George Foster (baseball)

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George Arthur Foster (born December 1, 1948 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama) is a former left fielder and right-handed batter in Major League Baseball who played for the San Francisco Giants, Cincinnati Reds, New York Mets and Chicago White Sox from 1969-1986.

Foster began his career in the San Francisco Giants organization, but the Giants already had a promising young outfielder named Bobby Bonds. Figuring Foster was expendable, the Giants dealt him early in the 1971 season to the Reds for Frank Duffy and Vern Geishert. Foster made the Reds lineup as the starting centerfielder (replacing an injured and out-for-the-season Bobby Tolan) almost immediately and showed flashes of his power by hitting 10 home runs and driving in 50 runs in his first season as a Red.

But, in the 1972 season, Tolan was healthy and won the Comeback Player of the Year award playing center and Foster was relegated to platooning in rightfield with Cesar Geronimo, another young Reds outfielder, for the next two seasons.

In 1974, the Reds dealt Tolan, moved Geronimo to center, and placed a young Ken Griffey in right. Foster was still a backup, as the Reds had Pete Rose in left.

Finally, early in the 1975 season, Reds manager Sparky Anderson made the move that would enable Foster to emerge as a star. He moved Rose to third base to save his aging legs and to get Foster's powerful bat in the lineup every day. Foster responded by hitting 23 homers that year and being a vital cog in the "Big Red Machine" for the next six years.

A 5-time All-Star (1976-79, 1981), Foster was a member of the 1970s Big Red Machine, leading the league in home runs in 1977-78, runs batted in from 1976-78, and OPS in 1977.

In 1977, Foster hit 52 home runs, making him the only major league player to belt 50 or more homers in a single season during a 25-year period (between Willie Mays with 52 in 1965 and Cecil Fielder with 51 in 1990). The next batters to hit 50 HRs in the National League were Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa in 1998. He also batted in an NL leading 149 runs. In recognition of his accomplishment, Foster received the NL's MVP award by a unanimous vote.

Although he was not able to hit 50 or more homers again in 1978, he paced the NL with 40 and in RBIs with 120.

In his career he hit for a .274 batting average, with 348 HRs, 1239 RBIs, 1925 hits and 986 runs scored in 1977 games played.

In 1981, at a point in his career when it looked like he would one day rank among the game's all-time greats, Lawrence Ritter and Donald Honig included him in their book The 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time.

Acquired by the Mets February 1982 from Cincinnati, Foster was given a five-year, $10 million deal but never delivered big numbers for the Mets. (He hit only 13 home runs during his first season in New York.) Foster was a huge disappointment during his 4½-year tenure. He received his outright release in August 1986 after he accused the Mets of racism for benching him.^[1] His replacement on the team was Kevin Mitchell, also of African descent.

[edit] See also

• 50 home run club
• Top 500 home run hitters of all time
• List of Major League Baseball players with 1000 RBIs
• List of Major League Baseball RBI champions
• List of Major League Baseball home run champions
• List of Major League Baseball runs scored champions
• Major League Baseball hitters with three home runs in one game
• Chicago White Sox all-time roster

[edit] Trivia

• Foster is a born-again Christian and spends time instructing youth in baseball techniques.
• Foster was inducted into the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame in 2003.
• Foster played baseball, football and ran track at El Camino College before being drafted.
• Foster is a motivational speaker in the United States.
• Foster's nickname in Cincinnati was "The Destroyer".
• Against the Pittsburgh Pirates in the fifth and deciding game of the 1972 National League Championship Series, Foster scored the winning run on Bob Moose's wild pitch, which put the Reds into the World Series for the second time in three years.
• Foster always used black-colored bats when hitting. His nickname for those bats was "Black Beauty." Teammate Ray Knight, while still in the minors, once borrowed one of Foster's bats and used it to hit nine homers in a month.
• Foster was one of the most hated batters by opposing pitchers because he would step out of the batter's box after every single pitch.
• Attended Leuzinger High School, Lawndale, California and El Camino College
• Regularly arrived at his MLB games in a stretch limo.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference
• Baseball Library