One For The Road: Remembering Rube Foster

By Staff in News on Feb 3, 2012 11:35PM

This Chicago Daily News photograph from 1911 is a group portrait of Negro National League\'s Chicago American Giants baseball team players standing on the field at a ballpark in Chicago, Illinois. Spectators are visible sitting in the bleachers behind the team. Credit: Chicago History Museum.

This 1911 Chicago Daily News photograph is a portrait of Negro National League\'s Chicago American Giants baseball player Jones batting at home plate on a baseball field in Chicago, Illinois. Two teammates are standing on the field behind him. Spectators sitting in the top row of the bleachers are visible in the background. Credit: Chicago History Museum.

This 1905 Chicago Daily News photograph is a full-length portrait of Lytle, baseball player for the Chicago Union Giants African American baseball team, pitching from the mound of a baseball field in Chicago, Illinois. Credit: Chicago History Museum.

This 1905 Chicago Daily News photograph is a group portrait of Chicago Union Giants, African American baseball team, standing in a line near the fence of a ballpark in Chicago. Credit: Chicago History Museum.

This 1905 Chicago Daily News photograph shows Rose, baseball player for the Chicago Union Giants, African American baseball team, reaching out to catch a ball at first base at a ballpark in Chicago. Credit: Chicago History Museum.

This 1905 Chicago Daily News photo features Joe Miller, Chicago Union Giants, African American baseball team, right arm extended, pitching from the mound at a ballpark in Chicago. Credit: Chicago History Museum.

This 1905 Chicago Daily News photograph is a full-length portrait of Johnson, baseball player for the Chicago Union Giants, an African American baseball team, standing at home plate in batting position on ballpark field in Chicago, Illinois. Spectators are sitting in the bleachers alongside the field. Credit: Chicago History Museum.

The Chicago Defender notes that the Negro Baseball League was founded on this date in 1920. The meetings to form the Negro National League and the the National Association of Colored Professional Base Ball Clubs were organized by Andrew "Rube" Foster, owner and manager of the Chicago American Giants.

Foster was a big, burly Texan who pitched his way up the ranks until he wound up on Frank Leland's Chicago Union Giants in 1902, but was released during a slump. He returned under Leland's employ in 1907 with the Leland Giants, this time as a manager. Under Fosters strict hand, the Giants won 110 games, including 48 straight, and won the Chicago City League Pennant.

Foster wrested control of the Giants from Leland in 1910 and later formed a partnership with John Schorling, son-in-law of White Sox owner Charles Comiskey, to create the Chicago American Giants. The American Giants played their home games in what became known as Schorling's Park at 39th Street and Wentworth Avenue. After the formation of the Negro National League, Foster was often accused of using the league as his own personal playground, scheduling an inordinate number of home games and being able to acquire talent with a skill that rivaled Red Auerbach during the Boston Celtics' dynasty. But it wasn't to last.

By 1923 the Kansas City Monarchs replaced Foster's team as the dominant club in the Negro League. In 1925 his teams finished in fourth-place in a split season schedule he implemented. He also nearly suffocated in a gas leak in Indianapolis.

Foster's behavior became more erratic after that, and he was eventually confined to an asylum in Kankakee. He died Dec. 9, 1930.

Foster became the first Negro League executive to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. He was commemorated with a stamp by the U.S. Postal Service in 2009.

Words by Chuck Sudo. Photos compiled by Samantha Abernethy