Posted by hotlanta on December 27, 2007, 10:18 pm || Total Votes: 1
Former Braves player and coach Jim Beauchamp died Tuesday — Christmas Day — after a long battle with acute myelogenous leukemia. He was 68.
Beauchamp was the bench coach for the Braves from 1991 to '98, a part of the team's World Series championship in 1995. He most recently served as supervisor of minor-league field operations for the organization.
Beauchamp spent 22 years with the Braves as part of a 50-year career in baseball, in both the major and minor leagues. He had to leave spring training with the Braves in mid-March and was diagnosed with leukemia soon after.
"He was always on me and riding me, but always wanting the best for me because he knew what I had. He was always trying to get the best out of me," Braves player Jeff Francoeur said in April after a hospital visit with Beauchamp.
Beauchamp, who was born Aug. 21, 1939 in Vinita, Okla., is believed to be the only player to wear an Atlanta uniform in Ponce de Leon Park (with the Atlanta Crackers), Atlanta Fulton-County Stadium and Turner Field (as a Braves player and coach).
"As a son, my fondest memory of him was how much he told us he loved us," son Kash Beauchamp said Thursday. "As tough as he was as a competitor and a baseball man, he had a very soft side when it came to being a father."
Beauchamp had a 10-year major league career, with several teams, and hit .231. He played for the Braves in 1965 and 1967, appearing in eight games.
He is survived by his wife, Pam, and five children: Kash, Tim, Ann Rene, Shanna and Lauren. He is also survived by six grandchildren; a sister, Patti Crockett; a sister-in-law, Kay Beauchamp; a stepmother, Lee Jean Beauchamp; and several nieces and nephews.
"My dad's motto was to put God first, family second and your job third. If you did that, everything would fall into place and good things would happen," Kash Beauchamp said. "And he lived that."
A memorial service will be held Jan. 5 at Southwest Christian Church, 4330 Washington Road, East Point, Ga., at 2 p.m. There will also be services held in Phenix City, Ala., and his hometown of Grove, Okla., where the high school baseball field is named in his honor, in the spring.
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