Bookshelf review: Money Pitcher: Chief Bender and the Tragedy of Indian Assimilation

March 3, 2007

by William C. Kashatus. Penn State Press, 2006.

Albert Charles “Chief” Bender was one of the best pitchers of the early 20th century, a stalwart for Connie Mack Philadelphia Athletics from 1903-17. During that time (with a one-game comeback in 1925 with the Chicago White Sox) he won more than 210 games and compiled an ERA of 2.46 as he helped his team to five world series appearances and three world championships.

So where’s the sad part?

According to Kashatus, author of several books about Philadelphia baseball, it remained, for the most part, internal. In an era when African-Americans were still barred from the majors, when players of foreign descent were routinely regarded by the nationalities, the native American did not enjoy any dispensation because he was born within these shores. He and other Indian ballplayers had to endure racially-charged sobriquets (chiefly “Chief”) from teammates, opponents, fans and sportswriters, as well as grotesque cartoon depictions.

Bender, who learned to play ball during his time at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, was considered by Mack as his best pitcher on a staff that at one point included Rube Waddell and Eddie Plank. But he wasn’t paid as such, which led in a roundabout way, to a poor showing in the A’s 1914 World Series defeat by the “Miracle” Boston Braves. Kashatus raises the notion that there were those who felt the games were “tainted” — and that Bender was a part of any possible malfeasance, although the proof he offers is less than convincing. Should we believe that Mack lost confidence in Bender merely because of a poor showing? Would that explain the rest of the series, which the Braves won in four straight?

Most of the book follows a simple biographical format: highlights of the subject’s career, descriptions of particular games or events, etc. The sociological aspects of the tragedy of assimilation are reserved for the final chapters, in which Kashatus, who also wrote September Swoon: Richie Allen, the ’64 Phillies, and Racial Integration (Penn State, 2004), blames Bender and his contemporaries for succumbing to the demands of White America, with its melting pot sensibilities and materialistic lures.

When the United States government took [the Indians’] land and put them on reservations, it stole their livelihood of hunting, fishing, and farming. The young were encouraged to attend off-reservation boarding schools as a means of annihilating native culture. In those schools they were told that a future in white society promised good employment, more money, and better urban homes…

Does the author mean that these young people had much of a choice when he cajoles them not exhibiting more moral fiber? What were their options? To stay on the land, with its poverty and lack of a future?

“Other racial and ethnic groups, with the exception of African Americans, were not forced to endure the same experience. For them, assimilation came voluntarily and, to a degree, on their terms.”Again, I would disagree to a degree: While some readily sought to shed evidence of their origins and be regarded as “American” as quickly as possible, at the same time they did not have much of a choice if they wanted to thrive and survive.

Despite this attempt to cram the “tragic” aspects into a single chapter where there may be none, Money Pitcher is nevertheless an interesting and sympathetic look atone of the underappreciated stars of the game.

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