article |
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| Irondale grad Tom Swift has received positive reviews for his book on baseball legend Charles Albert Bender. |
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| Author Tom Swift |
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Local author shines spotlight on Minnesota legend
Cody Zustiak
Review staff
Baseball is a sport where its history is as much a part of its popularity as is its present.
Aficionados of the sport relate stats, scores and feats on the baseball diamond on a game-by-game and play-by-play basis to past records and the players who made them.
Its long links of history make baseball one of the most unique sports to follow, and even the most die-hard fans can learn something new.
In Northfield resident Tom Swift's "Chief Bender's Burden," released by the University of Nebraska Press, fans of the game can experience one of Minnesota's greatest athletes that many may not know about.
Charles Albert Bender is known as the "greatest American Indian baseball player of all time" and is the first Minnesota-born man in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
If Bender isn't a common name for most baseball fans, they shouldn't feel embarrassed.
"You're not alone," Swift says, a 1991 Irondale High School graduate.
Swift's curiosity got him interested in writing a book about Bender's life and baseball career.
"For almost 50 years he (Bender) was the only Minnesotan in the Baseball Hall of Fame. When the next players joined, newspaper articles would mention Bender's name as a footnote," Swift says. "At the time I didn't really know who he was, so I wrote a magazine article about him, then things snowballed from there."
Elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1953, just one year before his death, Bender's journey took him from a lowly childhood to becoming a professional baseball player while managing inner demons and fighting prejudice.
Swift masterfully interchanges his talents as a journalist and storyteller to bring a forgotten hero out of seclusion.
"Chief Bender's Burden" keeps readers continuously flipping pages as Swift introduces his climax early in the book, and gradually builds perspective through Bender's childhood without his parents as he grew up in boarding schools, to him dealing with the incredible pressures of being "the greatest money pitcher the game has ever known" with the Philadelphia Athletics, all while facing a looming lack of respect from opposing teams, media and the general public.
Swift sifted through years of research from Philadelphia newspapers, microfilm, nearly century-old box scores and received more help from the Society for American Baseball Research Group, an international organization headquartered in Cleveland that fosters the study of baseball.
"There is such a great amount of research one must do to uncover things," Swift says. "I don't think I really realized what I was getting into before I was knee deep into it."
But Swift does a tremendous job organizing and highlighting key points in Bender's career and the hardships he endured in his baseball career and retirement years.
The story is centered around the first game of the 1914 World Series.
Bender was set to start game one of the World Series for the fifth time in his career, then something happened that few expected - Bender pitched poorly.
"I was reading about the day before the game and about that game and it was kind of a "Eureka" moment," Swift says. "It was an important event in his life and a demarcation point in his career."
Throughout his career, Bender won 212 games and won more than 60 percent of the games he pitched.
Legendary manager Connie Mack called Bender "the greatest money pitcher the game has ever known," and his stats fit the bill.
Bender pitched a no-hitter in 1910, earned six World Series wins and tossed three complete games in the 1911 World Series, tying Christy Mathewson's record.
Ty Cobb called Bender "the most intelligent pitcher I ever faced."
While his career on the field sparkled, he faced discrimination from fans and his nickname, "Chief," was a stereotype given to nearly every Native American player at the time.
"I think it's remarkable that he lasted as long as he did," Swift says. "There is a barrier in terms of what exactly it was like to be in his shoes, but I felt like I got as close as I could."
In spite of everything going on between his ears, Bender was able to shine in key situations on the baseball diamond.
"He knew of greater pressures than the World Series," Swift adds. "When pressure is always there for you it means something different and he (Bender) relished the opportunity to prove people wrong."
Swift's book won the 2009 Seymour Medal, which is awarded by the Society for American Baseball Research, and it honors the best book of baseball history or biography published during the preceding calendar year.
Baseball and Minnesota sports fans will surely enjoy digging into Swift's research and being taken back in time to learn more about some of baseball's best players and teams. The book is more than a look into Bender's baseball career, as it is also a narrative on the prejudice and trials he went through to become successful and one of the most well-liked people during his era.
His illnesses throughout his career, possibly inventing the "slider" and his amazing debut in baseball make this book an attention catcher from start to finish.
"Chief Bender's Burden: The Silent Struggle of a Baseball Star" can be purchased at Barnes and Noble and other major bookstores.
"It was a really fascinating era in America when we still truly referred to baseball as the 'Great American Pastime,'" Swift says. "Everyone loved the game and followed it through the several local newspapers. It's fun to dig into a time when baseball was so focused on and provided a different brand of the game we all know."
Cody Zustiak can be reached at staffwriter@lillienews.com or 651-748-7824
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