Chief Bender Portrait

This card files under the variation tag "Chief Bender Portrait," the T206 White Border head-and-shoulders pose of Charles Albert Bender, distinguished from the two pitching-motion variations — "trees" and "no trees" — that share the set under the same player. The subject is Bender (1884–1954), the Ojibwe right-hander born on the White Earth Indian Reservation in Minnesota who became Connie Mack's favorite big-game starter on the Philadelphia Athletics dynasty that won American League pennants in 1905, 1910, 1911, 1913, and 1914. Bender batted and threw right-handed, stood 6'2", and is best remembered for Mack's repeated quote that when he had to win one game, Bender was the man he trusted with the ball. He pitched 16 major-league seasons through 1925, with his prime entirely in Philadelphia. He died May 22, 1954 in Philadelphia and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1953 by the Veterans Committee, while still alive to receive the call.