Erik Visits an American Grave, Part 1,834

This is the grave of Rube Foster.

Born in 1879 in Calvert, Texas, Andrew Foster grew up the son of an AME minister. But he was much more interested in baseball than preaching and he chose that direction. He started his professional career with the Waco Yellow Jackets in 1897 and rose up the ranks of the traveling Black baseball teams. He was a really good pitcher and this led him to be signed by the Chicago Union Giants, owned by Frank Leland, in 1902. But he had a terrible year and was released. He was then signed by the Otsego Independents, an actual interracial team. While statistics for the Negro Leagues are extremely sketchy, especially for times this long ago, he averaged about 11 strikeouts a game for the Independents in the games where we do have information. This led him to the Cuban X-Giants, a Philadelphia-based team that was perhaps the best Black team of the first decade of the century.

Foster began to be called Rube after he outperformed the white pitcher Rube Waddell in an exhibition game. He was called this by 1904. He was then with the Philadelphia Giants, a dominant team and he was one of the greatest pitchers of any race during this decade. He claimed to have gone 51-4 for the Giants in 1905, though established records puts him at 25-3. Well, whatever, that’s still pretty great.

Foster started moving into the business side of the game in the mid 1900s. He led a big group of players out of the Philadelphia Giants to the Chicago Leland Giants (popular name for teams in these years!) before the 1907 season, which he also managed. He took legal control of the team from Frank Leland in 1910. He then signed many of the best players in the Negro Leagues, including the great shortstop John Henry Lloyd. That was a great team that year, best in the Negro Leagues. The next year, he moved the Giants into the recently abandoned South Side Park after the Chicago White Sox moved into Comiskey Field. Now the Chicago American Giants, they continued to be one of the best teams in the Negro Leagues every year, if not the best in every year.

By 1915, Foster had mostly stopped playing except for occasional appearances and was focusing on managing and ownership. He was a big time teacher, emphasizing pitching, speed, and defense, and his managerial tree continued through the rest of the Negro Leagues history, with many former players becoming managers themselves.

In 1920, Foster and six other owners started the Negro National League to bring more professionalism to the game. Foster was league president while still running the Giants. There were all sorts of accusations of league policy favoring the Giants, most of them probably true, including very favorable scheduling decisions. He basically forced the Memphis Red Sox to give up his younger brother Bill so he could join the Giants in 1926. Not surprisingly, his Giants won the first three titles in the league before the Kansas City Monarchs finally took them out and would later become the premier team in the league.

Unfortunately, Foster started suffering from severe mental illness, much like the other Rube, Waddell. He became increasingly paranoid and started carrying a gun around with him, including while managing. Halfway through the 1926 season, his friends and family had him institutionalized. He never recovered from whatever ailed him and he died in 1930. He was only 51 years old.

Rube Foster is buried in Lincoln Cemetery, Blue Island, Illinois.

Foster was named to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1981, the first executive from the Negro Leagues to be so honored. If you would like this series to visit other members of the Negro Leagues in the Hall of Fame, you can donate to cover the required expenses here. Cool Papa Bell is in Normandy, Missouri and Josh Gibson is in Pittsburgh. Previous posts in this series are archived here and here.