He pitched, he set batting records, and he started out backwards--playing first in the majors, then in the minors, then in the majors again. He hit nine homers in a single week, in one game hit two homers, two triples and a double, held a .420 average as a big league pinch hitter, won mention in Ripley's Believe It or Not! Jack Bentley enjoyed other interests. He loved the hunt and kept a large pack of fox hounds. He played the ukulele and sang baritone in amateur quartets. He loved tall tales and spun a few about baseball and fox hunting. During World War I he waived the Quaker exemption from military service and survived 60 days in the trenches in France under fire. As pitcher he helped lead his New York Giants to the 1924 World Series with the Washington Senators. The Series became a pitching duel between Bentley and Walter "Big Train" Johnson. Bentley lost a game, won a game, and met Johnson again in the 7th. It went to eleven innings. Then an easy-out Washington grounder struck a pebble and bounced over the fielder's head. Bentley lost--but felt good, too, about seeing Big Train Johnson win a Series. Heaped with honors, he reaped one posthumously when his wife Helen donated the Sandy Spring Museum site in his memory.

Bentley swings for the International League Orioles, then the winningest minor league team and with whom he rolled up dazzling batting and pitching records. Despite his successes, throughout his career he believed he was wrongly positioned--that his natural skills were as a first baseman.