If the name Foster Edwards doesn’t immediately inspire awe in your mind, are you really a Yankees fan? Just kidding. Edwards, a right-handed pitcher, was a Yankee for all of two games in 1930, and he didn’t really do anything to ensure that his name would be etched onto history during those appearances.
Yet he was a Yankee all the same, and as a writer for the Internet’s most devoted (citation needed) Yankees fan site, I will try my darnedest to celebrate his birthday and career. After all, he was the only
player in franchise history to be born on September 1st, and here we are at the outset of September! It’s Foster’s lucky day.
Foster Hamilton “Eddie” Edwards
Born: September 1, 1903 (Holstein, IA)
Died: January 4, 1980 (Barnstable, MA)
Yankees Tenure: 1930
Long before Ben Rice stepped onto a diamond and even prior to 1930s standout third baseman Red Rolfe, it was Edwards who became the first former Dartmouth standout to play for the Yankees. Following his graduation from Central High School in Hennepin, Minnesota, Edwards pitched at Dartmouth from 1924-25 and stayed in New England for the beginning of his pro career. Edwards recorded a 4.02 ERA in 112 innings across 21 games for the Worcester Panthers of the Eastern League, and 1925 also saw him make his MLB debut.
When Edwards toed the rubber for the Boston Braves on July 2, 1925, he was still just 21 years old. His task was to mop up a game where the Braves were already losing 15-2 to the Brooklyn Robins in the seventh inning. He managed to finish the game, but that was about where the positives ended. He gave up five runs (two earned) on six hits and a walk. That was his only appearance in the majors that year.
To his credit, Edwards put together a very strong campaign in 1926, albeit mainly for the Providence Rubes, who had succeeded Worcester in the Eastern League. He went 25-8 with a 2.95 ERA across 259 innings, leading the EL in wins. He would return to the major leagues in September, going 2-0 with a 0.72 in three starts and 25 innings pitched. It seemed like he was poised to take bigs by storm.
Alas, that did not happen. The following year, Edwards went 2-8 with a 4.99 ERA as the Braves relegated him to relief duty in the latter half of the season. His struggles continued in 1928, and after the season, he decided to retire and enter the grocery business. However, Edwards evidently wasn’t quite ready to give up, and the Yankees must have seen something in him, as they picked him up prior to the 1930 season.
The 26-year-old impressed the club in spring training and was on the roster early that year, alongisde luminaries like Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. Maybe in an alternate universe, Edwards might have rewarded the Yankees handsomely, playing a role on those fabled 1930s squads and carving out a name for himself in pinstriped lore.
That didn’t come to pass in this one, though. Edwards gave up four runs in 1.2 innings of work across two early season relief appearances, and that was all the Yankees needed to see before effectively banishing him to the minors. And that was all she wrote.
Sometimes—heck, most times—the things you set your heart on don’t work out. I’m sure Edwards had bigger aspirations for his career—why else would he have returned to pitch for the Yanks after spending an entire year out of pro ball? But it just didn’t happen. He tried, though, and I think that’s a legacy worth hanging your hat on — to have tried something with your whole heart. That counts, even if you don’t get what you want in the end.
Happy birthday, Foster. Rest easy.
See more of the “Yankees Birthday of the Day” series here.
