He Taught Baseball and More To Thousands of Kids

A former Negro Leagues player, Beckum started and nourished a Little League in one of Milwaukee’s most disadvantaged areas, making sure that playing also provided life lessons.

- JON MOOALLEM

Until he was almost 90 years old, James Beckum cared for the baseball diamonds where his Little Leaguers played with fastidiousness and pride. He cut the outfield grass. He picked up litter. He drove the base paths in his little orange tractor, smoothing the dirt. His pastor, Johnny White Jr., said, "When I would call his house looking for him, and his wife would answer the phone, I'd say, 'Is Brother Beckum there?' And she'd say, 'No, he's down at the park, playing in the dirt."" Beckum was a founder of the Beckum-Stapleton Little League on the North Side of Milwaukee, one of the city's most disadvantaged neighborhoods.

Founded in 1964, Beckum-Stapleton is one of the oldest historically Black Little Leagues outside of the South. Virtually right up until his death, on Nov. 11 at age 95, Beckum was its steward and guiding light.

Beckum took on lots of jobs over the years to keep the operation running, but groundskeeper seemed to be the one that he most happily obsessed over. In an interview with the Team Beckum Public History Project, an initiative by local academics, he explained, "I looked at my kids like I look at the Milwaukee Brewers. I think the Brewers should have a good field to work on. I think my kids should have the same thing.