Andrew "Rube" Foster (September 17, 1879 – December 9, 1930) was an American baseball player, manager, and executive in the Negro leagues.
He is known as the "father of Black Baseball." Foster adopted his longtime nickname, "Rube", as his official middle name later in life. ==Early years== Foster was born in Calvert, Texas, on September 17, 1879.
Foster started his professional career with the Waco Yellow Jackets, an independent black team, in 1897 and played for the Hot Springs Arlingtons in 1901.
He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1981. Foster, considered by historians to have been perhaps the best African-American pitcher of the first decade of the 1900s, also founded and managed the Chicago American Giants, one of the most successful black baseball teams of the pre-integration era.
Foster started his professional career with the Waco Yellow Jackets, an independent black team, in 1897 and played for the Hot Springs Arlingtons in 1901.
Over the next few years he gradually built up a reputation among white and black fans alike, until he was signed by Frank Leland's Chicago Union Giants, a team in the top ranks of black baseball, in 1902.
According to Phil Dixon's American Baseball Chronicles: Great Teams, The 1905 Philadelphia Giants, Volume III: "In completing the summer of 1902 with Otsego's multi-ethnic team—the only multi-race team with which he would ever regularly perform—Foster is reported to have pitched twelve games.
In a postseason series for the eastern black championship, the X-Giants defeated Sol White's Philadelphia Giants five games to two, with Foster himself winning four games. According to various accounts, including his own, Foster acquired the nickname "Rube" after defeating star Philadelphia Athletics left-hander Rube Waddell in a postseason exhibition game played sometime between 1902 and 1905.
The 1903 season saw Foster establish himself as the X-Giants' pitching star.
Recent research has uncovered a game played on August 2, 1903, in which Foster met and defeated Waddell while the latter was playing under an assumed name for a semipro team in New York City. Foster, now a star, jumped to the Philadelphia Giants for the 1904 season.
A newspaper story in the Trenton (NJ) Times from July 26, 1904, contains the earliest known example of Foster being referred to as "Rube," indicating that the supposed meeting with Waddell must have taken place earlier than that.
Recent research has uncovered a game played on August 2, 1903, in which Foster met and defeated Waddell while the latter was playing under an assumed name for a semipro team in New York City. Foster, now a star, jumped to the Philadelphia Giants for the 1904 season.
During the 1904 season, Foster won 20 games against all competition (including two no-hitters) and lost six.
According to Phil Dixon's American Baseball Chronicles: Great Teams, The 1905 Philadelphia Giants, Volume III: "In completing the summer of 1902 with Otsego's multi-ethnic team—the only multi-race team with which he would ever regularly perform—Foster is reported to have pitched twelve games.
In a postseason series for the eastern black championship, the X-Giants defeated Sol White's Philadelphia Giants five games to two, with Foster himself winning four games. According to various accounts, including his own, Foster acquired the nickname "Rube" after defeating star Philadelphia Athletics left-hander Rube Waddell in a postseason exhibition game played sometime between 1902 and 1905.
In a rematch with Foster's old team, the Cuban X-Giants, he won two games and batted .400 in leading the Philadelphia Giants to the black championship. In 1905, Foster—by his own account several years later—compiled a fantastic record of 51–4 (though recent research has confirmed only a 25–3 record) and led the Giants to another series championship, this time over the Brooklyn Royal Giants.
The following season the Lelands tied a national championship series with the Philadelphia Giants, each team winning three games. Foster suffered a broken leg in July 1909, but rushed himself back into the lineup in time for an October exhibition series against the Chicago Cubs.
Paul Colored Gophers. In 1910, Foster wrested legal control of the team from its founder, Frank Leland.
For the next four seasons, the American Giants claimed the western black baseball championship, though they lost a 1913 series to the Lincoln Giants for the national championship. By 1915, Foster's first serious rival in the midwest had emerged: C.
For the next four seasons, the American Giants claimed the western black baseball championship, though they lost a 1913 series to the Lincoln Giants for the national championship. By 1915, Foster's first serious rival in the midwest had emerged: C.
The continued wrangling led to calls for a black baseball league to be formed, but Foster, Taylor, and the other major clubs in the midwest were unable to come to any agreement. By this time, Foster was pitching very little, compiling only a 2–2 record in 1915.
In 1916, both teams again claimed the western title.
His last recorded outing on the mound was in 1917; from this time he became purely a bench manager.
He was also considered a great teacher, and many of his players themselves eventually became managers, including Pete Hill, Bruce Petway, Bingo DeMoss, Dave Malarcher, Sam Crawford, Poindexter Williams, and many others. In 1919, Foster helped Tenny Blount finance a new club in Detroit, the Stars.
Most notably, he organized the Negro National League, the first long-lasting professional league for African-American ballplayers, which operated from 1920 to 1931.
He may have been preparing the way for the formation, the following year, of the Negro National League (NNL). ==Negro National League== In 1920, Foster, Taylor, and the owners of six other midwestern clubs met in the spring to form a professional baseball circuit for African-American teams.
Foster had instituted a split-season format, and his American Giants finished third in both halves. The year 1926 saw him complete his team's reshaping, leaving only a handful of veterans from the championship squads of 1920 to 1922.
commemorative postage stamps, to honor the all-black professional baseball leagues that operated from 1920 to about 1960.
Foster had instituted a split-season format, and his American Giants finished third in both halves. The year 1926 saw him complete his team's reshaping, leaving only a handful of veterans from the championship squads of 1920 to 1922.
His American Giants won the new league's first three pennants before being overtaken by the Kansas City Monarchs in 1923.
Eventually the two leagues reached an agreement to respect one another's contracts and to play a world series. After two years of finishing behind the Monarchs, Foster "cleaned house" in spring 1925, releasing several veterans (including Lyons and pitchers Dick Whitworth and Tom Williams).
Foster had instituted a split-season format, and his American Giants finished third in both halves. The year 1926 saw him complete his team's reshaping, leaving only a handful of veterans from the championship squads of 1920 to 1922.
Took to carrying a revolver with him everywhere he went." Suffering from serious delusions, including one where he believed he was about to receive a call to pitch in the World Series, he was institutionalized midway through the 1926 season at an asylum in Kankakee, Illinois. The American Giants and the NNL lived on—in fact, led by Dave Malarcher, the Giants won the pennant and World Series in both 1926 and 1927—but the league clearly suffered in the absence of Foster's leadership.
Took to carrying a revolver with him everywhere he went." Suffering from serious delusions, including one where he believed he was about to receive a call to pitch in the World Series, he was institutionalized midway through the 1926 season at an asylum in Kankakee, Illinois. The American Giants and the NNL lived on—in fact, led by Dave Malarcher, the Giants won the pennant and World Series in both 1926 and 1927—but the league clearly suffered in the absence of Foster's leadership.
Andrew "Rube" Foster (September 17, 1879 – December 9, 1930) was an American baseball player, manager, and executive in the Negro leagues.
Foster died in 1930, never having recovered his sanity, and a year later the league he had founded fell apart. Foster is interred in Lincoln Cemetery in Blue Island, Illinois.
Most notably, he organized the Negro National League, the first long-lasting professional league for African-American ballplayers, which operated from 1920 to 1931.
commemorative postage stamps, to honor the all-black professional baseball leagues that operated from 1920 to about 1960.
He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1981. Foster, considered by historians to have been perhaps the best African-American pitcher of the first decade of the 1900s, also founded and managed the Chicago American Giants, one of the most successful black baseball teams of the pre-integration era.
At his funeral, his coffin was closed, according to attendees, "at the usual hour a ballgame ends." ==Legacy== In 1981, Foster was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
He was the first representative of the Negro leagues elected as a pioneer or executive. On December 30, 2009, the U.S.
On July 17, 2010, the Postal Service issued a se-tenant pair of 44-cent, first-class, U.S.
All text is taken from Wikipedia. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License .
Page generated on 2021-08-05