Little League Baseball is found in more than 100 countries and, at the height of the season, Little League is played on 12,000 fields in the United States alone. An estimated 360,000 children play on a typical day. The next day, 360,000 more children play. A microcosm of American culture, Little League's history is filled with anecdotes and stories of good fortune as well as adversity.

In 1947, when the first Little League Baseball World Series (then called the National Tournament) was played, only seventeen leagues existed. All were Pennsylvania, except one, which hailed from Hammonton, New Jersey. Although not much of a national series, the world soon noticed the budding baseball program. Adults were enchanted and girls buzzed around the adolescent ballplayers, a youthful mirror of the major leagues.

Soon, Williamsport, Pennsylvania, the former lumber center boasting to be the home of more millionaires per capita than any other city, had a new identity: Home of the annual Little League World Series.

In addition to coverage by newspaper writers, radio and television journalists were eager to report on the young athletes and descended upon the baseball complex. Williamsport's Community Trade Association was proud of its river city, quaint and adorned with Victorian mansions of a bygone era, and its dynamic boy's baseball program. City officials opened their arms to the series and organized parades and dinners, shuttled series participants to and from hotels, invited dignitaries (most often their favorite baseball players), and reveled in the glory brought to them by Carl Stotz and his cadre of loyal volunteers.

Visitors to the series have included baseball notables Cy Young, Connie Mack, Jackie Robinson, Mickey Mantle, Tom Seaver, Jim Palmer, Nolan Ryan and Orel Hershiser, as well as George Bush (a few months before he became vice president) and his son, President George W. Bush, Vice President Dan Quayle and Senator Bill Bradley. Entertainers, actors, and best-selling authors also are attracted to the series and visits have been made by Kevin Costner, Tom Selleck, Kenny Rogers and John Grisham.

Grisham even penned a screenplay, directed by Hugh Wilson, about the Little League World Series. His movie, "Mickey," is about an over-age Little Leaguer who deceives all by pitching in the World Series. The story is eerily reminiscent of the much-publicized fraud perpetrated by a Bronx, New York league in 2001.

Founded in 1939, granted Federal Charter on July 16, 1964, Little League's mission remains "to promote, develop, supervise, and voluntarily assist in all lawful ways, the interest of those who will participate in Little League Baseball."

 

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Play Ball! The Story of Little League Baseball

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The Little League Baseball World Series
By Robin Van Auken
Arcadia Series:
IMAGES OF SPORTS
Details: TRADE PAPERBACK/
128 Pages ISBN: 0738510262
Price: $19.99

(click on image above for a
high-resolution copy)

Play Ball! The Story of
Little League Baseball
By Lance & Robin Van Auken
Penn State University Press
140 illustrations/60 color photos
288 pages Trim Size: 8 1/2 x 11
ISBN 0-271-02118-7
Cloth: $35