Little League Baseball
Little League Baseball and Softball is a 501 nonprofit organization based in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania, United States, that organizes local youth baseball and softball leagues throughout the United States and the rest of the world.
It was founded in 1939 by Carl Edwin Stotz as a three-team league in the adjacent larger town of Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The ensuing Little League organization was incorporated on October 10, 1950, with Stotz serving as the organization's first commissioner for 18 years until 1955. Little League Baseball encourages local volunteers to organize and operate Little League franchise programs that are annually chartered through Little League International. Each local league can structure itself to best serve the children in the area in which the league operates. Several specific divisions of Little League baseball and softball are available to children and adolescents ages 4 to 16. The organization holds a congressional charter authorized by the United States Congress under Title 36 of the United States Code.
The organization's administrative office is located in South Williamsport of Lycoming County, Pennsylvania. The first Little League Baseball World Series was played in Williamsport in 1947. The Little League International Complex in South Williamsport hosts the annual tournament of the Little League Baseball World Series at Howard J. Lamade Stadium and adjacent Little League Volunteer Stadium, and is also the site of the Peter J. McGovern Little League Museum, which provides a history of Little League Baseball and Softball through interactive exhibits for children. Many Major League Baseball players past and present in the National League and American League have started out playing in their local community / neighborhood Little Leagues.
History
, a longtime resident of Williamsport, Pennsylvania, founded Little League Baseball in 1939. He began experimenting with his idea in the summer of 1938 when he gathered his nephews, Jimmy and Major Gehron, and their neighborhood friends. They tried different field dimensions over the course of the summer and played several informal games. The following summer, they felt that they were ready to establish what later became Little League Baseball. The first small league organized in Williamsport had just three teams, each sponsored by a different business. The first teams, Jumbo Pretzel, Lycoming Dairy, and Lundy Lumber Company were managed by Stotz and his friends, George and Bert Bebble. The men, joined by their wives and another couple, formed the first Little League board of directors.The first league game took place on June 6, 1939, when Lundy Lumber defeated Lycoming Dairy, 23–8. Lycoming Dairy became the champions of the first half of the season and then defeated Lundy Lumber, the second-half champions, in a best-of-three championship series. The following year, a second league was formed in Williamsport, and Little League Baseball grew to become an international organization with nearly 200,000 teams in every U.S. state and more than 80 countries.
Kathryn "Tubby" Johnston Massar was the first woman to play in a Little League baseball game, in 1950. However, when that season ended, a Little League meeting was held, and it was decided that girls would be banned from Little League baseball. From 1951 through 1973, Little League baseball was restricted to boys only. In 1974, due to a lawsuit brought on behalf of Maria Pepe by the National Organization for Women, the New Jersey Superior Court decided that Little League baseball must allow girls to play. In the final week of December 1974, President Gerald Ford, signed a bill that opened Little League baseball to girls.
According to the Little League Baseball and Softball participation statistics following the 2008 season, there were nearly 2.6 million boys and girls in Little League Baseball worldwide. Of these, approximately 400,000 are registered in softball leagues. Starting in 2022, for tournament purposes, Little League Baseball was divided into 20 geographic regions: ten national and ten international. Each summer, Little League operates seven World Series tournaments in various locations throughout the U.S..
Timeline
Early years
1939: Little League is established by Carl E. Stotz, George Bebble, and Bert Bebble. The first season is played in a lot close to Bowman Field. Lycoming Dairy is the first season champion.1946: Little League expands to 12 leagues, all in Pennsylvania.
1947: The first league outside of Pennsylvania is founded in Hammonton, New Jersey. Maynard League of Williamsport defeats a team from Lock Haven, Pennsylvania to win the first Little League World Series. Allen Yearick is the first Little League graduate to play professional baseball when he is signed by the Boston Braves.
1948: Little League has grown to include 94 leagues. Lock Haven returns to the Little League World Series and defeats a team from St. Petersburg, Florida. The first corporate sponsor, U.S. Rubber, donates Pro-Keds shoes to teams at the series.
1949: After a decade, Little League is featured in the nationally famous weekly longtime magazine, the Saturday Evening Post and on newsreels shown in neighborhood movie. Commissioner Stotz receives hundreds of requests for information on forming local leagues from all over the country. Little League incorporates in the State of New York.
1950 Kay Johnston becomes the first girl to play Little League baseball. She cuts her hair, dresses as a boy and adopts the nickname "Tubby" to join the Kings Dairy Little League team in Corning, New York as a boy. After earning her way onto the team and being assigned first base, she tells her coach that she is a girl, but he keeps her on the team. She is forced to quit after just one season because a new rule, known as the Tubby Rule, is created to bar girls from participation. The rule remains in force until 1974.
1951: Leagues are formed in the western province on the Pacific Ocean coast of British Columbia, in the neighboring Dominion of Canada to the north and in the old U.S. territory of the Panama Canal Zone surrounding the Panama Canal, in Central America, making them the first youth baseball leagues outside the United States.
1953: The Little League World Series is televised for the first time. Jim McKay provided the play-by-play for the Columbia Broadcasting System, and Howard Cosell, does so for the American Broadcasting Company and ABC News Radio. Joey Jay, of Middletown, Connecticut, and the Milwaukee Braves is the first Little League graduate to play in Major League Baseball. In 1953, Robert Francis Morrison filed an official charter with Little League Baseball to admit the Cannon Street Y.M.C.A. as its first all-black team. The league consisted of four teams, sponsored by prominent black businesses in Charleston, South Carolina. In 1955, in the beginnings of the growing nation-wide Civil rights movement, when, Morrison entered his Cannon Street All-Stars into the city tournament, white leagues reacted by drafting a resolution requesting a whites-only tournament. All 55 white teams eventually withdrew from the city and state tournament. The Cannon Street All-Stars became the 1955 South Carolina state champions by forfeit. However, they were informed by then national Little League Baseball president Peter J. McGovern that they would not be permitted to represent the state at the regional championships in Williamsport. Little League executives invited the Cannon Street All-Stars as guests to attend the tournament in which they were barred from playing.
1954: Boog Powell, outfielder/first baseman later of the Baltimore Orioles and two other MLB teams, plays in the Little League World Series for Lakeland, Florida, and Ken Hubbs, later of the Chicago Cubs, plays for Colton, California. Little League had expanded to more than 3,300 leagues. Jim Barberi, later of the MLB National League pennant winner of the 1966 Los Angeles Dodgers, is a member a decade earlier of the Schenectady, New York, team that wins the 1954 L.L.B. World Series tournament championship.
1955: There is a Little League organization now in each of the 48 continental U.S. states. Young George W. Bush,, begins playing Little League as a catcher for the Cubs of the Central Little League in Midland, Texas. He is the first Little League graduate to be elected President of the United States. After white teams in South Carolina refuse to play against the all-black Cannon Street YMCA All-Stars of Charleston, Little League issues an ultimatum that the team must be permitted to play, but many organizations in the Southern United States suspend and turn in their league charters and form their own league in response. No team from South Carolina would reach the World Series tournament until 2015.
1956: Stotz severs his ties with Little League Baseball, Inc. after 18 years in a dispute over the direction, policies and control of the league. Stotz believed that the league was becoming overly commercialized by then-president Peter J. McGovern. Stotz remains active in youth baseball with the "Original League" in Williamsport for the next 38 years until his death in June 1992. Little League records its first on-field death in Garland, Texas, when 12-year-old Richard Oden is hit in the head by a pitch, and the park where the incident occurred is renamed Rick Oden Field. With batting helmets yet to be developed, Garland League teams finish the season wearing youth football helmets over their baseball caps when batting. Later in the year, pitcher Fred Shapiro throws a perfect game in the Little League World Series.
International era
1957: Angel Macias throws a perfect game and Monterrey, Mexico, becomes the first team from outside the United States to win the Little League World Series.1959: The Little League World Series moves from Williamsport to the newly built Little League headquarters in South Williamsport. The protective baseball helmet is developed by Dr. Creighton J. Hale.
1960: A team from West Berlin, West Germany, is the first from Europe to play in the Little League World Series. The series is broadcast live for the first time on ABC. Little League has grown to 27,400 teams in more than 5,500 leagues.
1961: Brian Sipe, future quarterback for the NFL's Cleveland Browns, plays for the series champions from El Cajon, California.
1962: Jackie Robinson attends the Little League World Series. President John F. Kennedy proclaims National Little League Week.
1967: A team from West Tokyo, Japan, is the first team from Asia to win the Little League World Series.
1969: Taiwan begins a dominant era that would see them win 17 Little League World Series titles.
1971: The aluminum baseball bat, partly developed by Little League Baseball, is first used. Lloyd McClendon of Gary, Indiana, dominates the Little League World Series, hitting five home runs in five at-bats. He would later play in the major leagues and become the first Little League graduate to manage an MLB club.
1973: Ed Vosberg plays in the Little League World Series for Tucson, Arizona. He would later play in the College World Series for the University of Arizona in 1980 and the World Series in 1997 for the Florida Marlins. Vosberg is the first person to have played in all three world series.
1974: Girls are formally permitted to play in Little League as result of a lawsuit brought on behalf of Frances Pescatore and Jenny Fulle, and a Little League Softball program for both boys and girls is created. Bunny Taylor becomes the first girl to pitch a no-hitter.
1975: In a controversial decision, all foreign teams are banned from the Little League World Series. International play is restored the following year.
1980: A team from Tampa, Florida, representing Belmont Heights Little League, is led by two future major-leaguers, Derek Bell and Gary Sheffield. Bell returns the following year and Belmont Heights again loses in the finals to a team from Taiwan.
1982: The Peter J. McGovern Little League Museum opens. Cody Webster leads a team from Kirkland, Washington in an upset victory over a powerful team from Taiwan, the nation's first loss in 31 games. This game is later featured on ESPN's 30 for 30 series Little Big Men.
1984: A team from Seoul, South Korea, wins their nation's first title when they defeat a team from Altamonte Springs, Florida, led by future Boston Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek.
1984: Victoria Roche, a 12-year-old from Belgium, becomes the first girl to play in the Little League World Series.
1988: Tom Seaver is the first former Little Leaguer to be enshrined in the Peter J. McGovern Museum Hall of Excellence.
1989: Poland becomes the first former Warsaw Pact nation to receive a Little League charter. Trumbull, Connecticut, led by future NHL star Chris Drury, wins the Little League World Series.
1991: Future MLB all-star Jason Marquis pitches the Staten Island South Shore Little League team to third place in the Little League World Series over Canada, throwing a no-hitter.
1992: Stotz, the founder of Little League, dies. Lights are installed at Lamade Stadium, allowing the first night games to be played. The series is expanded from single-elimination to round-robin format. Long Beach, California, managed by former major-leaguer Jeff Burroughs and starring his son, future major-leaguer Sean Burroughs, is named series champion after Zamboanga City, Philippines is forced to forfeit for using ineligible players.
1993: Long Beach repeats as champions, defeating Coquivacoa Little League of Maracaibo, Venezuela. It is the first U.S. team to successfully defend its title.
1997: ESPN2 broadcasts regional play for the first time. Taiwan's baseball association withdraws from Little League Baseball over newly established rules on zoning. Bradenton, Florida, and Pottsville, Pennsylvania play at Lamade Stadium before the largest crowd ever to attend a non-championship game, estimated at over 35,000 fans.
1999: Burkina Faso becomes the 100th nation with a Little League organization. Hirkata Little League of Osaka, Japan becomes the first Japanese team to win a title since 1976.
2000: An expansion project begins at Little League International and Volunteer Stadium is built. This allows the pool of participants to double from 8 to 16 the following year.
2001: The Little League World Series expands from 8 to 16 teams, with the following changes to regional lineups :
- US regions:
- * The East Region splits into the New England and Mid-Atlantic Regions.
- * The Central Region splits into the Great Lakes and Midwest Regions.
- * The South Region splits into the Southeast and Southwest Regions.
- * The West Region spins off the Northwest Region.
- International regions:
- * Canada remains intact as a region.
- * The Latin America Region spins off new regions for the Caribbean and Mexico.
- * The Far East Region splits into the Asia and Pacific Regions.
- * The Europe Region spins off the TransAtlantic Region.
- ** These two regions were geographically identical, differing in the required composition of playing rosters. Transatlantic teams were required to consist of a majority of players who were nationals of the US, Canada, or Japan. Europe teams could have no more than three nationals of those countries.
2002: Austin Dillon plays for Southwest Forsyth Little League in Clemmons, North Carolina. The grandson of Richard Childress, he would win NASCAR championships in the Truck Series in 2011 and Nationwide Series in 2013, and made his Cup Series debut in 2014.
2004: Effective with the 2004 LLWS, the Europe Region is renamed EMEA.
2007: Little League expands into Australia for the first time. Effective with the 2007 LLWS, the Asia and Pacific regions are merged to form the Asia-Pacific Region, with Japan split into its own region.
2007: Little League expands into Kyrgyzstan for the first time.
2008: Effective with this year's LLWS, the Transatlantic and EMEA regions are reorganized into the Europe and Middle East and Africa regions. The previous nationality restrictions for players from these regions are abolished. Hawaii wins the 2008 Little League World Series, defeating Mexico in the final game.
2008: Little League International relocates the Southeast Region headquarters from Gulfport, Florida, to Warner Robins, Georgia. Little League International completes renovation of its administration building in South Williamsport.
2010: The World Series tournament is reorganized, eliminating pool play and adopting double-elimination until the bracket winners are determined. Little League announces plans to add a pilot division in baseball for ages 12–13 to help baseball Little Leaguers make the transition to regulation-size fields in Junior League Baseball. Bartlett, Illinois, becomes the largest league.
2011: The World Series officially eliminates the two four-team brackets and puts all eight teams in the United States bracket and all eight teams in the International bracket, with a SEC baseball tournament-style flipped bracket on the loser's bracket in order to prevent rematches, but does not require the loser to defeat the winner's bracket team twice in either Saturday championship game from which the winner advances to the Sunday final.
2012: The Middle East and Africa Region produces the first team from the African continent in the Little League World Series, one from Lugazi Little League of Uganda.
On August 29, Little League announces a major reorganization of the international brackets, effective with the 2013 LLWS:
- Australia is spun off from the Asia–Pacific Region and will receive its own berth in the LLWS. This reflects Australia's rise to become the fourth-largest country, and largest outside North America, in Little League participation.
- The Middle East and Africa Region is disbanded.
- Middle Eastern countries, except for Israel and Turkey, are placed in the Asia–Pacific Region.
- African countries are to be placed in the former Europe Region, which is renamed the Europe and Africa Region. Israel and Turkey, members of the European zone of the International Baseball Federation, remain in the renamed region.
2013: Davie Jane Gilmour becomes the first woman to lead the Little League board of directors.
The first Intermediate Little League World Series is held in Livermore, California.
2014: On August 15, 2014, Mo'ne Davis of the Taney Dragons becomes the first girl in Little League World Series history to earn a win as a pitcher and to pitch a shutout. Davis also becomes the first Little Leaguer to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated. ESPN's coverage of the August 20 semifinal game, featuring Davis, brings a 3.4 overnight rating, which is an all-time high for Little League on the network.
Jackie Robinson West becomes the first all-African-American Little League team to win the U.S. championship, but its title is later stripped after violations of the 1997 region regulations are discovered.
2018: Little League changes its age rules, moving the birthday deadline from May 1 back to August 31. This allowed 13-year-olds to play Majors level this year against 11-year-olds, but 11-year-olds born between May and August were unable to play the following year.
2020: The LLWS is canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
2021: The LLWS is contested with a 16-team field of U.S.-only teams, another effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.
2022: The LLWS is held without COVID-related restrictions for the first time since 2019. The tournament size increases from 16 to 20 teams, with the addition of two new regions within the U.S. and two additional direct qualifiers among international teams.
2025: The Tung-Yuan Little League gives Chinese Taipei the island's first LLWS championship since 1996 with a 7–0 victory over the Summerlin South Little League from Las Vegas, Nevada in the final.