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Chief Bender's Burden: The Silent Struggle of a Baseball Star | 
 enlarge | Author: Tom Swift
Publisher: Univ of Nebraska Pr
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $15.65
You Save: $9.30 (37%)
New (23) Used (8) from $9.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 156478
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 346
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6 x 1.3
ISBN: 0803243219
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.357092
EAN: 9780803243217
ASIN: 0803243219
Publication Date: April 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New, Perfect Condition, Please allow 4-14 business days for delivery. 100% Money Back Guarantee, Over 1,000,000 customers served.
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 An unknown Hall of Famer June 30, 2008
A great book on an early 20th Century forgotten Baseball pitcher who is in the Hall of Fame. "Chief" Bender was one of the mainstays of those early great Philadelphia A's teams. This is a about a native American player who excelled in Major League Baseball in spite of all the racial comments, taunts and low expectations of Native Americans. There is information about his days at the Carlisle School. Tom Swift also uses the racially charged quotes from the papers of those years to demonstrate what he had to live with. His real name was Charles and like Baseball in those days everyone had a nickname some weren't too flattering like "Chief", "Rube" and "Dummy" While this is not a movie where the character has flashbacks of his past, Tom Swift starts with the 1914 World Series game 1 in which the "Chief" lost and continues to go back to that game leading off of many of the chapters of the events surrounding that game. I don't understand by discussing all the racial sterotypes on the man why then does the author keep going back to that same unsuccessful game? To me it is slamning the man all over again. If you can get past this stupid movie technique then the book is a worth while read.
Chief Bender's Life June 27, 2008
When I saw there was a new biography of the great Chief Bender, I grabbed it up. Tom Swift has done a great service by bringing the life of Charles Bender to print. He is one of the all-time greats and should not be overlooked.
Swift also lets the reader get to know the man behind the legend, and the Chief was a Hall-of-Famer in nearly every aspect of his life. His was a great man and a great pitcher. Connie Mack said that if he had to win one big game, there is no one he'd rather have on the mound. And Connie Mack saw them all, from the 1880s to the 1950s -- from Cy Young to Walter Johnson to Lefty Grove to Whitey Ford.
There are a few problems with the book, which keeps it, at least in my mind, from meriting five stars. Swift begins his book with the opening game of the 1914 World Series, and then he keeps coming back to it throughout. This doesn't work for a number of reasons, especially since this is the "big game" the Chief lost (the A's were swept in the series by the "Miracle" Boston Braves). There are also occasional problems with Swift's prose. He uses sentence fragments to good effect in some cases, but in most instances, they just confuse the issue and make it seem as though he doesn't realize that a fragment is not a complete sentence. I also felt that many of his similes were weak.
Lastly, a book about a baseball star should include that player's career statistics, but this Swift fails to do. I found myself going to [...] (a great web site) to view the Chief's stats.
Overall, however, I enjoyed getting to know the great Charles Bender a little better.
 Iron Man Bender May 1, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Speaking as a former archivist, "Chief Bender's Burden" is an archivist's dream: well researched with an exquisitely detailed bibliographic essay, and an index! But more than that, it is a book lover's dream. It is the brilliantly written story of a unique American, "the pitcher who looked in the face of pressure and winked." Author Swift replays the Deadball Era games with the enthusiasm of a modern day radio announcer. The inclusion of Bender's quotes on page 128 and 211, and paragraph one on page 275 alone make this book a gem. More than baseball history, it is pathos and glory and inspiration.
Beverly Hermes
A Baseball Bonus April 30, 2008
Even if readers are not affectionados of baseball, Chief Bender's Burden offers the bonus of a sensitive glimpse into some of the realities that can be masked by America's favorite pastime. Tom Swift has a distinctive gift for weaving play by play details into a larger tapestry of human brokenness and accomplishment. His honesty and integrity are refreshingly manifested in background and research notations.
More than just baseball April 29, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Tom Swift has written an outstanding book that shows how Bender's life story is about more than just baseball...It's about the experience of Native Americans during Bender's era. His book is an exciting and informative read that should be of great interest to both baseball fans and students of American history. As one who uses baseball history in education, I warmly recommend it.
Rabbi Shmuel Jablon, www.rabbijablon.com
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