Foster, "Rube" (Andrew)
Baseball
b. Sept. 17, 1879, Calvert, TX
d. Dec. 9, 1930
A pitcher and manager in the early years of black baseball, Foster was the chief organizer of the National Negro League. At seventeen, the 6-foot-4, 210-pound, right-handed Foster was starring for a barnstorming team.
He joined the new Chicago Union Giants in 1902, then went to the Cuban X Giants. Foster had 4 of the team's 5 wins when they beat the Philadelphia Giants in 1903 for the "colored championship of the world." He then went to the Philadelphia Giants in 1904 and had both their victories in a three-game championship series against the Cuban X Giants, striking out 18 in one game and pitching a 2-hitter in the other.
Foster began pitching for the Leland Giants of Chicago in 1907 and took over as manager three years later, guiding them to an incredible 123-6 record. He and a white tavern owner organized the Chicago American Giants in 1911; Foster played for the team until 1915 and managed it until 1920, when the Negro National League was organized.
He served as league president and secretary and often seemed a tyrant because he had to be to keep it going. As a salary, he collected five percent of the receipts from all league games, but he also used his own money to pay transportation and hotel bills for teams that got stranded without money, not an unusual problem.
In 1925, some team owners were unhappy with Foster and he offered to resign. The owners backed down. A year later, he was hospitalized with mental illness. Without his leadership, the league struggled along for a while but folded after the 1931 season.