Happy Birthday to the late and great Hall of Fame pitcher Bill Foster. Unfortunately, Foster was never able to pitch in the majors; however, during his fourteen-year career, he was a very successful pitcher in the Negro Leagues.

Career (1923-30; 31-1937):

110-56 W-L, 2.63 ERA, 1,499.2 IP, 1.172 WHIP, 922 K

  • 4x ERA Champion
  • 2x Negro League World Series Champion

Another unfortunate thing about Negro players is that they didn’t have the luxury of playing 154 games a year like guys in the majors did for many reasons. He pitched for the Chicago American Giants for the bulk of his career, where he would win two World Series. As a lefthanded pitcher, he had a pitch selection of an overhand curveball, slider, and changeup. Sidearm-wise, he had Curve and Changeup. He was able to throw a fastball. In 1926 and 1927, when he and the American Giants won back-to-back championships, he also had his two best seasons.

1926: 13-4 W-L, 1.80 ERA, 0.979 WHIP, 174.2 IP, 111 K’s (17 Starts, 27 Games)

1927: 21-5 W-L, 2.03 ERA, 1.161 WHIP, 217.0 IP, 119 K’s (25 Starts, 31 Games)

Bill Foster and many other colored players were robbed of the opportunity to play against the best of the highest level. Fun fact regarding Bill Foster he and Rube Foster were half brothers, having the same father, and didn’t officially meet until Bill was a teenager.

References:

  1. Bill Foster Career Statistics via Baseball-Reference: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/f/fostebi99.shtml
  2. Bill Foster via Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Foster_(baseball)#