WHERE ARE THEY NOW? : George Foster: Man Behind the Bat

In an era when it is often hard to tell the good guys from the bad, baseball slugger George Foster straddled the line in the eyes of the fans and media.

Foster fell out of favor, to the point of vilification, after he was traded from the Cincinnati Reds, where he had his glory days, to the New York Mets and came under the microscope of the New York City media. But the man who hit 348 career home runs says the Big Apple never saw the real George Foster and never knew the man behind the bat.

Certainly, it was sad to see the man who had been the National League’s most feared slugger and the last major leaguer to hit 50 home runs in a season end his career derided as “George Flopster” and unceremoniously released just before the Mets clinched the pennant and went on to win the 1986 World Series.

But two years after he last struck a baseball in anger, Foster is mending his fences with baseball and, happily, says people are finding he’s more personable and approachable than he had been portrayed.

Approaching his 40th birthday this year, Foster, whose baseball career began on the fields at Leuzinger High and El Camino College in the 1960s, is living in Greenwich, Conn., with his wife, Sheila, and daughters Starrine, 5, and Shawna, 16 months, and has his hands in a variety of baseball coaching projects as well as a weekly radio ministry show. Foster has relatives in the South Bay but says his roots now are in the East.

And Foster, who bitterly left baseball two years ago, recently played in an old-timers game in Montreal and last month attended a Mets game at Shea Stadium for the first time since leaving there the villain.

“I’m still alive and doing well,” he said in a phone interview from his home last week. “Probably in the next year or so I’ll be doing things that will get me more notoriety--in a positive way.”

Since last playing in August, 1986, Foster has spent his time in the New York vicinity working with young baseball players and building his George Foster Christian Outreach, his airwave ministry that is broadcast for a half hour on Sundays on WNYG-AM out of Long Island, N.Y.

After five seasons in which he failed to approach the offensive brilliance of his Cincinnati days, Foster left the Mets amid an ugly controversy in which he suggested the Mets favored white outfielder Len Dykstra, then a rookie, over black veteran Mookie Wilson. Foster says he didn’t mean to make it a racial issue, but it was interpreted as such. Almost immediately he was released by the Mets, who had a 17-game lead and were coasting into the playoffs. Foster had a 15-day tryout with the Chicago White Sox but was released. Two months later the Mets were in the World Series and Foster--owner of 1,239 runs batted in and a lifetime .274 average--was out of baseball.

Foster admits he was embittered, but he has softened lately to the point that he is appearing at autograph shows with current Mets and has a business interest in a store that sells Mets memorabilia. “I’m getting more and more (appearance) requests. It’s starting to improve,” he said.

He has also shown a softer side. This summer he has been giving private hitting instruction at a batting cage in Norwalk, Conn.--mostly to youngsters--and has coached a Senior Babe Ruth team into the playoff finals. He recently held a two-week baseball camp and was particularly pleased with the response from the younger players. Proceeds from all these endeavors go to a halfway house that bears his name in Dayton, Ohio.

Next spring he plans to coach a prep school team and would like to move up to a public school or college and perhaps get involved with the U.S. Olympic team. Eventually, he wants to return to the major leagues as a hitting instructor.

Foster likes “the challenge” of coaching, “being the one to make the decisions. I like being the one to (show) them to play the way they should, learn the fundamentals. I’m pleasantly and excitingly busy working with the kids.”

When the 19-year-old Foster signed with the San Francisco Giants out of El Camino College in 1968, he was one of a number of promising outfielders developed by the Giants, then traded away. After two brief appearances with the Giants, he was traded to the Reds in 1971. Foster for Frank Duffy and Vern Geishert turned out to be one of the most lopsided deals ever.

Foster played his first full season for the Reds in 1974, and his V-shaped upper body and quick bat made him promising. In 1975, Manager Sparky Anderson tinkered with the Big Red Machine, shifting Pete Rose to third base and inserting Foster in left field. Foster emerged as a star with stunning rapidity, and the Reds won the World Series in 1975 and 1976.

In 1977, Foster had his stupendous Most Valuable Player year, becoming the 10th player to hit 50 homers--he finished with 52--to go with 149 runs batted in and a .320 batting average. The next year he followed with 40 homers and 120 RBIs, both of which led the league again, and was never again below 90 RBIs as a Red, even in the strike-shortened 1981 season. He averaged 31 homers and 107 RBIs in his seven full seasons as a Red.

But Reds management, entering a penurious era, had begun breaking up the Big Red Machine, first trading Tony Perez, then allowing Rose, Joe Morgan and Ken Griffey to play out their options and sign elsewhere as free agents. With Foster approaching free agency, it became clear the Reds wouldn’t offer what he was worth, so they traded him to the Mets before the 1982 season. He signed a five-year deal in the $10 million range.

Foster’s debut in New York was less than triumphant--a .247 average with 13 homers and 70 RBIs--and the then-woeful Mets finished in last place. The New York fans never forgave Foster for his off-year or his practiced nonchalance--he was often termed by the media aloof or moody--though he bounced back in 1983 with 28 homers and 90 RBIs and helped lead the Mets to a competitive level with the addition of such veterans as Keith Hernandez and Gary Carter and young stars Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden. But by 1986 Foster’s performance had fallen off: He was hitting .227 with 13 home runs, 38 RBIs and 53 strikeouts in 72 games when the Mets cut him.

Foster said he doesn’t blame the fans for acting like scorned suitors, but he said they never really considered the facts. And he doesn’t regret leaving the Reds for the Mets.

In Cincinnati, he said, “I felt I should be shown some appreciation. It became a situation of ‘What have you done today.’ I felt some loyalty should have been involved. When they started breaking up the team, there wasn’t that family atmosphere anymore. It wasn’t the Big Red Machine.

“I felt the Mets were rebuilding, and I felt (General Manager) Frank Cashen was winning-oriented. I know that when I was with the Reds, if you asked players around the league, the Mets were the last team they’d want to play for. My going there encouraged Keith (Hernandez) to stay there. Then we got Gary Carter and that gave us a nucleus to build around.

“I don’t know if (my contribution) will ever be stated. I wish the New York fans could’ve seen the real George Foster. I had decent years. I hit 28 home runs for a last-place team, but they just say I hit for a low average (his average with the Mets was .252). I realized after the ’82 season that even if I’d had the year I had in 1977 in ‘82, it wouldn’t have guaranteed the Mets winning (the Reds finished second in 1977 despite his monster year).

“I know the fans weren’t really informed on what takes place. So with the expectations they had for me--and I had for myself--it would’ve been hard to live up to no matter what I did.”

And how uninformed are the fans? Foster chuckled and continued in his soft, somewhat high-pitched voice, “Sometimes they don’t realize I was released. Some still think I’m there but not playing. I went to an autograph show and people are saying ‘Nice hit last night’ or ‘Why aren’t you playing?’ ”

No longer playing, Foster seems content whether giving the word in a batting cage or spreading The Word on the airwaves. Frank Lindsey, who owns the batting cages where Foster gives lessons, found Foster completely different from his image. “It’s amazing the way the media portrayed him,” Lindsey said.

“I don’t know where he got the (bad) raps, but everything I’ve seen goes to the opposite, Lindsey said. “I find him a genuine human being who wants to give something back to the community. I feel he thinks God gave him a talent. He’s trying to give something back. I think he loves doing it.”

DR, PETE BENTOVOJA / Los Angeles Times