The baseball fields at the Beckum-Stapleton Little League’s North Side complex in Carver Park bustled with action on Saturday, much like they have every spring for the past 60 years.
But this sunny, blustery day turned out to be far from typical when three members of the Milwaukee Brewers – All-Star closer Devin Williams, associate manager and former Brewers player Rickie Weeks and hitting coach Ozzie Timmons – greeted dozens of Little Leaguers at the fields near North Ninth and West Brown streets.
Dressed in their team uniforms, the children swarmed the Brewers contingent seeking photos, autographs, high-fives and hugs. The excitement reached a fever pitch when the Famous Racing Sausages also arrived on the scene.
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The Beckum-Stapleton Little League has provided supervised baseball programs for North Side kids for six decades and has served more than 25,000 participants since its inception.
On Saturday, Williams, Weeks and Timmons visited with the young athletes, shared words of encouragement before their games, helped them warm up and served as base coaches.
The appearance by the Brewers trio delivered an especially important message to the children at a time when Major League Baseball deals with declining numbers of Black players while implementing measures aimed at reversing the trend.
Black players account for only 6% of the players in the major leagues this season. The 2024 opening day rosters of the 30 teams included only 57 Black players. On a positive note, 15 of those 57, or about 26%, came from MLB-run training programs to boost participation among Black players.
The Brewers want to do their part to encourage more young Black kids to play baseball.
“That’s where it starts, right? You’re not going to make it to the big leagues if you never play the game at all,” Williams said in an interview following Saturday’s event. “A big part of us being out here is inspiring the next generation and getting them on the field and growing a love for the game.”
Weeks agreed. “It’s important for them to see some representation,” he said.
The Brewers and the team’s Community Foundation have supported the Beckum-Stapleton Little League for more than two decades, supporting the nonprofit, volunteer organization in a variety of ways, most recently by providing an operating grant and purchasing 400 full uniforms, including jerseys, pants, belts, hats, visors and socks for the Little Leaguers who come for the neighboring community. “Support is always key,” Timmons said.
Believed to be the oldest Black Little League operating outside of the South, the Beckum-Stapleton Little League started in 1964 when the Rev. E.B. Philips of the Greater Galilee Baptist Church asked James Beckum, a former Negro Leagues player, to help get neighborhood youth into an organized program.
Starting with four teams sponsored by four Central City churches, the league has grown to 20 teams.
Girls and boys ages 4 to 16 participate in two games and at least one practice each week for eight weeks in May and June.
Having members of the Brewers interact with the Little Leaguers is meaningful in many ways, said David Frazier, a Beckum-Stapleton Little League board member who has served with the league since 2001 in various capacities, including league coach, equipment manager and travel team coach.
“It’s very important,” Frazier said. “The kids see people that they can aspire to be like and realize that they can get to that level and that it’s real and attainable.”
About 350 youngsters are taking part in the Beckum-Stapleton Little League this season, close to last year’s total but off the high mark of about 400 children. “We’re getting back up there,” Frazier said.
The league is set to launch a private fundraising campaign to support expansion of the league and upgrades to its facilities in the Milwaukee County operated park.
“We’re trying to grow the league and do a capital expansion so we can get turf fields,” Frazier said. “We have renderings and we’ve put together a proposal, but we haven’t started the fundraising part yet.”
Frazier said the league wants to create a clover of standard baseball and softball fields as well as two T-ball fields, one of which would be designated for children with disabilities.
