After finishing baseball practice on the old playground field behind Richmond Community High School one day last week, Gaither Beard and Stevenson Fox wandered over to the new field being built
less than 100 yards away.
The two longtime North Richmond Little
League coaches stopped outside the outfield
fence for a few moments, taking in the grass infield, the warning track, the dugouts, the lights
and the spot where a scoreboard would go.
"We looked around like little kids at
Christmas," Beard said.
Beard and his wife, Rebecca, profiled in
The Times-Dispatch last year, are retired
educators who, along with a few volunteers,
have run North Richmond Little League for
23 years and given inner-city kids the opportunity to play baseball. It's often been a
struggle -- financially and in facilities -- to
keep the league going.
North Richmond has had to travel to play
against other leagues because it has lacked a
first-rate field suitable for playing home
games. That will change Saturday.
C
League's Urban Initiative program, will be
dedicated at 10 a.m. The field is located behind
the former Chandler Middle School, now Community High, at 201 E. Brookland Park Blvd.
Four games are scheduled for Saturday.
"It's a very emotional thing for me to talk
about because I know the struggles that we
have had and the challenges we have faced,"
Rebecca Beard said. "So many people have
been so nice in giving us encouraging words
or something to help us go on.
"A door opened for us and made things
great. This is a milestone."
Because they haven't had a field that
meets Little League standards, North Richmond's teams have had to play most of their
games on the road. The league played at Battery Park before flooding from a tropical
storm forced relocation to the fenceless
sandlot field behind Chandler Middle for the
2007 season.
Little League's Urban Initiative program
provides more than 200 leagues with assistance in acquiring equipment and developing
fields. North Richmond received a $200,000
grant for the field from the Conrad N. Hilton
Foundation, said Gail Turner, the administrator for Virginia District 5 Little League.
The Robins Foundation contributed a
$60,000 grant for lights and a scoreboard,
she said.
Rebecca Beard pointed to Turner as a
driving force behind the field. Turner said it
is going to a deserving league.
"[The Beards] have devoted their adult
lives to the children in the inner city,"
Turner said. "Whether it's teaching school
or in the community, they've been there for
the kids. I just find it amazing. It just kind of
gives you goosebumps when you think about
it. There are so few who give that much."
Gaither Beard hopes the new field will
raise the number of kids in the program.
North Richmond has 75-80 players on five
teams.
"I'm excited," he said. "We have something we've never had before. The only problem is they're going to swing for the fence.
I've told them, 'Do not swing for the fence
because you're not going to get it over there.
Just try to make contact.'"
Contact Tim Pearrell
at (804) 649-6965 or
Email
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