Happy Birthday to Hall of Fame pitcher William “Bill” Hendrick Foster (b. June 12, 1904, in Calvert, TX), who won 140 games while only losing 68 in his fifteen-year Negro Leagues career. After spending his early life in Mississippi, he moved to Chicago as part of the Great Migration. Foster played for the Chicago American Giants for most of his career, leading them to league championships in 1926 and 1927. His 1926 season was especially impressive. He won twenty-six consecutive games and then started both games of a must-win playoff doubleheader to carry his team to the pennant. During the winters he kept his skills sharp and supplemented his income by playing in winter leagues in Cuba and California. As a pitcher he was known for his hard fastball, slider, curveball, drop ball and change-up. He also prioritized his education from a young age. After retiring from baseball, he returned to his alma mater Alcorn State University, this time as an employee. From 1960 until his death in 1978 he also served as the school’s head baseball coach.
Citations: James Kastro, “William Hendrick Foster,” in Black Baseball and Chicago: Essays on the Players, Teams and Games of the Negro Leagues’ Most Important City, ed. Leslie A. Heaphy (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2006), 74-75, https://archive.org/details/blackbaseballchi0000unse; “Willie Foster,” Seamheads Negro Leagues Database, accessed November 18, 2023, https://www.seamheads.com/NegroLgs/player.php?playerID=foste01bil; “Bill Foster,” Baseball Hall of Fame, accessed November 18, 2023, https://baseballhall.org/hall-of-famers/foster-bill; “Chicago American Giants 1919,” public domain, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/Chicago_American_Giants_1919.jpg.
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