06/12/2026
Our grounds crew remembers the late, great Bill Foster on what would have been his 122nd birthday.
The Hall of Fame pitcher was born on June 12, 1904 in Calvert, Texas.
Bill was the much younger half-brother of Rube Foster, the legendary Negro League player, manager, and executive.
When he was just 13-years-old, Foster went to watch the Alcorn College baseball team play in Lorman, Mississippi.
Foster told the coach that he could beat anyone out there, so the coach gave the big youngster a chance.
“I struck out everybody they had,” Foster recalled. “I made the baseball team then. Even in the sixth grade, you could make the college baseball team,” Foster added.
Standing 6-2, and weighing 195 pounds, Foster started his Negro League career with the Memphis Red Sox in 1923.
Foster also pitched for the Chicago American Giants, Birmingham Black Barons, Homestead Grays, Kansas City Monarchs, and Pittsburgh Crawfords.
“I had a pretty good fastball, and I had a good overhand curveball, which was known as a drop ball,” Foster remembered.
He continued, “Then I had what they call sliders now. I had what is called a sidearm curve ball—palm down. I had a slider, an outshoot and a curveball, all on the same pitch.
Umpire Jocko Conlon 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.”
The durable catcher Ted “Double Duty” Radcliffe also praised Foster, saying he, “was the greatest left-hander I ever played with, and he was a gentleman on and off the field.”
Foster won 26 consecutive games for the Chicago American Giants in 1926.
Foster reflected, “I think I won 28 or 29 games that year, and I didn’t lose but three or four.”
It was that same season that Foster had complete game victories in both ends of a doubleheader against the Kansas City Monarchs to decide the Western Negro League playoffs.
The flame throwing lefty was a Negro League World Series champion in both 1926 and 1927.
In 1929, Foster and his Chicago teammates played a five game series against some of the best players in the American and National Leagues.
The white team included Hall of Famers Charlie Gehringer, Heinie Manush, and Harry Heilmann.
Chicago won three of the five games, Foster pitched in three games, and won two of those contests.
Gehringer told Foster, “If I could paint you white, I could get $150,000 for you right now.”
After retiring from professional baseball in 1936, Foster worked as an insurance salesman.
He would later return to Alcorn State University, where he was a dean, and the baseball coach.
The baseball field at Alcorn State is named after him.
Foster died in 1978, and Cooperstown wouldn’t open its doors to him until 1996.
Foster is one of 17 Hall of Famers to play at Historic Hamtramck Stadium.
In his later years, Foster reflected, “I’ve had a wonderful life. I don’t regret anything at all that I can remember, up to this very night…It just wasn’t time yet for Negroes in the major leagues.
Oh, I could have made it all right, but it wasn’t time.”
