Major League Pitcher Bill Henry Died - Wait, No, He's Alive

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After picking up news of the major league pitcher's death, the Associated Press (AP) was forced to print a correction. The mistake was caught by a sharp-eyed David Lambert, a genealogist for the New England Historic Genealogical Society and a member of the Society for American Baseball Research, who noticed the discrepancies in the original 'The Ledger's' report.

The real Bill Henry, alive and well at age 80 in Texas, also confirmed his well-being by telephone. He's baffled as to why the other Bill Henry would have passed himself off as the ball player for 20 years.

The Bill Henry who passed away in Lakeland, FL, was believed to have been the pitcher he claimed to be all these years. His wife of 19 years, Elizabeth, and his step-children all believed his stories. Elizabeth now says she's not sure she knows who her husband was at all.

There were many similarities that aided the now-deceased Bill Henry into fooling others he was a former major league pitcher. "He and the ballplayer were both 6 feet 2 inches tall. They were each lefties and had the same square-jawed good looks in their youth." Their birth dates were off by 3 years, which the fake Henry explained away as a printing error on the baseball cards he showed friends and family.

Elizabeth Henry never sensed there was any reason not to believe her husband's stories.

Henry said her husband also loved speaking to schoolchildren about his glory days. As a surprise about 10 years ago, she even painted a portrait of her husband, using a Bill Henry baseball card from his days with the Cincinnati Reds. Henry, 79, said her husband's first and second wives died years ago, as did his two biological children, and she assumed that all of his possessions, photographs and memorabilia from his baseball career were long lost.

Career info on the real pitcher, Bill Henry:

He was in the majors for 16 years, even pitched in two games of the 1961 World Series while playing for the Cincinnati Reds. The lanky left-hander from Texas debuted with the Boston Red Sox in 1952 and went on to a career record of 46 wins, 50 losses, 90 saves and a career earned run average of 3.26.

The real Bill Henry asked that sports fans and others be told that he's "still kicking."