Foster, Rube

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Rube Foster

For his achievements as a pitcher, manager, and founder and administrator of the first viable black baseball league, the Negro National League (NNL), Rube Foster (1879–1930) became known as "The Father of Black Baseball." He also founded the American Giants—one of the greatest black baseball teams in history.

Foster was born Andrew Foster on September 17, 1879, in Calvert, Texas, a farming community near Waco. He was the son of Andrew, the presiding elder of Calvert's Methodist Episcopal Church, and Sarah Foster. As a child, Foster was asthmatic. He was as devoted to church each Sunday morning as he was to baseball each Sunday afternoon. He showed promise early as an organizer and administrator of the sport and operated a team while a grade school student. After Sarah Foster died, Andrew Sr. remarried and moved to southwest Texas. By then, baseball already drove young Andrew's life. After completing the eighth grade, he left school and ran away to Fort Worth to pursue his love of the sport.

When he was only 17 years old, Foster had already begun to play for the Fort Worth Yellow Jackets. He traveled with the Jackets in Texas and bordering states and was introduced early to the prejudice that existed then toward baseball players. Quoted in Only the Ball was White, Foster said that the players "were barred away from homes … as baseball and those who played it were considered by Colored as low and ungentlemanly." He also pitched during batting practice when big-league clubs held spring training in Texas.

In 1901, when he was 21 years old, the big, brash, six foot, four inch tall player who weighed over 200 pounds pitched against Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics and caught the eye of big-city clubs. He refused an offer to pitch semiprofessional ball in Iowa and joined the black Leland Giants (also called the Chicago Union Giants) owned by Frank Leland, a veteran of black baseball in Chicago.

In 1902 Foster switched to E. B. Lamar's Union Giants, or Cuban Giants—a club from Philadelphia comprised of American blacks—earning $40 a month and 15 cents a meal for "eating money." By then he had become so self-assured about his talent that he called himself the best pitcher in the country. Sources disagree about the outcome of the first few games; however, Blackball Stars said that, after losing the first, Foster won 44 straight games. During this period as well, he beat the great Rube Waddell, whose record was 25-7 with the Philadelphia Athletics, and won the nickname "Rube" that was to remain with him for life. Foster led his team to victory over the Philadelphia Giants, the black baseball champions of the previous year. It has been said that the players disliked Foster, primarily because he "engaged in personalities" when he pitched. He was known also as a gunman and always carried his Texas six-shooters with him, which probably sparked the fear that many had of him.

Joined the Cuban X-Giants

Foster joined the Cuban X-Giants in 1903. Also a black American club from across town, they were rivals with the Philadelphia Giants. In the fall of 1903 Foster pitched in black baseball's first World Series, winning four games for the team. The Cuban X-Giants won the championship five games to two. According to legend, that year John McGraw of the New York Giants hired Foster to teach his screwball to Christy Mathewson, Iron Man McGinnity, and Red Ames. The Giants jumped from last place to second.

Nearly the entire Cuban X-Giants team switched to the Philadelphia Giants the next year and led them to victory in the World Series against their former club. Although Foster was sick when the three-game series opened, he won the first game 8–4, with 18 strikeouts, and the third and deciding game 4–2.

While data on Foster for 1904 are lacking, by 1905 he had remarkable power, winning 51 games and losing only 5. According to Blackball Stars, Honus Wagner, Pittsburgh's great shortstop, called him "the smoothest pitcher I've ever seen." Foster knew how to unnerve rival players when the bases were loaded. He appeared jolly, unconcerned, and smiled generously; more often than not, he came out victorious. Foster continued a successful career, then about 1906, unable to get a salary increase, left for the Leland Giants as manager and player who would do the booking and run the team as well. He took seven teammates with him. He persuaded Frank Leland to fire his previous players and hire Foster's, resulting in a team so successful that they won the Chicago semipro league title and finished ahead of the City All Stars, who hired big league players.

In 1907 the Lelands won 48 straight games for a total of 110 that year. They lost only ten games and won the pennant in Chicago's otherwise all-white city league. The press as well as baseball managers continued to praise Foster's ability. Blackball Stars quotes an undated issue of the Chicago Inter-Ocean that commented on Foster's tricks, speed, and coolness, calling him "the greatest baseball pitcher in the country." Willie Powell remembered in Blackball Stars that "Rube had a way to grip that ball, throw underhand, and he could hum it. And he was a trick pitcher, always tried to trick you into doing something wrong. If you were a big enough fool to listen to him, he'd have you looking at something else and strike you out."

In 1908 Foster changed the team's name to the American Giants to form what might have been the greatest black baseball team in history. In fact, according to Blackball Stars, Foster himself called it "the greatest team he ever assembled." Although there were other good black teams, the American Giants were consistently superior. In 1910 the team won 123 games out of 129. The Giants advertised their star-studded lineup and used heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson to hand out souvenirs to the women fans. The team's fame spread widely and rivaled that of the Chicago White Sox, who played two blocks from owner Charlie Comiskey's park. One Sunday in 1911 when the American Giants played, their attendance outdrew the Cubs and the White Sox.

There are conflicting accounts of this period in black baseball. According to Only the Ball was White, the American Giants were not formed until 1911, with players from the Leland Giants. Foster had entered a friendly partnership with John M. Schorling, a white tavern owner, who verbally agreed to a 50–50 split of receipts. This was a curious act for Foster, who was a shrewd businessman and should have known the importance of a signed contract.

Both in 1911 and 1912 the American Giants won the Chicago semipro crown. The Giants, who by now traveled by private Pullman, moved across the country for spring training and regular season games. They were an attraction to their fans, who watched them wear a different set of uniforms each day and use a variety of bats and balls. By 1916 when Foster was 35 years old, he had gained considerable weight and pitched less. That fall, however, the American Giants beat the Brooklyn Royal Giants to win the "colored World Series." Foster continued his tricks in the ball game and would do anything to win, including freezing baseballs before a game to spoil the opponent's ability land a good hit. Black baseball star James "Cool Papa" Bell said in Blackball Stars: "He built almost imperceptible ridges along the foul lines to insure that any bunted ball would stay fair while his race horses streaked across first base safely." He enticed young players to join his team by flaunting his immense prestige and bragging about the team's elaborate methods of travel.

The race riots of 1919 erupted in several cities. In Chicago alone, 38 people died. When Foster's team returned to their park, they found it occupied by tents of National Guardsmen. As well, during this period eastern black baseball teams threatened to raid Foster's team. By 1918 he paid his players $1,700 a month—more than teachers and mailcarriers earned—yet many of the players were illiterate. Still, the players were attracted by the promise of higher salaries from other owners.

Founded Negro National League

Black organizers had made unsuccessful attempts to form a viable black league in 1887 and again in 1906. In 1919, Foster called a meeting of the best black clubs in the Midwest and proposed the formation of a Negro National League and its governing body, the National Association of Colored Professional Base Ball Clubs. He used the Chicago Defender to launch his campaign for the new organization. Meeting on February 13–14, 1920, at the Kansas City YMCA (Young Men's Christian Association), owners of the black clubs drew up a constitution barring player raids and team-jumping, setting fines for unsportsmanlike conduct on and off the field, and other restrictions. Foster wanted an all-black enterprise that would be patterned after the major leagues but would ensure that money earned from the games would stay in black pockets. The group formed an eight–team league comprised of the American Giants, Joe Green's Chicago Giants, the Cuban Stars, the Detroit Stars, the St. Louis Stars, the Indianapolis ABCs, the Kansas City Monarchs, and the Dayton Marcos.

Foster foresaw the time when white and black teams would play each other in a World Series and wanted to be ready to integrate white teams when the time came. According to Blackball Stars, Foster told his colleagues, "We are the ship, all else the sea." Club owners criticized Foster, who became president of the league, for the power he had to serve as booking agent and hire umpires for the league since he owned a club himself. The players accused him of hiring umpires who favored the Giants. Foster survived the criticism in part by moving players from one team to another, apparently to effect parity among them. The colorful manager ran the league as a generous and benevolent autocrat, advancing loans to meet payrolls, sometimes from his own pocket. He helped players when they were in financial need. He believed in paying good salaries to keep good players.

The American Giants won the first three pennants in the new league, in 1920, 1921, and 1922. Foster's league prospered and prompted sports leaders in other parts of the country to form leagues. The Southern League was formed around this time, followed by the Eastern Colored League in 1923. Foster was unsuccessful in 1924 in his efforts to merge the NNL and the Eastern Colored League. Each manager wanted to retain his powerful position. When the teams met that year in a World Series, the Kansas City Monarchs of the NNL beat the Hilldale Club of the East. These games showcased some of the best black baseball players of the period.

Foster, who by then owned a barbershop as well as an automobile service shop, continued to oversee both the Negro National League and the American Giants. Throughout his baseball career he manipulated his players like robots and wholly directed his teams. According to Total Baseball, "Foster's teams specialized in the bunt, the steal, and the hit and run," which he advocated strongly, and characterized black baseball as well. A man with a remarkable memory who called everyone "darling," he never drank alcohol but puffed on a big pipe. He was both feared and respected by his players and fellow baseball managers. He was often called the greatest baseball manager of any race and shared his talent with others by teaching baseball subtleties to a generation of black managers, including Dave Malarcher, Biz Mackey, and Oscar Charleston. But, according to some writers, he wore himself out.

After being exposed to gas that leaked in his room in Indianapolis in May of 1925, he became unconscious and had to be dragged from his room to safety. Although he recovered, he became prone to illness thereafter. He began to act erratically the following year. Foster was placed in the state insane asylum at Kankakee, Illinois, with baseball still on his mind. He constantly raved about wanting to get out of bed and win another pennant. After his death of a heart attack at age 51 on December 9, 1930, a mammoth funeral drew 3,000 mourners who stood outside the church in the falling snow to watch Foster's final trip to Chicago's Lincoln Cemetery. Unfortunately, Foster's wife was unfamiliar with his business arrangements and realized no benefits from his baseball ventures. Foster's partner, John Schorling, ran the club until 1928, then sold it to a white florist, William E. Trimble. Black business leaders revived the club briefly in the early 1930s, but it never reached its original level of power.

Although Foster's league died with him during the Great Depression, black baseball was reborn in the mid-thirties. By 1945 Jackie Robinson became the first black to enter major league baseball of the modern era. As well, 36 players from the old Negro leagues went to the majors during this early period. Foster's dream of an integrated baseball league was realized. The ultimate recognition for Foster came in 1981, when he was elected to the baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.