Chief Bender's Burden

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 games first slider, and an apparently unflappable demeanor, he earned a reputation as baseballs great clutch pitcher during tight Deadball Era pennant races and in front of boisterous World Series crowds. More remarkably yet, Chief Benders Hall of Fame career unfolded in the face of immeasurable prejudice. This skillfully told and complete account of Benders life is also a portrait of greatness of character maintained despite incredible pressureof how a celebrated man thrived while carrying an untold weight on his shoulders. With a journalists eye for detail and a novelists feel for storytelling, Tom Swift takes readers on Benders improbable journeyfrom 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 Benders Burden is an eye-opening and inspiring narrative of a unique American life.