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 132-62. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1996.
Foster, the much-younger half-brother of Negro league player, pioneer, and fellow Hall of Famer, Rube Foster, was born in Calvert, Texas in 1904.
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Professional career
Foster played for the Memphis Red Sox in 1923 and '24, the Chicago American Giants from 1925 to '30--and again from 1932 to '35 and in 1937)--the Homestead Grays and Kansas City Monarchs in 1931, and the Pittsburgh Crawfords in 1936.
Foster's Giants won the Negro National League pennant in 1926, and the Negro League World Series championship in 1926 and '27. He was the player-manager of the team in 1930.
According to Phil Dixon's American Baseball Chronicles, Great Teams, The 1931 Homestead Grays Volume I, Foster, as a pitcher for the Homestead Grays, recorded a 10-2 record again rival African-American teams in 1931. 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 fast ball pass a major league All-Star team composed of such legendary men as Babe Herman, Joe Kuhel and both Warner 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 Negro League Baseball 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. [1]
Later Life
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, at the age of 74.
References
- ^ The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers: An Historical Compendium of Pitching, Pitchers, and Pitches. Bill James and Rob Neyer. 2004.
Phil Dixon's American Baseball Chronicles, Great Teams, The 1931 Homestead Grays Volume I
External links
- Baseball Hall of Fame – Member biography
- Baseball Library.com
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