MyParkTeam

Someone You Should Know
by Kyle McNary
Meet Coach Jason Foster

Coach, 8th grade basketball, JV and Varsity FootballI first met Coach Foster in 2006 when he coached my son’s 8th grade basketball team. After a successful season, and a great first place finish at the Rochester Tournament, I can honestly say that I believe Foster to be one of the best coaches in St. Louis Park youth sports. I kept the scorebook during the season, and helped out at practices when asked, so got to really see Foster up close. He knows his x’s and o’s, but it’s his personality that makes him successful.What makes coach Foster different from other coaches I’ve watched over the years is his ability to yell every minute of every game (the man has some leather lungs!), but his yelling is never disrespectful to the referees or players. It’s always encouraging, always has a purpose. For example, after a player makes a bad play—let’s call the player “John”—he might yell, “JOHN! JOHN! That’s not a good shot, son!” And like Jerry Tarkanian before him, Coach Foster always has his trusty white towel in hand, to wipe the sweat away during a close game, or to chew on in a not-so-close game.I should mention, too, that Coach Foster is the boss at all times, and if a player doesn’t show him the respect he deserves, Foster will send him packing, no matter how talented the player may be. I was pleased to see Foster tell one of his best players to leave the gym after the player questioned his authority. “I learned how to deal with knuckleheads coaching in Minneapolis,” said Foster. “I don’t put up with that kind of stuff.”Foster was born in Patterson, New Jersey on February 19, 1970, and moved to Augusta, Georgia in 1977. Foster was one of eight kids, four boys and four girls, and considered himself slightly lower than middle class because only his father worked out of the house, as a professional musician (piano player and PhD in music).“Some of my brothers and sisters are also good at music,” said Foster. “But not me!”Despite living in Georgia, Foster wasn’t an Atlanta Falcons fan, but, instead, loved the Pittsburgh Steelers. His favorite pro player was the Steelers’ Hall of Fame receiver, Lynn Swann (also my favorite football player as a kid).Football was Foster’s first love, and he started playing recreational league ball at age 13. Foster also played basketball, but when he was cut from his freshman team at Glen Hills High School, he decided to concentrate solely on football.Glen Hills High had a great football tradition, with several alumni making it the NFL, including Leroy Irving (Pro Bowl cornerback with the Los Angeles Rams ) and Jerry Ellison (Tampa Bay Buccaneer running back).Foster made the Varsity football team as a sophomore as a defensive end and fullback, despite weighing only 150 pounds, but he would gain 20 pounds of muscle by his senior year.“I think football is the ultimate team sport,” explained Foster. “Nothing against basketball, but with 11 players, you have to play as a team to be successful.”After high school, Foster was recruited to play football by Morehouse College in Atlanta, but he was unsure of what career he wanted to pursue, so he joined the Army and served in the first Gulf War as a fuel truck driver.After he was honorably discharged from the army in 1994, Foster went to school to become a cement contractor, and then decided to move to Minnesota where his brother was living. After briefly returning to Georgia due to homesickness, Foster moved back to Minnesota for good.A few years ago, a friend of Foster’s recommended he apply for an open coaching job with the St. Louis Park traveling basketball program, and in his first year, coaching the 7B team, he won the state tournament.“That was my biggest thrill coaching,” Foster remembered. “My guard, Marcus Edwards, hit a last second shot to win the state championship game. I’ll never forget it.”Since then, Foster admits that in his heart basketball has caught up to football, and he likes to coach them both equally. Besides coaching the 8th grade basketball team this season (’07-’08), Foster coached defense on the JV football team, and was an assistant on Varsity. Foster dreams, one day, of being a high school head coach for football.Foster works as a Recovery Analyst for United Healthcare, and lives in Minneapolis. Foster has three children: Bri-aunna, 13. who isn’t into sports; Le-Kendria, 11, who likes volleyball and softball; and Avre (AJ), four months, who will really love sports if his dad has anything to say about it!From 1997-2006 Foster played semi-pro football with teams such as the St. Paul Sting, Shakopee Warriors, Twin Cities Titans and Minneapolis Lumberjacks. Foster was named the defensive player of the year in 2004 playing defensive end for Shakopee, and played in the Semi-pro All-Star game three times (2002-2004) at the Metrodome.Foster’s biggest thrill as a player, though, occurred last year when his team beat the Racine, Wisconsin Raiders, 37-15, in the championship game at the Metrodome. Racine had been considered the best semi-pro team in the Midwest for 10 years before they were upset by Foster’s team.Despite many injuries, including torn ACL injuries to both knees, Foster continues to play sports, and stay active.“The best advice I can give to kids is to never give up and work hard at everything they do,” said Foster. “Reward goes to those who work the hardest. Give it your all!”St. Louis Park is lucky to have a gem like Coach Foster in our community._____Someone You Should KnowMeet Kyle McNaryI have to admit, this was one of my toughest interviews ever! Just kidding. I thought I’d let everyone know a little about me, and why I started this website.I was born in Mitchell, South Dakota in 1967, moved to Bismarck, North Dakota when I was two, then to Fargo-Moorhead, and finally to Minneapolis by the time I was ready for kindergarten.

Me at age one, age 10 in “the Show,” and as a catcher at Winona State University

When I was 10, my family moved to St. Louis Park and I attended Susan Lindgren. At age 10, I tried out for “the Majors” at Skippy Field. Back then, there were five teams, with two 10-year-olds on each team. I was a really good fielder, but was so small (probably 50 pounds soaking wet?) that I didn’t think I’d make the Majors. During the tryout, when it was my turn to catch a fly ball, the coach hit one that looked to be way short so he yelled for me to forget it, and take a different one. I’m not sure why, but instead of listening to the coach, I sprinted as hard as I could, dove, and caught the ball! A few days later, I got the call: I had made “The Show!” I was to play for Jennings Red Coach Inn.At my first practice, I went up to a big guy, whom I assumed was the coach, and said, “Where should I go, Mr. Jennings?” The 12-year-old, Barry Bernstein, responded, “I ain’t the coach, kid, and Jennings is the name of the team, not the name of the coach. Our coaches are over there.”My coaches were Mr. Jim Thomas, and Mr. Marsh Halffin. I introduced myself to them, and they told me to go to the position I might want to play. I walked over the third base, only because my dad had been a very good third baseman, and one of my favorite players was Graig Nettles, the New York Yankees’ third baseman. When I got to third base, the coach’s son, Steve Hallfin, was already there. He was about to tell me to buzz off, when his dad told him to move to shortstop. Steve and I are still friends today, and we laugh about it now, but third was Steve’s position back then, and he didn’t want to give it up to a 10-year-old, as he was already 11!Steve turned out to be the best Little Leaguer I ever saw; he hit like crazy, and was the league’s best shortstop. Me? I did what most 10-year-olds did at the time. I played two innings in the field and got one at bat (those were the league-mandated rules at the time).In 16 games I blasted out the grand total of two hits! One of them, my first hit ever, was a double, and my grandparents were in the stands. I think that was probably the first thrill I ever had in sports. My mother still likes to tell the story about how my uniform was so big for me that, though the lettering on the jersey read “Jennings Red Coach Inn,” all but “Jennings” was tucked into my underwear!Over the years I got a little better each year, grew a little each year, and was good enough to be all-conference and all-metro in high school, and to play in college at Winona State.Baseball was the only sport I excelled at, and, frankly, was the only one I cared about. I was okay at basketball, and played what could be described as “C” level traveling basketball, but my job was to bring the ball up court and let other guys shoot.I really loved tennis, and played almost everyday in the summer, but never played in school because it was a spring sport (the same as baseball).Now, as Paul Harvey would say, the rest of the story….In my last year of college I started thinking about my future. During the previous five years I had had surgery on my ankle (broken sliding into second base), and on my pinky (broken while catching a knuckleball), and I knew I wasn’t going to be playing baseball much longer. Yet, I wanted to stay in the game somehow. I was a journalism major, wrote for two different school papers, and thought I was a pretty decent writer.Around this time, I read an article about Negro League baseball. As much as I knew about baseball, I knew nothing about the Negro Leagues. In short, from 1887-1946 the Major and Minor Leagues were segregated, so black players formed their own teams and leagues. The Negro Leagues, made up of the Negro American League, and the Negro National League, had an All-Star game, a World Series, and had players as good as any in the Majors.In 1946, Jackie Robinson played in the Minors with the Montreal Royals, and in 1947 made the Majors with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Soon, all good young black players went into the Major and Minors, and the Negro Leagues eventually folded.Almost immediately I become obsessed with the subject. At the time there were only a handful of books available about the Negro Leagues, and after I read them all I felt like I was just scratching the surface. Now, remember, this is pre-internet, and no major newspapers covered Negro League games. So, I wrote letters to EVERY library and historical society in the country, asking if they had any information on the subject, and I soon started receiving responses with boxscores, photos, etc.In a strange twist of fate, I was given the address of 91-year-old former Negro Leaguer Ted “Double Duty” Radcliffe. At the time I didn’t know anything about him, but I thought I’d write to him anyway. In no time, he wrote me back, asking me to call him whenever I wanted, “at midnight!”I got up the guts to call him at midnight a few nights later, and he started educating me on the Negro Leagues (note: Double Duty didn’t spend much time at his home, but loved to talk when he got home late at night). After several conversations over the next couple weeks, he finally said, “Why are you interested in the Negro Leagues?”"I just think it’s very interesting,” I said. “Maybe I’ll write an article or book about it someday.”"Why don’t you write about me?” he said. “Everyone would want to read it. I was the greatest! How many men do you know who could pitch and catch?” (hence his nickname Double Duty)I thought to myself, “If he was so great, why haven’t I heard of him before?”Well, he was great, and I did write his biography. In order to do so, I interviewed more than 50 ex-Negro Leaguers, and looked through miles of microfilm over a three year period.In November of 1992, Double Duty came to Minnesota, along with 90-year-old Bobby Robinson, a great third baseman, and 83-year-old Lester Lockett, an All-Star outfielder, so I could interview them for the book. They took the train from Chicago (Double Duty didn’t want to fly because, he said, “They say you don’t go until it’s your time, but what if it’s the pilot’s time and not mine?”)Me with “Duty” at his 100th birthday party!

Lester Lockett in 1942, and with my son, Ryne, in 1992

Bobby Robinson in 1926, and in 2000 at age 97!

For the next 10 days I was in heaven. At first I was scared, thinking I was going to be babysitting three old men, but I soon realized that these guys were as full of life as any people I’d ever known. Actually, they wore me out.Fast forward. Bobby Robinson, Double Duty’s friend since 1910, died on May 17, 2002, at age 98, and Double Duty died on August 11, 2005, at age 103. I was asked to come to Chicago to speak at Double Duty’s funeral (Lester was in attendance, but has since died, too).Though I haven’t made a lot of money researching the Negro Leagues (two books, many articles, helped with a great documentary, etc.), speaking at Double Duty’s funeral put all my work into perspective. At the very least, I introduced Double Duty to thousands of people who, otherwise, would never have heard of him.Besides my family, Double Duty probably had more impact on my life than any other person I ever met. He taught me about baseball, about prejudice, about pursuing dreams despite adversity. He taught me about life.To give you a brief idea of how great Double Duty was, here’s a quick snapshot of his career:* Played for 36 years–most seasons he played year-round, traveling to Central and South America in the winter.* As a hitter, batted .303 lifetime, with approximately 400 homers.* As a pitcher, won more than 400 games, and won more than 70% of his decisions.* Was selected to six All-Star games, three as a pitcher, three as a catcher. In those games, he batted .308, hit a game-winning homer, won one game and saved another, with a 2.35 ERA. (By the way, Double Duty would have played in many more All-Star games, but the first game wasn’t played until 1933, when he was already 31.)* Against Major Leaguers in exhibitions, batted .403. Pitchers he faced included Bob Feller, Sal Maglie and Dizzy Dean.* Threw two no-hitters, and caught two no-hitters.* In a 1952 poll of ex-players, managers, and writers, was named the 5th best catcher in Negro League history, and the 16th best pitcher!*Threw a complete game shutout, and batted over .400 when he was past 50 years old!Besides researching and speaking to schools about Negro League baseball, I have stayed involved in sports over the years by coaching and umpiring. I started doing both in 1987, right out of High School, and umpired between 50-100 baseball games a year until 2000. I have also refereed basketball and flag football.As for coaching, I have coached baseball from varsity down to machine-pitch; I’ve coached boys and girls basketball; boys and girls soccer; and was a racquetball pro at Lifetime fitness.I currently coach traveling baseball for my son’s U15 team, am the assistant coach for my daughter’s 4th grade in-house basketball, and am one of three coaches for my daughter’s U10 traveling soccer team.Back to my Jennings Red Coach Inn days…When I was playing Little League baseball in the 1970s, the local paper reported our games. Though the type was so tiny you could barely read it, the reports were thrilling to the players, and we looked forward to seeing our names each week. Unfortunately, the paper stopped this practice, so most of what goes on in gyms, in pools, and on fields in St. Louis Park, is not reported on.Myparkteam.com is a site for kids. The stories on this site are always positive, and attempt to give kids, no matter what age or level of play, some positive attention. In addition, much of the reporting is also done by kids. In my opinion, the ability to write well is one of the most important of all skills, yet is an area in which most kids struggle. We are working with our youth reporters to improve their skills as writers, researchers, and interviewers.

Above Photo: Double Duty tags out Hall of Famer Josh Gibson in the East-West All-Star game at Comiskey Park, 1944. On this day, Double Duty was the brightest of all stars, singling twice and homering into the upper deck, leading his team to victory in front of 50,000 fans.