Andrew "Rube" Foster

 Hall Of Fame Induction:  1981

Young Rube’s career began in 1897 with the Austin Reds of Tillotson College.  The following year, he joined the semi-pro Yellow jackets in nearby Waco.  The new century found Foster singing with Frank Leland’s Chicago Union Giants for $40 a month and 15 cents meal money.  Here, he developed a nasty screwball, thrown from an unique submarine delivery. 

In 1903, he headed East to play for the Cuban X-Giants.  That fall, he posted four victories in a seven-game series against the Philadelphia Giants for the so-called “Colored Championship of the World.”  The wandering Foster switched over to the Philly team the next season and met his old teammates for bragging rights to the “colored” title.  Foster accounted for both victories in the best-of-three series.  He struck out 18 batters in one game, beating the major league record of 15 set by Fred Glade of the St. Louis Browns.

Andrew Foster’s reputation as a fine pitcher continue to expand with a victory over Rube Waddell and the Philadelphia Athletics in 1904, earning the nickname Rube.  He also assisted John McGraw, New York Giants manager, with a few pitching tips for Christy Mathewson.  Until 1903, Christy’s won-lost record was .33 wins and 37 losses.  After a sermon from Foster, Mathewson won 30, 3 and 31 games, and led the league in strikeouts the next three seasons.

In 1907, he returned to Chicago and the Leland Giants, leading them to a 110-10 record, including 48 straight wins.  In 1909, the Giants enter the tough integrated city league.  In Foster’s first eleven starts, he won eleven games, with four shutouts.  Such a dominating force that season, that headlines simply stated:  “FOSTER PITCHED, THAT’S ALL.”

By 1910, the Leland Giants were the talk of the Midwest.  They christened a ball park in an all-white neighborhood near 69^th and Halsted as the Leland Giants Base Ball park.  Foster now serving as player-manager, amassed in his opinion the greatest team of all time.  Featuring such stars as John Henry “Pop” Lloyd, the notorious streak hitter Pete Hill, Grant “Home Run” Johnson, catcher extraordinaire Bruce Petway and great pitchers like Frank Wickware and Pat Dougherty, the Leland team won 123 of 129 games.  This impelled McGraw of the Giants to announce, “If I had a bucket of whitewash that wouldn’t wash off, you wouldn’t have five players left tomorrow.”

The following season, Foster formed a partnership with John Schorling, a white businessman.  Together they purchased the old ball park (Old Roman’s) at 30^th and Wentworh, from White Sox owner Charlie Comiskey.  The park became home of one of black baseball’s finest teams, the Chicago American Giants.  Foster billed his team as “THE GREATEST AGGREGATION OF COLORED BASEBALL PLAYERS IN THE WORLD.”  The Giants normally played semi-pro teams for a guarantee of $60, rain or shine, with a fifty percent of the gross receipts if their ace, Rube Foster would pitch.

The Giants creative style of play epitomize black baseball.  With a merciless assault on the rule book, his teams exploited every trick to its maximum advantage.  Speed and quickness, gambling and risk were signature trademarks of the Midwest team, as they consistently defeated high-powered slugging teams.

Although an outstanding player, a dependable team owner and a brilliant manager, perhaps Rube Foster’s most impressive fulfillment was the creation of the Negro National League (NNL) in Kansas City (1920).  Foster was able to accomplish what other black entrepreneurs had been unable to achieve in 1887, 1906, and more recently in 1911.  The league motto’s “We Are The Ship, All Else The Sea” was symbolic of its relationship with major league baseball.  Going against the tide of segregation, Rube’s voyage became an obsession.  For many years, Captain Rube struggled without a life preserver in his attempts to keep the league afloat.

From his throne in Chicago, Foster ran the NNL as a noble emperor.  He realized the need for balance competition, as he moved players from team to team, even sending his star Oscar Charleston to the Indianapolis ABCs to help their cause.  He often lent money to failing franchise to help meet their payroll and advanced monies to his own players.  With unparalleled influence, Foster was the undisputed kingpin of black baseball in the Midwest.

In 1926, the czar-like, baritone-voiced Foster succumbed to mental illness and was institutionalize in Kankakee, Illinois.  One of baseball’s greatest minds was suddenly torn from the game.  Four years later, the son of Sarah Watts and Rev. Andrew Foster, Sr., was buried in Lincoln Memorial Park in Chicago, Illinois.  Foster with his dedicated, high-minded approach to baseball was the force behind all subsequent Negro Leagues.

Renowned sportswriter Frank (Fay) Young of the Chicago Defender testified in behalf of the late legend, “One of the most brilliant figures that the great national sports has ever produced.  Rube knew every technicality of the game, how to play it, and how to make his men play it.  A true master of the game.”

He redefined the art of base running, hit and run techniques and the do-or-die sacrifice play.  He used creative ways to “stretch” a hit, to “steal” a run and eventually “swipe” a victory.  In 1981, justice was served; Foster was found guilty of larceny and sentenced to a life term, without parole, in Cooperstown’s Hall of Fame.

Rube was a phenomenal pitcher, a magnificent manager, a powerful organizer, and even a greater humanitarian.  He had the face of a teddy bear, the heart of Rocky Balboa, the legendary strength of John Henry, the soul of Malcolm X, the vision of Dr. Martin Luther King, the oratorical skills of James Earl Jones and the genius of Ray Charles.  Rube Foster was the most perfect blend of baseball expertise ever assembled.

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