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MARCH 1, 1905–DECEMBER 5, 1974

Major League Career

1927–1928

Time as a Red

1927–1928

Position

PITCHER

THE QUESTION “WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE REDS?” was heard frequently in the first half of the 1927 season, according to historian Lee Allen in his 1948 book The Cincinnati Reds. The year before they’d nearly won the pennant, finishing just two games behind the Cardinals after a hard-fought race. They’d put together five straight winning seasons, finishing in second place three of the previous five years. But after a wretched start, they remained in last place in mid-July.

Before the season they’d traded away their biggest star, centerfielder Edd Roush, but the surprisingly slow start was the result of surprisingly poor pitching. Throughout the 1920s, the Reds had boasted one of the best staffs in the game, but heavy workloads on the big three starters—Eppa Rixey, Dolf Luque, and Pete Donohue—had taken a toll. In casting about for help they signed a local boy who had never even pitched in the minors.

Reinhardt Boeckman grew up in a big family in Norwood, the youngest child of Frank and Clara Boeckman. His father was a streetcar conductor, his mother a German immigrant. At some point he Anglicized his name, going by Jim Beckman. A 5′10″ right-hander, he gained local attention as the ace of Comello’s Clothiers, a strong amateur team that won the NABF (National Amateur Baseball Federation) championship in 1926, beating Detroit Checker Cab 6–5. He likely began the next year with Comello’s, but the Reds signed him in late July to provide bullpen help. At the age of 22, he made his Major League debut on July 27, 1927, pitching two shutout innings against the Boston Braves in the first game of a doubleheader at Redland Field, surrendering two hits and a walk.

He settled into the role of mop-up reliever, but the Reds didn’t give him a whole lot to do, as by August they had turned the season around and were moving up the standings—too late for a pennant run, but safely above the cellar. Beckman gave up more than his share of walks and hits, but not until August 21 did he give up a run, when Edd Roush, now with the Giants, clubbed a two-run homer.

On September 25, with the team entrenched in fifth place, Beckman finally made a start. His former teammates on the Comello’s showed up before the game at Redland Field to give him a “traveling bag” and wish him well. Facing the last place Phillies, who lost 103 games that year, he probably felt confident, but not for long. “They hammered Jimmy Beckman hard enough to drive him out of the box,” the Enquirer reported. The Phillies scored four in the second inning, though not all the runs were earned. Beckman, however, made the error that caused them. He also made a low throw to second on a sacrifice bunt in hopes of getting a double play. He settled down and cruised into the eighth, but once there he surrendered three more runs. In all, he gave up eight runs on 14 hits in seven and two-thirds innings, walking a batter and hitting another.

A bad ending to a surprising season. He didn’t make the team out of spring training, but the Reds signed him again in June, and he remained on the team until the end of the year in the mop-up role, and performed well until his final appearance, on September 22, in a doubleheader in Boston. The Reds lost the first game 11–4, Beckman pitching the final 1.2 innings and giving up no runs. Then in the second game he relieved Harlan Pyle in the second inning and shut down the Braves until the eighth, when he suffered a meltdown, giving up six runs. Though he was only 23, he never pitched professionally again. Did he suffer an arm injury in that one terrible inning?

He remained a bachelor for the rest of his life, working mostly as a car salesman while living with his mother and various siblings, eventually sharing a residence with his sister Marie, who also never married. When he died at the age of 69, they were living in Montgomery. Why he left behind the game while still so young and with two years of Major League experience remains a mystery.