Our Favorite Cards

1915 Cracker Jack #19 Charles Albert "Chief" Bender

All three of the authors of this website went to camp in the Chippewa National Forest in Northern Minnesota. The camp was founded in 1935, 51 years after Charles Albert "Chief" Bender was born a few miles away as a member of the White Earth Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe. Bender left Minnesota as a teenager to attend the Carlisle Indian School, later made famous by Jim Thorpe. While at Carlisle he played for Pop Warner (the famed football coach also coached baseball at Carlisle). Just a year after graduating, he was on the mound for the Philadelphia Athletics where he won 17 games in his rookie season. He only got better, winning 212 games in his Hall of Fame career. Connie Mack once said, "If I had all the men I've ever handled, and they were in their prime, and there was one game I wanted to win above all others, Albert would be my man."

The card: this was the prize in a box of Cracker Jack in 1915. Cracker Jack issued its first set in 1914. Card companies are among the most avid recyclers, and Cracker Jack was one of the earliest. Even though Bender had jumped to the Baltimore Terrapins of the Federal League after the 1914 season, Cracker Jack used the same picture of him in 1915, as they did for 142 of the first 144 players in the set.