Who is Bill Henry? Is he the same Bill Henry who lives in Texas or is he the one who died recently in Lakeland, FL? The real Bill Henry was a pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds, Chicago Cubs, Boston Red Sox other teams in the 1950’s and ’60’s and so was the other Bill Henry, so his family thought.
A Lakeland, FL man, (you guessed it) Bill (Clarence) Henry, deceived his family and friends into thinking he was Bill (Rodman) Henry, the pitcher with a career record of 46-50 and one World Series appearance. The fake Henry’s wife said that they didn’t have a lot of memorabilia and with the stories he told to everyone, they believed that he did pitch, albeit in the minor leagues. But who could doubt the man who was able to recall names of people who played in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s.
When a baseball historian, David Lambert, saw an obituary for Bill Henry the former Reds pitcher had died, he started to do some research on him. When he saw the obit, he noticed that some things didn’t match up. So when he found out that the real Bill Henry’s last address on file with MLB was Deer Park, TX, he called to offer his condolences to his wife.
Her response to the phone call was that the real Bill Henry was sitting right next to her alive and well. Henry was ok with the whole mess.
“It’s just amazing someone would want to live someone else’s life,” said Henry, a 79-year-old Houston Ship Channel dispatcher, who once pitched two games in the 1961 World Series. “I say more power to him if it helped him in his career.”
The scariest part of this whole ordeal. They looked very similar.
