THE BEST PITCHER IN BASEBALL docx

[...]... safeties produced by Philadelphia In the pivotal game played the following day, Foster returned to the mound, where he quickly fell behind 2-0, allowing a single and a two-run homer in the bottom of the third The Giants chipped away at the lead, scoring single runs in both the fourth and the fifth before notching a pair in the seventh In the meantime, Foster shut down the X-Giants on three hits; he walked... Philadelphia to put five runs on the scoreboard The Royal Giants came back with one in the bottom of the sixth and two more in the seventh, on a homer over the center-field wall, to go ahead 6-5 Philadelphia knotted the contest in the top of the eighth and neither team could break the deadlock in the ninth But in their half of the next inning, the Philadelphia Giants scored, thanks to a single by Grant, a sacrifice,... his mind began to lose its hold on reality, Foster was confined to a state institution in Kankakee, Illinois There he remained until his death in late 1930 at the too-early age of fifty-one An outpouring of grief and recognition followed, with thousands lining up in the Chicago winter to pay their respects The affection accorded the father of organized black baseball demonstrated the importance that the. .. averse to jumping from one | 12 | The Best Pitcher in the Country ball club to another, would now be paid a purported $90 a month As the 1904 season opened, the Philadelphia Item indicated that the hometown Giants “will be faster and stronger than ever.” After all, the acquisition of Pitcher Foster will give them the strongest staff of pitchers of any team in the Independent Association.”13 In the first... consecutive seasons in which he won thirty or more games.17 In the opening game for black baseball in Philadephia in 1904, Kid Carter on April 5 tossed a one-hitter at Murray Hill (N.J.), winning a seven-inning contest 5-0 Left-fielder Foster rapped out one of the six | 14 | The Best Pitcher in the Country Philadelphia hits, a double, the game’s only extra bagger Throughout the season, when not on the mound,... Playing at Columbia Park, the Giants, behind Foster’s five-hit, fourteen-strikeout performance, crushed the All-Cubans 13-3; Foster’s pitching, the Item suggested, “was entirely too much for the Cubans.” Among the crowd of 1,200, the newspaper noted, was “all the | 18 | The Best Pitcher in the Country colored aristocracy.” In his next outing, Foster defeated the Kingston Colonials, champions of the. .. with the Giants’ new star pitcher scoring one run and producing three hits, one a triple.19 The Philadelphia Item applauded the Giants’ early season performance, declaring that they had “been universally successful in defeating the semi-professionals of the metropolitan area.” The winning skein ended ingloriously on May 30, when Camden swept a doubleheader, with Foster dropping the second contest 4-3 in. .. Tokahoma.” Chicago White Sox owner Charles Comiskey exposed the subterfuge, thereby maintaining baseball s color barrier.9 | 11 | The Best Pitcher in the Country In September, following “two years of squabbling, challenges and counter challenges,” the Cuban X-Giants battled against the Philadelphia Giants to decide the “colored championship of the world.” Philadelphia, led by manager-shortstop Sol White,... League, had been founded in 1923 For a brief spell, the pennant winners of the two leagues met in the Colored World’s Championship, thereby fulfilling another enduring dream of Foster’s Increasingly, however, Foster’s autocratic ways resulted in sharper and more sustained criticisms Some black baseball leaders resented the 5 percent fee he obtained for booking league games and the additional 5 percent... name of the colored Rube Waddell.” News accounts, starting in 1905, first began referring to the Philadelphia Giants’ ace as Rube Foster.30 | 19 | TWO At the Top of His Game Prior to the start of the 1905 season, Foster and several other Philadelphia Giants spent part of the winter in Palm Beach, competing for the Royal Poincians, which went up against top players in both black baseball and the organized .