Negro Leagues / 1900s-1910s
The screwball of the man who built the leagues
Documented
Before he was the architect of organized Black baseball, Andrew Foster was its best pitcher, and his out-pitch was a screwball his own players described as a fadeaway — a ball that ran away from the bat the way Christy Mathewson's did. Teammate Dave Malarcher named it. Foster is remembered now as the founder, not the arm, which is its own kind of losing.
Rube Foster, 1924
Foster belongs here twice: as the arm behind the fadeaway and as the organizer who built the league structure around the craft.
Small source crop at 286 by 338 pixels, held inside a matte instead of blown full-bleed.
Open Rube Foster's FadeawayA screwball that broke away from hitters — what teammate Dave Malarcher described as a fadeaway — paired with a baffling curve and a strong fastball, the out-pitch of the era's most dominant Black pitcher before he turned to building leagues.
Foster's identity as the founder of organized Black baseball eclipsed his pitching legacy; he is remembered as the 'Father of Black Baseball' and the man who built the first viable Negro League, not for the fadeaway that made his name on the mound.
Dave Malarcher recalled that Foster had one of the most baffling curveballs he ever looked at, a real fastball, and a breaking ball that was more what people would call a fadeaway.
Malarcher recollection as recorded in Foster's SABR biography; teammate testimony relayed through the bio.
Foster organized the original Negro National League on February 13, 1920, at a Kansas City meeting where eight Black baseball teams agreed to form a league modeled on the white majors.
Every line here is what the recovered record can actually support, labeled by its source and its confidence. Where the legend says more than the record can prove, the gap is shown, not filled.
Follow the name into the pitch
The surviving account above identifies Foster’s fadeaway as a screwball. The screwball file follows that pitch’s grip and direction, with its own sources. It does not reconstruct Foster’s undocumented hold.
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