Researching Rube Foster

Foster, considered by historians to have been perhaps the best African-American pitcher of the first decade of the 1900s, also founded and managed the Chicago American Giants, one of the most successful black baseball teams of the pre-integration era. Most notably, he organized the 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."

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

Foster was picked up by the Boston Red Sox and made his major league debut for the team on April 10, . Foster acted as a starting pitcher and a relief pitcher for the team during the 19 games he pitched in during the season. Foster posted a 3–3 record with a 3.16 ERA and 36 strikeouts in 68.1 innings pitched.

Foster's sophomore season in the big leagues was one of his best, in which he pitched in 32 games, while starting in 27 of them. He finished with a 14–8 record, and finished second in the American League with an impressive 1.70 ERA. Foster was only behind his Boston Red Sox teammate, Dutch Leonard, who posted a 0.96 ERA, which is now considered the modern day all-time single-season record.

In, Foster posted a 20–8 record, and another impressive 2.11 ERA. Foster most effectively showed his importance to the team in the 1915 World Series where he picked up 2 complete game wins and only gave up 4 earned runs and struck out 13 batters in 18.0 innings. With the bat, Foster went 4-for-8, with a double and an RBI.

Foster had another good campaign in acting as a starting pitcher and relief pitcher. He went 14–7 in the season, and posted a decent 3.06 ERA. On June 21 of that year, he no-hit the New York Yankees 2-0 at Fenway Park. In the 1916 World Series, Foster came in relief in Game 3, and pitched three scoreless innings. The Red Sox ended up winning the series 4 games to 1, and became the first back-to-back winners of the World Series since the Philadelphia Athletics had done it 5 years earlier.

Foster went back to a mainly starting role in, posting an 8–7 record with a 2.53 ERA.

Before the start of the season, Foster was traded to the Cincinnati Reds for Dave Shean. Rube Foster refused to report to his new team and so the Red Sox sent cash to the Reds to complete the trade.

Rube Foster's baseball career ended, and he finished his major league career with 58–33 career pitching record, a 2.36 earned run average and 294 strikeouts in 842.1 innings pitched.

As a hitter, Foster posted a .215 batting average (58-for-270) with 1 home run, 19 RBI and 16 bases on balls. In three World Seies appearances, he hit .444 (4-for-9) with 1 RBI. Defensively, he was better than average, recording a .970 fielding percentage which was 30 points higher than the league average at his position.