Bill Henry (baseball, Born 1927)
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William Rodman Henry (October 15, 1927 – April 11, 2014) was an American professional
baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...
player. A
left-handed In human biology, handedness is an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to and causing it to be stronger, faster or more dextrous. The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dextrous or simply l ...
pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("Pitch (baseball), pitches") the Baseball (ball), baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of out (baseball), retiring a batter (baseball), batter, ...
, he appeared in
Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...
between and for the
Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East Division. Founded in as one of the Ameri ...
,
Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central Division. Th ...
,
Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. The Reds compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central Divisi ...
,
San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Div ...
,
Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central ...
, and
Houston Astros The Houston Astros are an American professional baseball team based in Houston. The Astros compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League West, West Division. They are one of two major leag ...
. Henry was nicknamed "Gabby" by teammates for his quiet nature. Henry excelled at basketball for Pasadena High School, as baseball was not played by most state high schools at the time. As a senior in 1946, he led the basketball team to a state championship, the first one in Pasadena ISD history. He was later inducted into the Pasadena ISD Athletics Hall of Fame. After playing college baseball for the
Houston Cougars The Houston Cougars are the athletic teams representing the University of Houston. Informally, the Houston Cougars have also been referred to as the Coogs, UH, or simply Houston. Houston's nickname was suggested by early physical education inst ...
, Henry began his career for the Red Sox in 1952, and was primarily a starter for the team. Henry was the first from the University of Houston's baseball history to make it to the Major League. After a two-year absence from the Major Leagues, he returned to MLB as a
relief pitcher In baseball and softball, a relief pitcher or reliever is a pitcher who pitches in the game after the starting pitcher or another relief pitcher has been removed from the game due to fatigue (medical), fatigue, injury, ineffectiveness, ejection ...
for the Cubs in 1958. Henry would only make two starts the rest of his career. As a reliever, Henry amassed 90 saves. He appeared in the 1960 All-Star Game, and pitched in the
1961 World Series The 1961 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1961 season. The 58th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff that matched the American League (AL) champion New York Yankees against the N ...
while on the
Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. The Reds compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central Divisi ...
. Henry was released by the
Houston Astros The Houston Astros are an American professional baseball team based in Houston. The Astros compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League West, West Division. They are one of two major leag ...
on June 28, 1969, ending his Major League career. Henry was a victim of
identity theft Identity theft, identity piracy or identity infringement occurs when someone uses another's personal identifying information, like their name, identifying number, or credit card number, without their permission, to commit fraud or other crimes. ...
, to an unrelated man also called Bill Henry. The other man apparently told his own third wife (for 20 years) and many Florida neighbours that he was Bill Henry the major leaguer: he died in August 2007. At this point, multiple media outlets erroneously reported that Henry (the baseball player) had died. He was contacted by baseball historian David Allen Lambert, who first reported his false death report to him. Henry suffered no personal loss from the identity theft and said that he bore no grudges. Henry resided in
Deer Park, Texas Deer Park is a city in the U.S. state of Texas within the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown metropolitan area. The city is located in southeast Harris County. At the 2020 U.S. census, the population of Deer Park was 34,495. Deer P ...
, near
Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...
. Bill Henry's story appeared in ''
Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...
'' in
Rick Reilly Richard Paul Reilly (born February 3, 1958) is an American sportswriter. Long known for being the "back page" columnist for ''Sports Illustrated'', Reilly moved to ESPN on June 1, 2008, where he was a featured columnist for ESPN.com and wrote t ...
's "Life of Reilly" column. Henry died as a result of heart problems at the age of 86 on April 11, 2014, in
Round Rock, Texas Round Rock is a city in Williamson and Travis County, Texas, United States, part of the Greater Austin metropolitan area. Its population is 119,468 according to the 2020 census. The city straddles the Balcones Escarpment, Texas State Histor ...
.The Pasadena Citizen
Pasadena community loses a sports legend: Bill Henry dead at 86
, 2014-04-16, retrieved 2014-04-22


See also


References


External links


''Lakeland Ledger'' - September 5, 2007

Bill Henry at Baseball Almanac''Pasadena Independent School District'' - April 16, 2014
{{DEFAULTSORT:Henry, Bill 1927 births 2014 deaths Boston Red Sox players Charleston Senators players Chicago Cubs players Cincinnati Reds players Clarksdale Planters players Greenville Majors players Houston Astros players Houston Cougars baseball players Louisville Colonels (minor league) players Major League Baseball pitchers Memphis Chickasaws players National League All-Stars Ohio State League players People from Alice, Texas People from Deer Park, Texas Pittsburgh Pirates players Portland Beavers players San Diego Padres (minor league) players San Francisco Giants players San Francisco Seals (baseball) players Shreveport Sports players Baseball players from Harris County, Texas Baseball players from Jim Wells County, Texas 20th-century American sportsmen