View source for Rube Foster

{{Short description|American baseball player (1879–1930)}}
{{About|former Negro leagues co-founder, player, manager and executive|the Boston Red Sox pitcher from the early 20th century|Rube Foster (baseball, born 1888)}}

{{Infobox baseball biography
| name          = Rube Foster
| image         = Rube-foster.jpg
| position      = [[Pitcher]] / [[Manager (baseball)|Manager]] / [[Owner]]
| birth_date    = {{birth date|1879|9|17|mf=y}}|birth_place=[[La Grange, Texas]], U.S.<ref name="birthplace">Although most biographies say that Foster was born in Calvert, Texas (see Riley, p. 290), a profile in a 1922 book and 1880 census records suggest that he may have been born in [[Fayette County, Texas]] near [[La Grange, Texas|La Grange]]; see {{cite web | last=Ashwill | first=Gary | title=Mr. G—, Baseball "Magnate" | date=July 23, 2008 | url=http://agatetype.typepad.com/agate_type/2008/07/mr-g-baseball-m.html | access-date=December 26, 2009 }} and {{cite web | last=Ashwill | first=Gary | title=Where Was Rube Foster Really Born? | date=August 11, 2008 | url=http://agatetype.typepad.com/agate_type/2008/08/where-was-rube.html | access-date=December 26, 2009 }}</ref>
| death_date    = {{death date and age|1930|12|9|1879|9|17|mf=y}}|death_place=[[Kankakee, Illinois]], U.S.
| bats          = Right
| throws        = Right
| debutleague   = Negro leagues
| debutdate     = 
| debutyear     = 1902
| debutteam     = Chicago Union Giants
| finalleague   = Negro leagues 
| finaldate     = 
| finalyear     = 1917
| finalteam     = Chicago American Giants
| statyear      =
| statleague    = Negro leagues{{efn|On December 16, 2020, Major League Baseball declared the Negro leagues, from the span of 1920–1948, to be a "Major League".<ref>{{cite web|title=MLB officially designates the Negro Leagues as 'Major League'|url=https://www.mlb.com/press-release/press-release-mlb-officially-designates-the-negro-leagues-as-major-league|website=MLB.com|date=December 16, 2020|accessdate=June 6, 2024}}</ref> Foster's statistics reflect his time in the Negro leagues from 1920 until the end of his career.}}
| stat1label    = Managerial record
| stat1value    = 336–195–11
| stat2label    = Winning %
| stat2value    = {{Winning percentage|336|195}}
| teams         = 
'''As player'''<br>
*[[Leland Giants|Chicago Union Giants]] ({{baseball year|1902}})
*[[Cuban X-Giants]] ({{baseball year|1903}})<ref name="xgiants1903">{{Cite web|url=https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1Wcncq5-bHdVU1uNV9zRXpZa3M/edit?usp=embed_facebook|title=19030911HarrisburgPatriot.pdf|website=Google Docs}}</ref>
*[[Philadelphia Giants]] ({{baseball year|1904}}–{{baseball year|1906}})
*[[Leland Giants]] ({{baseball year|1907}}–{{baseball year|1910}})
*[[Chicago American Giants]] ({{baseball year|1911}}–{{baseball year|1917}})
*[[Louisville White Sox (1914-1915)|Louisville White Sox]] ({{baseball year|1914}})
'''As manager'''<br>
*[[Leland Giants]] ({{baseball year|1907}}–{{baseball year|1910}})
*[[Chicago American Giants]] ({{baseball year|1911}}–{{baseball year|1926}}) <ref>{{Cite web|url=http://johndonaldson.bravehost.com/pdf/00705.pdf|title="All-Stars and Giants Again" ''Kansas City Star'', Kansas City, Missouri, October 18, 1919 Page 14}}</ref>
*[[Louisville White Sox (1914-1915)|Louisville White Sox]] ({{baseball year|1914}})
| highlights    =
*4× [[Negro National League (1920–1931)|Negro National League]] pennant (1920–1922, 1926)
| hoflink       = National Baseball Hall of Fame
| hoftype       = National
| hofdate       = [[1981 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting|1981]]
| hofvote       =
| hofmethod     = Veterans Committee
}}

<!-- Unsourced image removed: [[File:Rube-foster.gif|frame|right|Andrew Rube Foster]] -->
'''Andrew''' "'''Rube'''" '''Foster''' (September 17, 1879 – December 9, 1930) was an American professional [[baseball]] co-founder, player, manager, and executive in the [[Negro league baseball|Negro leagues]]. He was elected to the [[Baseball Hall of Fame]] in 1981.

Foster is considered by sports historians to have been one of the best pitchers of the 1900s. He is known for founding and managing the [[Chicago American Giants]], one of the most successful black baseball teams of the pre-integration era. Most notably, he founded the [[Negro National League (the first)|Negro National League]], the first long-lasting professional league for [[African-American]] ballplayers, which operated from 1920 to 1931. He is known as the "father of Black Baseball."<ref name=EducPrograms>'''''At''''' [http://www.nlbm.com/s/ed.htm Education/Programs] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160115080755/http://nlbm.com/s/ed.htm |date=2016-01-15 }}, '''''scroll down to''''' "Programs for Adult Learners". [[Negro Leagues Baseball Museum]] official website. Retrieved 2011-10-06.</ref>

Foster adopted his longtime nickname, "Rube", as his official middle name later in life.

==Early years==
Foster was born in [[La Grange, Texas]],<ref name="birthplace"/> on September 17, 1879. His father, also named Andrew, was a minister and elder of the local African Methodist Episcopal Church.<ref>Cottrell, 7</ref> Foster started his professional career with the Waco Yellow Jackets, an independent black team, in 1897 and played for the [[Hot Springs Arlingtons]] in 1901.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://arkbaseball.com/tiki-index.php?page=Hot+Springs+Arlingtons|title=Arkansas Baseball Encyclopedia &#124; Hot Springs Arlingtons|website=Arkansas Baseball Encyclopedia}}</ref> Over the next few years he gradually built up a reputation among white and black fans alike, until he was signed by [[Frank Leland]]'s [[Leland Giants|Chicago Union Giants]], a team in the top ranks of black baseball, in 1902. He was released after a slump and signed with a white semipro team based in Otsego, Michigan—[[George Bardeen|Bardeen's]] [[Otsego Independents]]. According to Phil Dixon's American Baseball Chronicles: Great Teams, The 1905 Philadelphia Giants, Volume III: "In completing the summer of 1902 with Otsego's multi-ethnic team—the only multi-race team with which he would ever regularly perform—Foster is reported to have pitched twelve games. He finished with a documented record of eight wins and four losses along with eighty-two documented strikeouts. Ironically, strikeout totals for five games in which he appeared were not recorded. If found, the totals would likely show that Foster struck out more than one-hundred batters for Otsego. In the seven games where details exist, Foster averaged eleven strikeouts per outing." Toward the end of the season, he joined the [[Cuban X-Giants]] of Philadelphia, perhaps the best team in black baseball. The 1903 season saw Foster establish himself as the X-Giants' pitching star. In a postseason series for the eastern black championship, the X-Giants defeated [[Sol White]]'s [[Philadelphia Giants]] five games to two, with Foster himself winning four games.

According to various accounts, including his own, Foster acquired the nickname "Rube" after defeating star [[Philadelphia Athletics]] left-hander [[Rube Waddell]] in a postseason exhibition game played sometime between 1902 and 1905.<ref>Holway 1988, 11.</ref><ref>Riley, 290.</ref><ref>Cottrell, 19.</ref> A newspaper story in the Trenton (NJ) ''Times'' from July 26, 1904, contains the earliest known example of Foster being referred to as "Rube," indicating that the supposed meeting with Waddell must have taken place earlier than that. Recent research has uncovered a game played on August 2, 1903, in which Foster met and defeated Waddell while the latter was playing under an assumed name for a semipro team in New York City.<ref>{{cite web | last=Ashwill | first=Gary | title=Rube vs. Rube | date=March 23, 2012 | url=http://agatetype.typepad.com/agate_type/2012/03/rube-vs-rube.html | access-date=March 23, 2012 }}</ref>

Foster, now a star, jumped to the Philadelphia Giants for the 1904 season. Legend has it that [[John McGraw]], manager of the [[New York Giants (NL)|New York Giants]], hired Foster to teach the young [[Christy Mathewson]] the "fadeaway", or [[screwball]], though historians have cast doubt on this story. During the 1904 season, Foster won 20 games against all competition (including two no-hitters) and lost six. In a rematch with Foster's old team, the Cuban X-Giants, he won two games and batted .400 in leading the Philadelphia Giants to the black championship.

In 1905, Foster—by his own account several years later—compiled a fantastic record of 51–4 (though recent research has confirmed only a 25–3 record) and led the Giants to another series championship, this time over the [[Brooklyn Royal Giants]]. The ''Philadelphia Telegraph'' wrote that "Foster has never been equalled in a pitcher's box." The following season, the Philadelphia Giants helped form the International League of Independent Professional Ball Players, composed of both all-black and all-white teams in the Philadelphia and Wilmington, Delaware, areas.

==Leland Giants==
In 1907, Foster's manager [[Sol White]] published his ''Official Baseball Guide: History of Colored Baseball'', with Foster contributing an article on "How to Pitch." However, before the season began, he and several other stars (including, most importantly, the outfielder [[Pete Hill]]) left the Philadelphia Giants for the [[Leland Giants|Chicago Leland Giants]], with Foster named playing manager. Under his leadership, the Lelands won 110 games (including 48 straight) and lost only ten, and took the Chicago City League pennant. The following season the Lelands tied a national championship series with the [[Philadelphia Giants]], each team winning three games.

Foster suffered a broken leg in July 1909, but rushed himself back into the lineup in time for an October exhibition series against the [[Chicago Cubs]]. Foster, pitching the second game, squandered a 5–2 lead in the ninth inning, then lost the game on a controversial play when a Cubs runner stole home while Foster was arguing with the umpire. The Lelands lost the series, three games to nothing. The Lelands also lost the unofficial western black championship to the [[St. Paul Colored Gophers]].

In 1910, Foster wrested legal control of the team from its founder, [[Frank Leland]].<ref name="broadax1910">{{Cite web|url=https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1Wcncq5-bHdTGFMWHZiNWo2UHM/view?usp=drive_open&usp=embed_facebook|title=19100423ChicagoBroadAx.pdf|website=Google Docs}}</ref> He proceeded to put together the team he later considered his finest. He signed [[John Henry Lloyd]] away from the Philadelphia Giants; along with [[Pete Hill|Hill]], second baseman [[Home Run Johnson|Grant Johnson]], catcher [[Bruce Petway]], and pitchers [[Frank Wickware]] and [[Charles Dougherty (baseball)|Pat Dougherty]], Lloyd sparked the Lelands to a 123–6 record (with Foster himself contributing a 13–2 record on the mound).

==Chicago American Giants==
[[File:Chicago American Giants 1919.jpg|right|thumb|230px|1919 Chicago American Giants]]
[[Image:1920 Detroit Stars.jpg|thumb|250px|right|The 1920 Detroit Stars]]

The following season, Foster established a partnership with white businessman John M. Schorling. The White Sox had just moved into [[Comiskey Park]], and Schorling arranged for Foster's team to use the vacated [[South Side Park]], at 39th and Wentworth. Settling into their new home (now called Schorling's Park), the Lelands became the [[Chicago American Giants]]. For the next four seasons, the American Giants claimed the western black baseball championship, though they lost a 1913 series to the [[Lincoln Giants]] for the national championship.

By 1915, Foster's first serious rival in the midwest had emerged: [[C. I. Taylor]]'s [[Indianapolis ABCs]], who claimed the western championship after defeating the American Giants four games to none in July. One of the victories was a forfeit called after a brawl between the two teams broke out. After the series, Foster and Taylor engaged in a public dispute about that game and the championship. In 1916, both teams again claimed the western title. The continued wrangling led to calls for a black baseball league to be formed, but Foster, Taylor, and the other major clubs in the midwest were unable to come to any agreement.

By this time, Foster was pitching very little, compiling only a 2–2 record in 1915. His last recorded outing on the mound was in 1917; from this time he became purely a bench manager. As a manager and team owner, Foster was a disciplinarian. He asserted control over every aspect of the game, and set a high standard for personal conduct, appearance, and professionalism among his players. Given Schorling Park's huge dimensions, Foster developed a style of play that emphasized speed, bunting, place hitting, power pitching, and defense. He was also considered a great teacher, and many of his players themselves eventually became managers, including [[Pete Hill]], [[Bruce Petway]], [[Bingo DeMoss]], [[Dave Malarcher]], Sam Crawford, [[Poindexter Williams]], and many others.

In 1919, Foster helped [[Tenny Blount]] finance a new club in Detroit, the [[Detroit Stars|Stars]]. He also transferred several of his veteran players there, including Hill, who was to manage the new team, and Petway. He may have been preparing the way for the formation, the following year, of the [[Negro National League (the first)|Negro National League]] (NNL).

==Negro National League==
[[File:Rube Foster 1924.jpg|thumb|Foster at the [[1924 Colored World Series]].]]

In 1920, Foster, Taylor, and the owners of six other midwestern clubs met in the spring to form a professional baseball circuit for African-American teams. Foster, as president, controlled league operations, while remaining owner and manager of the American Giants. He was periodically accused of favoring his own team, especially in matters of scheduling (the Giants in the early years tended to have a disproportionate number of home games) and personnel: Foster seemed able to acquire whatever talent he needed from other clubs, such as [[Jimmie Lyons]], the Detroit Stars' best player in 1920, who was transferred to the American Giants for 1921, or Foster's own younger brother, [[Bill Foster (baseball)|Bill]], who joined the American Giants unwillingly when Rube forced the [[Memphis Red Sox]] to give him up in 1926. His critics believed he had organized the league primarily for purposes of booking games for the American Giants. With a stable schedule and reasonably solvent opponents, Foster was able to improve receipts at the gate. It is also true that when opposing clubs lost money, he was known to help them meet payroll, sometimes out of his own pocket.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Kelly |first1=Matt |title=The Father of Black Baseball |url=https://www.mlb.com/history/negro-leagues/players/rube-foster |website=mlb.com |publisher=MLB Advanced Media, LP. |access-date=26 December 2021}}</ref>

His American Giants won the new league's first three pennants before being overtaken by the [[Kansas City Monarchs]] in 1923. In the same year the [[Hilldale Club]] and [[Bacharach Giants]], the most important eastern clubs, pulled out of an agreement with the NNL and founded their own league, the [[Eastern Colored League]] (ECL). The ECL raided the older circuit for players, Foster's own ace pitcher [[Dave Brown (baseball)|Dave Brown]] among them. Eventually the two leagues reached an agreement to respect one another's contracts and to play a [[Negro League World Series|world series]].

After two years of finishing behind the Monarchs, Foster "cleaned house" in spring 1925, releasing several veterans (including Lyons and pitchers [[Dick Whitworth]] and Tom Williams). On May 26, Foster was nearly asphyxiated by a gas leak in Indianapolis.<ref>{{cite book|last=Lester|first=Larry|date=2012| title=Rube Foster In His Time: On the Field and in the Papers with Black Baseball's Greatest Visionary|publisher=McFarland|location=Jefferson, North Carolina|page=166}}</ref> Though he recovered and returned to his team, his behavior grew erratic from then on.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}} Foster had instituted a split-season format, and his American Giants finished third in both halves.

The year 1926 saw him complete his team's reshaping, leaving only a handful of veterans from the championship squads of 1920 to 1922. The club finished third in the season's first half, but Foster would never finish the second. Over the years, "Foster grew increasingly paranoid. Took to carrying a revolver with him everywhere he went." Suffering from serious delusions, including one where he believed he was about to receive a call to pitch in the World Series, he was institutionalized midway through the 1926 season at an asylum in Kankakee, Illinois.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Nilsson |first1=Ryan |title=Founder of the Negro Leagues was not your average Rube |url=https://chicago.suntimes.com/2020/7/12/21317798/negro-leagues-rube-foster-anniversary |website=Chicago.suntimes.com |date=12 July 2020 |access-date=25 December 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Odzer|first=Tim|title=Rube Foster|url=https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/andrew-rube-foster/|access-date=June 27, 2021|website=Society For American Baseball Research}}</ref>

The American Giants and the NNL lived on—in fact, led by Dave Malarcher, the Giants won the pennant and World Series in both 1926 and 1927—but the league clearly suffered in the absence of Foster's leadership. Foster died in 1930, never having recovered his sanity, and a year later the league he had founded fell apart.

Foster is interred in [[Lincoln Cemetery (Cook County)|Lincoln Cemetery]] in [[Blue Island, Illinois]]. Thousands attended his funeral in [[Bronzeville, Chicago]], including "an overflow crowd of 3,000 people who 'stood in the snow and rain.'<ref name=Rumore>{{Cite news |last=Rumore |first=Kori |date=2021-07-25 |title=As first victim of Chicago's 1919 race riots finally receives a grave marker, here's a look at other notable people buried in Lincoln Cemetery |work=Chicago Tribune |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-lincoln-cemetery-blue-island-notable-graves-20210723-ke7n57ifyfg6pd6akwaz4tsi6a-story.html |access-date=2021-07-25}}</ref> At his funeral, his coffin was closed, according to attendees, "at the usual hour a ballgame ends."

==Legacy==
[[File:Rube Foster plaque HOF.jpg|right|thumb|Foster's plaque at the [[National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum]]]]

In 1981, Foster was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He was the first representative of the Negro leagues elected as a pioneer or executive.

Around 1999, the City of Chicago included Foster in its Chicago Tribute series of historical markers around the city. A marker about Foster was erected at the corner of [[Pershing Road (Chicago)|Pershing Road]] (39th Street) and Wentworth Avenue, next to the [[Wentworth Gardens]] housing complex, at the location of [[South Side Park]], where Foster's Giants played until 1941.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Andrew 'Rube' Foster Historical Marker |url=https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=235191 |access-date=2025-01-27 |website=www.hmdb.org |language=en}}</ref>  The marker was still standing but faded and hard to read as of 2023.<ref name=":0" />

On December 30, 2009, the [[U.S. Postal Service]] announced that it planned to issue a pair of [[postage stamp]]s in June honoring Negro leagues Baseball.<ref>{{cite web | publisher=United States Postal Service | title=Postal News: Negro Leagues Baseball Stamp | date=December 30, 2009 | url=http://www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/2009/pr09_118.htm#negro | access-date=January 5, 2010 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606082628/http://www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/2009/pr09_118.htm#negro | archive-date=June 6, 2011 }}</ref> On July 17, 2010, the Postal Service [[First day of issue|issued]] a se-tenant pair of 44-cent, first-class, U.S. [[Commemorative stamp|commemorative]] postage stamps, to honor the all-black professional baseball leagues that operated from 1920 to about 1960. One of the stamps depicts Foster, along with his name and the words "NEGRO LEAGUES BASEBALL". The stamps were formally issued at the [[Negro Leagues Baseball Museum]], during the celebration of the museum's twentieth anniversary.<ref>{{cite web|title=New stamps honors Negro Leagues Baseball|date=July 17, 2010|publisher=PRNewswire-USNewswire|work=affrodite.net|url=http://affrodite.net/2010/07/15/new-stamps-honors-negro-leagues-baseball/|access-date=2011-10-21}}</ref>

The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum hosts the annual Andrew "Rube" Foster Lecture, in September.<ref name=EducPrograms/>

In 2021, Rube Foster was posthumously inducted into the [[Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.chicagolandsportshalloffame.com/news/2021-class-to-include-baseball-great-and-pioneer-rube-foster|title = 2021 Class to Include Baseball Great and Pioneer "Rube" Foster}}</ref>

On November 10, 2021, the [[United States Mint]] announced the designs for the 2022 Negro Leagues Centennial Commemorative coins, with Foster featured on the $5 gold [[half eagle]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Langes |first1=Sarah |title=Commemorative coins honor Negro Leagues |url=https://www.mlb.com/news/negro-leagues-baseball-commemorative-coins |website=mlb.com |publisher=MLB Advanced Media, LP. |access-date=25 December 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Gilkes |first1=Paul |title=Coins in 2022 honor Negro National League founding |url=https://www.coinworld.com/news/precious-metals/coins-in-2022-honor-negro-national-league-founding |website=coinworld.com |publisher=Amos Media Company |access-date=25 December 2021}}</ref>

==Managerial record==
{| class="wikitable" style="font-size: 95%; text-align:center;"
|-
! rowspan="2"|Team !! rowspan="2"|Year !! colspan="5"|Regular season !! colspan="4"|Postseason
|-
!Games!!Won!!Lost!!Win %!!Finish!! Won !! Lost !! Win % !! Result
|-style="background:#fde910"
![[Chicago American Giants|CAG]]|| [[1920 in baseball#Negro National League final standings|1920]]
||72||49||21||{{Winning percentage|49|21}}|| 1st in [[Negro National League (1920–1931)|NNL]] || – || – || – || –
|-style="background:#fde910"
![[Chicago American Giants|CAG]]|| [[1921 in baseball#Negro National League final standings|1921]]
||88||55||29||{{Winning percentage|55|29}}|| 1st in [[Negro National League (1920–1931)|NNL]] || – || – || – || –
|-style="background:#fde910"
![[Chicago American Giants|CAG]]|| [[1922 in baseball#Negro leagues final standings|1922]]
||77||45||31||{{Winning percentage|45|31}}|| 1st in [[Negro National League (1920–1931)|NNL]]{{efn|In those days, teams did not play the same number of games as their opponents in a league, which meant certain teams were deemed champion due to their winning percentage rather than by wins}} || – || – || – || –
|-
![[Chicago American Giants|CAG]]|| [[1923 in baseball#Negro National League final standings|1923]]
||78||48||29||{{Winning percentage|48|29}}|| 2nd in [[Negro National League (1920–1931)|NNL]] || – || – || – || –
|-
![[Chicago American Giants|CAG]]|| [[1924 in baseball#Negro National League final standings|1924]]
||82||55||27||{{Winning percentage|55|27}}|| 2nd in [[Negro National League (1920–1931)|NNL]] || – || – || – || –
|-
![[Chicago American Giants|CAG]]|| [[1925 in baseball#Negro National League final standings|1925]]
||100||57||41||{{Winning percentage|57|41}}|| 3rd in [[Negro National League (1920–1931)|NNL]] || – || – || – || –
|-
![[Chicago American Giants|CAG]]|| [[1926 in baseball#Negro leagues final standings|1926]]
||45||27||17||{{Winning percentage|27|17}}|| Resigned || – || – || – || –
|-
! colspan="2"|Total || 542{{efn|Foster also managed in eleven games that ended in ties}} || 336	||195|| {{Winning percentage|336|195}} || || - || - || - || 
|}

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}
*{{citation | last=Burns | first=Ken | title=Baseball:A Film by Ken Burns| publisher=Florentine Films, The Baseball Film Project, WETA | year=1994 }}
*{{citation | last1=Clark | first1=Dick | last2=Lester | first2=Larry | title=The Negro Leagues Book | place=Cleveland, Ohio | publisher=Society for American Baseball Research | year=1994 }}
*{{citation | last=Cottrell | first=Robert Charles | title=The Best Pitcher in Baseball: The Life of Rube Foster, Negro League Giant | place=New York | publisher=New York University Press | year=2001 | isbn=0-8147-1614-8 | url=https://archive.org/details/00book1372940304 }}
*{{citation | last=Holway | first=John B. | year=1988 | title=Blackball Stars: Negro League Pioneers | place=Westport, Connecticut | publisher=Meckler Books | isbn=0-88736-094-7 | url=https://archive.org/details/blackballstarsne00holw }}
*{{citation | last=Holway | first=John B. | year=2001 | title=The Complete Book of Baseball's Negro Leagues: The Other Half of Baseball History | place=Fern Park, Florida | publisher=Hastings House Publishers | isbn=0-8038-2007-0 }}
*{{cite book
|last=Riley
|first=James A.
|chapter= Foster, Andrew (Rube, Jock)
|pages= [https://archive.org/details/biographicalency00rile/page/290 290–92]
|title=The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues
|url=https://archive.org/details/biographicalency00rile
|url-access=registration
|publisher=Carroll & Graf
|year=1994
|isbn=0-7867-0959-6
}}

*(Riley.) [http://coe.ksu.edu/nlbemuseum/history/players/fostera.html Andrew "Rube" Foster], Personal profiles at Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. &ndash; identical to Riley (confirmed 2010-04-16)

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
*{{bbhof|foster-rube}}
*{{Negro-league-stats |lg=ne_cu |seam=266 |brn=foster002rub}}
*{{baseball-reference manager|fosteru99}} and [https://www.seamheads.com/NegroLgs/manager.php?playerID=foste01rub Seamheads]

{{Chicago American Giants}}
{{1981 Baseball HOF}}
{{Baseball Hall of Fame members}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Foster, Rube}}
[[Category:1879 births]]
[[Category:1930 deaths]]
[[Category:National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees]]
[[Category:Club Fé players]]
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[[Category:San Francisco Park players]]
[[Category:Philadelphia Giants players]]
[[Category:Leland Giants players]]
[[Category:Louisville White Sox (1914–1915) players]]
[[Category:Chicago American Giants players]]
[[Category:Negro league baseball managers]]
[[Category:People from Calvert, Texas]]
[[Category:African-American sports executives and administrators]]
[[Category:American sports executives and administrators]]
[[Category:Baseball players from Texas]]
[[Category:Negro league baseball executives]]
[[Category:Sportspeople from Kankakee, Illinois]]
[[Category:Philanthropists from the Kansas City metropolitan area]]
[[Category:Hot Springs Arlingtons players]]
[[Category:American expatriate baseball players in Cuba]]
[[Category:African-American history in Chicago]]
[[Category:Burials at Lincoln Cemetery (Cook County)]]