Background
Charles Bender was born on May 5, 1883, in Brainerd, Minnesota, one of thirteen children of Chippewa parents.
Charles Bender was born on May 5, 1883, in Brainerd, Minnesota, one of thirteen children of Chippewa parents.
Charles graduated from Carlisle Indian Industrial School and attended Dickinson College.
Bender began his career at Carlisle Indian School in 1901, where he played baseball with the legendary Jim Thorpe, a Sac and Fox, under the coaching of Glenn ("Pop") Warner. In 1903 Bender transferred to Dickinson College and there the Philadelphia Athletics scouted and signed him. Pitching for the A's from 1903 to 1914, Bender displayed an outstanding fastball and uncanny control, leading his team to pennants in 1905, 1910, 1911, 1913, and 1914. The 1910, 1911, and 1913 teams also won the world championship with Bender winning two games in the 1911 series and two in 1913. In 1910 Bender compiled a won-lost record of 23-5, the best in the league. In 1914 he again posted the best record, 17-3, winning fourteen games in a row. His major league record was 206-111, and of the 206 victories, forty-one were shutouts. His career earned-run average was 2. 46, placing him easily within the category of "all-star" pitchers who allow fewer than three runs per nine innings.
Bender was a well-educated man who was highly regarded by other players. According to his teammates he was a relaxed athlete, unaffected by the pressures of the game. In 1912 Bender was accused by Connie Mack, the manager of the Athletics, of having a "swelled head" and of breaking training rules, and at the end of that year he was suspended along with four other players, despite a 13-8 record. Reinstated the following spring, Bender pitched two outstanding seasons, leading the A's in 1914 to their fourth pennant in five years. Other pitchers for the Athletics were Eddie Plank and John Coombs; with Bender they joined the $100, 000 infield = first baseman Stuffy McGinnis, second baseman Eddie Collins, shortstop Jack Barry, third baseman John Franklin ("Home Run") Baker - to gain the Athletics recognition as one of the best teams in the history of baseball.
After the 1914 season many of the team's star players, frustrated by Mack's penury, entertained high salary offers from the outlaw Federal Baseball League. Mack, who was either unable or unwilling to match the offers, traded away the nucleus of the club, and the A's finished last the next seven years in a row. Bender moved to the new league. When it folded at the end of 1915, he signed with the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League. After playing for them for two years he drifted to the minor leagues to become a coach and manager; four times his minor league teams won pennants. Later he coached at the Naval Academy and in 1939 returned to Philadelphia to the A's as a scout and pitching coach. He remained with his old team until cancer and a heart condition forced his retirement in 1952. In 1953, Bender, one of America's outstanding pitchers, was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Charles Bender was a well-known pitcher in Major League Baseball. During his baseball career Bender played for the Philadelphia Athletics (1903-1919), Baltimore Terrapins Federal League (1915), Philadelphia Phillies (1916-1917) and Chicago White Sox (1925). In 459 games played, he pitched 3017 innings, had 1, 711 strikeouts, won 212, loss 127, with a 2. 77 ERA. Bender won three World Series games (1910, 1911, 1913). Bender was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1953. Lawrence Ritter and Donald Honig included him in their book The 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time (1981).
Charles Bender was married to Marie (Clement) Bender.
