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| 4/2/2008 4:08:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article |
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| Irondale High School graduate Tom Swift is celebrating the release of his first book, "Chief Bender's Burden," which tells the story of legendary baseball hurler Charles Albert Bender who was one of baseball's most dominant pitchers in the early 1900's. |
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Irondale grad switches into author mode with first book
Brian Meyers
sports writer
When Tom Swift graduated from St. Olaf in 1995 with a degree in English, he used his experience working on the student newspaper to break into the journalism business. After a few years working for some community newspapers, Swift decided to go the freelance writing route and eventually got interested in writing books.
Swift, a 1991 Irondale High School graduate, took the first step into that new chapter of his professional life when he began working on "Chief Bender's Burden: The Silent Struggle of a Baseball Star." The book officially went on sale on April 1 but has been available at a number of different outlets for a couple of months.
"Chief Bender's Burden" is Swift's first foray into book writing and it sounds like something that suits him.
"I want to write books," said Swift, who also said he has a subject in mind for his next endeavor. "The next book will be very different, not necessarily about baseball or sports completely."
Swift's book about Charles Albert Bender isn't completely about baseball, either. It has a basis in baseball because Bender pitched professionally in the early 1900s but Swift didn't go into the project looking to write about just Bender's baseball exploits.
"There is plenty of baseball in the book," said Swift. "Bender was a Hall of Fame pitcher. That's how he made his name. But I was after more than a catalog of statistics and season."
Bender was born in 1883 on the White Earth Chippewa Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota and was one of 13 siblings. He attended school and college in Philadelphia and eventually joined the Philadelphia A's, for whom he played for 12 seasons.
Through his research, Swift discovered that while Native Americans were more accepted in baseball than African Americans, there was still plenty of animosity toward them. Newspaper accounts of Bender's games never failed to mention his race and cartoons often depicted him as a warrior.
Bender became the first Minnesota-born person inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame and remained the only one until Dave Winfield made it in 2001.
Swift spent a lot of his research time in libraries pouring over microfilm, reading old newspaper stories of Bender's pitching. At the time Bender played for the A's, there were anywhere from six to 10 newspapers publishing in Philadelphia so there were plenty of first-hand accounts written by sports reporters who saw Bender pitch
in person. That was something in which Swift was very interested.
"I wanted as much of the information for the book to come from observations from people who talked to and observed Bender," said Swift. "There was a lot of information, it was just a matter of going and finding it."
While there was plenty of old newspaper articles about Bender to read, Swift was hoping to find out more about Bender's family.
"You always want more information," Swift said. "I was worried before starting that I wouldn't have enough information. I thought there might be more family information."
Swift did discover that Bender's wife Marie had put together a number of scrapbooks.
Once the research and writing were completed, it took a year for the book to be published by the University of Nebraska Press. Swift doesn't have any special connection to the University of Nebraska but was turned on to them as a possible publisher of the book by a colleague. Swift signed a contract with the publisher in 2004 after having written a magazine article about Bender.
"They are a leading publisher of Native American books and have published lots of baseball books," Swift said. "I had a colleague who was working on a baseball book of her own and asked her about it. It just naturally fit. It was one of the easier aspects (of the process)."
While a student at Irondale, Swift played hockey and baseball and he also played hockey while at St. Olaf.
In addition to his book, Swift has written baseball pieces for Minneapolis/St. Paul Magazine and MLB.com. He currently lives in Northfield, Minn., with his wife Carrie, who is finishing up her graduate-school work and plans on becoming a clinical psychologist.
In promotion of the book, Swift is set to sign copies of the book at four different events, including Friday's Minnesota Twins game at the Metrodome. The signing starts at 6 p.m. in the concourse so a ticket to the game is required but the signing is free. Copies of the book will be on sale at a discount at three of the signings.
For more information on Swift, the book and the signing events, visit
chiefbendersburden.com.
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