Baseball Historian Spots Fraud

By BILLY TOWNSEND The Tampa Tribune

Published: Sep 7, 2007

LAKELAND - For David Lambert, a professional baseball historian, genealogist and diehard Red Sox fan, last week's obituary just didn't seem right.

Keeping track of aging baseball players is a big part of his life. So when he read about the death of 83-year-old Bill Henry, a successful lefty relief pitcher for the Sox and several other teams in the '50s and '60s, Lambert looked into it.

He found several discrepancies between the personal information of the Bill Henry who died of a heart attack in Lakeland and the 79-year-old former pitcher with an impressive lifetime ERA of 3.26.

Lambert tracked the pitcher to an address in Deer Park, Texas, and decided to call, knowing he was about to offer condolences or tell the real Henry a curious story. Not only was Henry not dead, his wife said, he was sitting right there in the living room.

"He was quite a gentleman," said Lambert, who then communicated the error to The Associated Press and even edited Henry's Wikipedia entry to reflect that he's still alive.

Lambert said he's acutely aware of the pain his revelation may have caused the family of the Lakeland Henry.

"I just feel horribly for the family of Mr. Henry," he said. "I kind of hurt inside thinking about it."

But he also said it was important to set the record right for the real Bill Henry and his teammates, who are losing one another quickly.

"It's for people like Dom DiMaggio and Johnny Pesky, so they know they haven't lost another teammate," Lambert said. "The whole story is that the Bill Henry who played for the Red Sox is alive and well and won't be forgotten."

The Henry who lived and died in Lakeland was never a major leaguer. "I really can't understand why a man would do something like that. To impress his family or his neighbors?" said the real pitcher, speaking from his home in Texas.

The fake's family isn't exactly sure when the deception began.

His widow, Elizabeth Jean Henry, said the couple met more than two decades ago in Michigan. She said her future husband didn't mention right away that he was a former big leaguer, but she had no reason to doubt him when it later came up.

Elizabeth Henry said he didn't have any memorabilia aside from a few baseball cards - no rings, no trophies, no photos. She was his third wife and Henry had two children, but both are dead - and she didn't meet either.

She and his stepchildren still believe he played at least some level of minor league ball.

"He told me once he could hear his father when he was pitching a game," Elizabeth Henry said. "He didn't tell me what game, but he said he could hear his father in the stands calling his name. I don't think he lied about all that."

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.