Local baseball camp hits home run with Chicago Public Schools

With a foot of snow on the ground at the beginning of March, baseball is the last thing on the minds of most Chicago-area children. But with spring training in full swing, a collection of 4- to 6-year-olds gather in Wilmette at the Illinois Baseball Academy to learn the fundamentals of the game.

While Chris Beacom's clientele is sometimes more focused on impressing one another with raspberries and armpit farts, he has this group of 12 "Mini-Majors" focus for an hour on sharpening their baseball skills.

"It's not just about baseball," said Beacom, a former Toronto Blue Jays farmhand who runs IBA. "We're really trying to set an environment where the kids learn about baseball. They learn about teamwork, sportsmanship, courage . things that sometimes don't get addressed by parents or coaches."

What began in 2005 with 40 boys, IBA's enrollment has ballooned to over 200 this season. Beacom's North Shore-based programs, which run in seven- to eight-week sessions, serve children from age four to eight.  The father of a second-grader, Beacom is developing new programs for kids as his son gets older.  Though his program is barely two years old, it is making an impact and gaining recognition around Chicago.

"We were contacted and contracted out by Chicago Public Schools to start a baseball program for kids in the city at the middle schools--fourth, fifth, and sixth grades," Beacom said.

Under the contract, CPS has asked Beacom to expand his program to the South Side this spring. While he is excited about the new opportunity, he is equally concerned about the quality of the experience for his new students. "The real challenge there is there's no green space in Englewood," Beacom said.

"There's not space for these kids to go and practice. So finding space and then finding people--whether it's Illinois Baseball Academy or teachers in the building--finding people who are qualified and excited [could be a challenge]."

But to Beacom, this challenge is more than worthwhile. "Englewood is probably one of the most notoriously gang-infested and poverty-stricken [areas]. .. If once or twice a week baseball can provide an oasis and can be sort of an escape, I have to do that."

A Wilmette native and New Trier graduate, Beacom played baseball at Northwestern and was drafted by the Blue Jays in 1989, but released two years later by its Single 'A' affiliate. Shortly thereafter he became head baseball coach at New Trier.

Now, more than two years after starting his baseball academy, Beacom spends just as much time solving mini-dilemmas, like who bats first, as he does working on the player's batting stance.

At the beginning of practice, Beacom gives the kids a word of the day. Today it's "courage." That theme is followed up throughout the hour of drills, such as stepping in front of a ground ball. Instead of hitting off a tee, players launch the ball off what Beacom has dubbed a "rocket ship," while curious parents peer through the narrow gym windows at the Wilmette Recreation Center. At the end of practice, Beacom reads a story which reinforces the lesson, and hands out baseball cards. Each comes with a free pat on the head.

"I don't think I need that tee anymore," brags one student to his coach. In a day and age where baseball has become more about congressional hearings and drug testing, the juvenile naiveté of the children is refreshing, Beacom says.

"It really is about innocence and purity. I'm not worried about performance-enhancing drugs with these kids. I'm not worried about whether or not they are developing bad attitudes that plague Major League Baseball," Beacom said.

Beacom's techniques have also been lauded by the people who give him his paycheck--the parents. "The instructor makes all the difference in the world," said Derek Chatterton, whose son Avery is in his fourth week of the program. "It really isn't so much about the sport. It's how the instructor works with the kid."

And for Beacom, this sentiment is just as important. "You've got to teach these kids about more than just turning a double play," Beacom said. "At a young age . you've got to get the kids fired up about being a part of a team and a community."

For now, Beacom's team and community is a crew of nose-picking, wedgie-giving boys who appreciate a good booger just as much as an infield single.

And he couldn't be happier about it.