Overview
The greatest American Indian baseball player of all time, Charles Albert Bender, was, according to a contemporary, ""the coolest pitcher in the game."" Using a trademark delivery, an impressive assortment of pitches that may have included the game's first slider, and an apparently unflappable demeanor, he earned a reputation as baseball's great clutch pitcher during tight Deadball Era pennant races and in front of boisterous World Series crowds. More remarkably yet, ""Chief"" Bender's Hall of Fame career unfolded in the face of immeasurable prejudice. This skillfully told and complete account of Bender's life is also a portrait of greatness of character maintained despite incredible pressure—of how a celebrated man thrived while carrying an untold weight on his shoulders. With a journalist's eye for detail and a novelist's feel for storytelling, Tom Swift takes readers on Bender's improbable journey—from his early years on the White Earth Reservation, to his development at the Carlisle Indian School, to his big break and eventual rise to the pinnacle of baseball. The story of a paradoxical American sports hero, one who achieved a once-unfathomable celebrity while suffering the harsh injustices of a racially intolerant world, Chief Bender's Burden is an eye-opening and inspiring narrative of a unique American life.
Full Product Details
Author: Tom Swift
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Imprint: Bison Books
Dimensions:
Width: 15.20cm
, Height: 1.80cm
, Length: 22.90cm
Weight: 0.476kg
ISBN: 9780803214989
ISBN 10: 0803214987
Pages: 277
Publication Date: 01 May 2010
Audience:
General/trade
,
General
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Out of stock
The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available.
Reviews
A gem... [A] wonderful and impressively thorough new biography... Swift's mission is to reassert Bender as an important figure in the history of the game, both as a player and a groundbreaking figure. His book does well in both ways. Kevin Canfield, Chicago Sun-Times Signal thanks to journalist Swift for this authoritative biography of Charles Albert Bender... Swift sets aside the myths about this most famous American Indian player while vividly describing him in the context of the famed Carlisle Indian School, baseball's Golden Age, Connie Mack and his Athletics, and the effects of gambling and alcoholism on sports. Library Journal For a Minnesota baseball fan, [Chief Bender's Burden] is must reading. Nick Coleman Minneapolis StarTribune
Author Information
Tom Swift is an award-winning journalist, a freelance writer, and a member of the Society for American Baseball Research. He and his wife live in Minnesota.
