Rube Foster

Rube Foster (1879-1930), American baseball player, manager, and executive, who founded the Negro National League (NNL) in 1920. He is regarded by many as having been the most influential individual in the Negro Leagues. The term Negro Leagues is commonly used to refer to organized baseball played by blacks in the late 19th century and early 20th century, when they were barred from major league competition.

Andrew Foster was born in Calvert, Texas, and by the time he was a teenager he had become a successful pitcher in the Negro Leagues. In 1903 he led the Philadelphia-based Cuban X-Giants to the championship of the black baseball circuit, winning four games in a championship series against the Philadelphia Giants. Around this time Foster acquired the nickname Rube, after an exhibition game in which he defeated one of the outstanding white pitchers of the time, Rube Waddell of the Philadelphia Athletics of the American League (AL).

As a pitcher Foster continued to dominate the Negro Leagues over the next few years, and he also became manager for the Chicago-based Leland Giants, guiding the team to a 110-10 record in 1907. Before the start of the 1911 season, Foster helped form a new team, the Chicago American Giants. Foster played for and managed the team until 1915, when he retired as a player but continued to manage.

By the late 1910s Foster had become convinced that black teams needed to organize into a coherent league in order to survive. Until this time black teams had usually been independent outfits, hosting visiting teams and touring the country. In 1920, however, Foster brought together the owners of the best Negro League teams in the Midwest and convinced them to form the NNL in order to stabilize team rosters, maximize revenue opportunities, and establish an organized season and championship. Foster was chosen as the league's president and secretary. He also maintained control of the American Giants, who won the first three NNL championships (1920-1922).

Although he was criticized for influencing all aspects of the NNL, Foster was the driving force that kept the league operating and successful. In the mid-1920s, though, his health began to fail, and he died in 1930. Without his leadership the NNL foundered, folding in 1931. By that time, however, other leagues for black players had been established, and in 1933 a new Negro National League was formed. Foster was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1981.