Editing Chief Bender (section)

==Personal==
Bender was nicknamed "Chief", a common nickname for baseball players of Native American descent.<ref>Swift, p. 4</ref> Biographer Tom Swift writes that Bender "was often portrayed as a caricature and was the subject of myriad cartoons – many exhibits of narrow-mindedness. After he threw one of the most dominating games of the early years of the American League, Bender was depicted wielding a tomahawk and wearing a headdress as though he was a happy warrior."<ref>Swift, p. 5</ref>

He also faced discrimination on the field. Swift writes that taunting from the bench was common in Bender's era and that the opposition or the fans often made war whoops or yelled taunts such as "Nig!" or "Back to the reservation!" Bender usually remained calm, sometimes smiling at the insults. After an inning in which he had pitched particularly well, he might yell back, "Foreigners! Foreigners!"<ref>Swift, p. 6</ref>

Off the baseball field, Bender was one of several prominent baseball players who enjoyed [[trap shooting]], bowling, and golf.<ref name=Salon>{{cite web|last1=Kaufman|first1=King|title=Chief Bender's Burden (review)|url=http://www.salon.com/2008/05/23/bender/|work=[[Salon (website)|Salon.com]]|date=23 May 2008|access-date=November 1, 2014}}</ref><ref name=Trap>{{cite news|title=Big Chief Bender trap-shooting star|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1915&dat=19150302&id=qvkgAAAAIBAJ&pg=3270,241701|access-date=November 1, 2014|work=[[The Day (New London)]]|date=March 2, 1915}}</ref> He felt that shooting in the offseason helped to train his eye and increase his self-control. He worked in sporting goods at [[Wanamaker's]] in Philadelphia during his early playing days.<ref>Kashatus, p. 140</ref> He opened his own store, Bender Sporting Goods, in 1914.<ref name=Dawson>{{cite news|title=Chief Bender is going into business|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=41&dat=19140601&id=FJgjAAAAIBAJ&pg=2125,4018008|access-date=November 1, 2014|work=Dawson Daily News|date=June 1, 1914}}</ref>

In February 1917, Bender was charged with [[manslaughter]] when a car he owned struck and killed a boy in [[Philadelphia]] and the driver sped off.<ref>{{cite news |title=Chief Bender charged with manslaughter |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/123075708/chief-bender-charged-with-manslaughter/ |access-date=18 April 2023 |work=[[The Sault Star]] |date=21 February 1917 |pages=7}}</ref> He was cleared of wrongdoing later the same month by a [[coroner's jury]].<ref>{{cite news |title="Chief" Bender Exonerated. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/123075457/chief-bender-exonerated/ |access-date=18 April 2023 |work=[[Norwich Bulletin]] |date=27 February 1917 |pages=1}}</ref>

Bender's brother, John C. Bender, also played professional baseball. John Bender was suspended from minor league baseball for three years beginning in 1908 after he stabbed his manager, [[Win Clark]], several times during a fight. John Bender is sometimes erroneously described as having died on a baseball field, but he died at a restaurant in 1911, not long after attempting a professional baseball comeback.<ref name=Gorman>{{cite book|last1=Gorman|first1=Robert, Weeks, David|title=Death at the Ballpark: A Comprehensive Study of Game-related Fatalities of Players, Other Personnel and Spectators in Amateur and Professional Baseball, 1862–2007|date=2009|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0786452545|page=102|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5C9t6NlWEbYC&pg=PA102|access-date=July 5, 2014}}</ref>