Bill Foster (baseball)

William Hendrick "Bill" Foster (June 12, 1904 – September 16, 1978) was an American left-handed pitcher in baseball's Negro leagues in the 1920s and 1930s, and had a career record of 143-69.^[1] He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1996. Foster was the much-younger half-brother of Rube Foster, a Negro league player, pioneer, and fellow Hall of Famer.

Early life

Foster was born in 1904 in Calvert, Texas. He had the same father as Rube Foster, who was a Negro league player, manager and owner. Rube Foster was a key figure in the founding of the Negro National League.^[2] Bill Foster's mother died when he was four years old, so he was raised by his grandparents in Rodney, Mississippi.^[3] He did not meet his older half-brother until he was a teenager.^[4]

Professional career

Foster played for the Memphis Red Sox in 1923 and 1924, the Chicago American Giants from 1925 to 1930—and again from 1932 to 1935 and in 1937—the Homestead Grays and Kansas City Monarchs in 1931, and the Pittsburgh Crawfords in 1936.

Foster played for Chicago American Giants teams that won the Negro National League pennant and the Negro League World Series championship in 1926 and 1927, the Negro Southern League pennant in 1932, and the Negro National League pennant in 1933.^[5] He was the player-manager of the team in 1930.^[6]

In 1926, Foster won 23 games in a row and 26 overall, but his most amazing performance came the last day of the playoffs to determine the Negro National League title. Needing to win both games of a doubleheader against the Kansas City Monarchs, Foster hurled complete game shutouts in both games of a doubleheader against Bullet Joe Rogan and the Monarchs, 1–0 and 5–0, to put the Giants in the World Series.^[7]^[8]

In 1931 Foster, as a pitcher for the Homestead Grays, recorded a 10–2 record against rival African-American teams.^[9] His record against rival African-American teams increases to 11–3, if you count the games that were won and lost in Alcorn, Mississippi, when Syd Pollock's Cubans House of Davids visited Alcorn College prior to Foster joining the Grays. Foster finished the 1931 campaign with J. L. Wilkinson's Kansas City Monarchs where on October 4, 1931 he blew his fastball past a major league all-star team composed of such legendary men as Babe Herman, Joe Kuhel and both Waner brothers, Lloyd and Paul. In the game played at Kansas City's Muehlebach Field, Foster captured a 4–3 win. During the 1931 season Foster struck out ten men in a game on nine different occasions and posted a seasonal high of sixteen strikeouts in Vandergrift, Pennsylvania, on August 6. He also recorded four shutouts. Foster finished 1931 with a 23-5 record.

He was the top vote getter and the winning pitcher in the first East-West All-Star Game in 1933, and was on the All-Star team again in 1934.

Foster's pitch selection included a fastball, overhand curve, slider, sidearm curve, and a changeup.^[10]

Baseball people often characterized Foster as one of the game's great players. Umpire Jocko Conlan said Foster had "the same perfect delivery of Herb Pennock, but was faster by far, with a sharp curve, and had what all great pitchers have – control." Charlie Gehringer once told Foster, "If I could paint you white I could get $150,000 for you right now." Negro league player and manager Dave Malarcher favorably compared him to Negro league legend Satchel Paige, saying, "Bill Foster was my star pitcher, the greatest pitcher of our time, not even barring Satchel."^[11]

Later life

After retiring from professional baseball in 1936, Foster moved to Tarboro, North Carolina, where his childhood sweetheart Thelma Quigless lived. He also played semiprofessional baseball in 1940 in nearby Princeville, North Carolina. Foster and Quigless were married in 1941. Foster took a job in insurance policy sales with the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company. He later divorced Quigless.^[2]

Foster married again and returned to Mississippi. From 1960 to 1977, Foster was a dean and the baseball coach at his alma mater, Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College. In 1978 Foster died in Lorman, Mississippi.^[2]

Legacy

The Foster Baseball Field at McGowan Stadium in Lorman, the home field for Alcorn State baseball, is named for him.^[12]

Foster was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1996. He was elected to the Southwestern Athletic Conference Hall of Fame the next year.^[13] In 2003, he was voted in to the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame.^[3]

Notes

↑ Hogan 2006, pp. 404–05.
1 2 3 Whirty, Ryan (September 24, 2013). "Baseball bonds Princeville, Hall of Fame pitcher Bill Foster". The News & Observer. Retrieved January 2, 2015.
1 2 "Bill Foster". Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame. Retrieved January 2, 2015.
↑ Heaphy, Leslie, ed. (2006). Black Baseball and Chicago: Essays on the Players, Teams and Games of the Negro Leagues' Most Important City. McFarland. p. 74. ISBN 0786426748. Retrieved January 2, 2015.
↑ Clark and Lester 1994, pp. 164–65.
↑ Riley 1994, p. 293.
↑ Big Bill Foster – Negro Leagues Player
↑ Bill Foster, by the Editors of Publications International, Ltd.
↑ Dixon 2009.
↑ James and Neyer 2004, p. 208.
↑ The Hall: A Celebration of Baseball's Greats: In Stories and Images, the Complete Roster of Inductees. Baseball Hall of Fame. 2014. p. 257. ISBN 0316213039. Retrieved January 2, 2015.
↑ "Alcorn State University holds plaque unveiling ceremony in honor of the McGowan Stadium/Fisher Field on May 6". Alcorn.edu. Alcorn State University. Archived from the original on January 31, 2012. Retrieved January 2, 2015.
↑ "Southwestern Athletic Conference Hall of Fame classes". Southwestern Athletic Conference. Retrieved January 2, 2015.

References

Clark, Dick; Lester, Larry (1994), The Negro Leagues Book, Cleveland, Ohio: Society for American Baseball Research
Dixon, Phil (2009). Phil Dixon's American Baseball Chronicles, Great Teams, The 1931 Homestead Grays Volume I. Xlibris. ISBN 1-4415-7471-9.
Hogan, Lawrence D. (2006), Shades of Glory: The Negro Leagues and the Story of African-American Baseball, Washington, D.C.: National Geographic, ISBN 0-7922-5306-X
James, Bill; Neyer, Rob (2004), The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers, New York: Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0-7432-6158-5
Riley, James A. (1994), The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues, New York: Carroll & Graf, ISBN 0-7867-0959-6

External links

Bill Foster at the Baseball Hall of Fame

Negro league baseball statistics and player information from Seamheads.com, or Baseball-Reference (Negro leagues)
Baseball Library.com
Find a Grave Bio

Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 1996

BBWAA Vote	none

Veterans Committee	Jim Bunning Bill Foster Ned Hanlon Earl Weaver

J. G. Taylor Spink Award	Joe Durso

Ford C. Frick Award	Herb Carneal

Members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame

Pitchers	Alexander Bender Blyleven M. Brown R. Brown Bunning Carlton Chesbro Clarkson Cooper Coveleski Cummings Day Dean Dihigo Drysdale Eckersley Faber Feller Fingers Ford B. Foster Galvin B. Gibson Glavine Gomez Gossage Grimes Grove Haines Hoyt Hubbell Hunter Jenkins R. Johnson W. Johnson Joss Keefe Koufax Lemon Lyons Maddux Marichal Marquard Martínez Mathewson McGinnity Méndez Newhouser Nichols Niekro Paige Palmer Pennock Perry Plank Radbourn Rixey Roberts Rogan Ruffing Rusie Ryan Seaver H. Smith Smoltz Spahn Sutter Sutton Vance Waddell Walsh Welch Wilhelm J. Williams Willis Wynn Young

Catchers	Bench Berra Bresnahan Campanella Carter Cochrane Dickey Ewing Ferrell Fisk J. Gibson Hartnett Lombardi Mackey Piazza Santop Schalk D. White

First basemen	Anson Beckley Bottomley Brouthers Cepeda Chance Connor Foxx Gehrig Greenberg G. Kelly Killebrew Leonard McCovey Mize Murray Pérez Sisler Suttles Taylor Terry Thomas

Second basemen	Alomar Biggio Carew E. Collins Doerr Evers Fox Frisch Gehringer Gordon Grant Herman Hornsby Lajoie Lazzeri Mazeroski McPhee Morgan J. Robinson Sandberg Schoendienst

Third basemen	Baker Boggs Brett J. Collins Dandridge J. Johnson Kell Lindstrom Mathews Molitor B. Robinson Santo Schmidt Traynor J. Wilson

Shortstops	Aparicio Appling Bancroft Banks Boudreau Cronin Davis T. Jackson Jennings Larkin Lloyd Maranville Reese Ripken Jr. Rizzuto Sewell O. Smith Tinker Vaughan Wagner Wallace Ward Wells Yount

Outfielders	Aaron Ashburn Averill Bell Brock W. Brown Burkett Carey Charleston Clarke Clemente Cobb Combs Crawford Cuyler Dawson Delahanty DiMaggio Doby Duffy Flick Goslin Griffey Jr. Gwynn Hafey Hamilton Heilmann Henderson Hill Hooper Irvin R. Jackson Kaline Keeler Kelley K. Kelly Kiner Klein Mantle Manush Mays T. McCarthy Medwick Musial O'Rourke Ott Puckett J. Rice S. Rice F. Robinson Roush Ruth Simmons Slaughter Snider Speaker Stargell Stearnes Thompson Torriente L. Waner P. Waner Wheat B. Williams T. Williams H. Wilson Winfield Yastrzemski Youngs

Managers	Alston Anderson Cox Durocher Hanlon Harris Herzog Huggins La Russa Lasorda López Mack J. McCarthy McGraw McKechnie W. Robinson Selee Southworth Stengel Torre Weaver D. Williams

Executives / pioneers	Barrow Bulkeley Cartwright Chadwick Chandler Comiskey Dreyfuss R. Foster Frick Giles Gillick Griffith Harridge Hulbert B. Johnson Kuhn Landis La. MacPhail Le. MacPhail Manley O'Malley Pompez Posey Rickey Ruppert Schuerholz Selig Spalding Veeck Weiss S. White Wilkinson G. Wright H. Wright Yawkey

Umpires	Barlick Chylak Conlan Connolly Evans Harvey Hubbard Klem McGowan O'Day

Chicago American Giants 1926 Colored World Series Champions

Jim Brown Rube Curry Bill Foster Floyd Gardner George Harney John Hines Stanford Jackson Dave Malarcher Webster McDonald Willie Powell Pythias Russ George Sweatt Sandy Thompson Willie Ware Charlie Williams

Manager Dave Malarcher

Chicago American Giants 1927 Colored World Series Champions

Jim Brown Larry Brown Rube Curry Walter Davis Bill Foster George Harney John Hines Stanford Jackson Dave Malarcher Webster McDonald Eddie Miller Willie Powell Nat Rogers Pythias Russ George Sweatt Charlie Williams

Manager Dave Malarcher

Alcorn State Braves head baseball coaches

Bill Foster (1960–1971) Willie McGowan (1972–2009) Barret Rey (2010– )

Authority control	WorldCat Identities VIAF: 53523440

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