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With more than 30 million people associated worldwide
with Little League Baseball since its inception 62 years
ago, and the advent of the 2001 Little League Baseball World
Series, please consider this press release for publication
or as impetus for an interview or feature.
Contact: Lance Van Auken, Little League Baseball Inc.,
media@littleleague.org, 570-326-1921; or Robin Van Auken,
The Omnibus, agent@theomnibus.org, 570-326-7872
Baseball has been very, very good for Lance Van Auken and
it’s only getting better. Arguably the world’s expert on
youth baseball, consider Van Auken’s accomplishments since
2001:
His book, "Play Ball! The Story of Little League," (co-authored
with his wife, Robin Van Auken, Penn State University
Press 2001) is the first comprehensive publication on
the subject and is available nationwide.
As one of the major organizers, he has been ferrying
players, fans and baseball equipment to the White House
at the request of President George W. Bush for monthly
Tee Ball games on the South Lawn. As a result, the President
attended the 2001 Little League World Series Championship
game Aug. 26, 2001.
Van Auken landed a role as the homeplate umpire in John
Grisham's independent film on Little League Baseball,
"Mickey" (Directed by Hugh Wilson), and he assisted the
best-selling author/screenwriter as a Little League Baseball
consultant during the filming.
He's been tapped as a consultant by an affiliate of the
National Public Broadcast System for a proposed $2 million,
four-hour documentary based upon "Play Ball!"
Play Ball!
is a delightful walk down the storied history of Little
League Baseball. For those of us who played the dreams
of our youth, it brings back mighty memories."
—John
Grisham
"entertaining
and at times surprising"
—BusinessWeek
On any given spring evening, 360,000 children around the
world can be found on the dusty mounds and grassy fields
of a Little League field. With more than four million people
playing or volunteering in Little League games every year,
Little League is the institutional rite of passage into
the quintessential American pastime.
Little League Baseball began in Williamsport, Pennsylvania,
in 1938, when Carl Stotz, an oil company clerk, agreed to
a game of catch with his young nephews-who were too young
to play organized baseball. He recalled how it felt to be
left out, and promised to think of a way for the boys to
have a league of their own. With the help of neighbors George
and Bert Bebble, Stotz created a three-team league. After
being turned down by fifty-six businesses, Carl finally
convinced a lumber company, a dairy, and a pretzel maker
to sponsor the teams, for $30 each. On June 6, 1939, the
first Little League Baseball game was played at Park Point
in Williamsport.
Play Ball! charts Little League's history from the earliest
days and shows how, in many respects, its history parallels
America's history: isolation in the beginning; rapid expansion;
a civil war of sorts, followed by reconstruction; struggle's
over civil rights and gender equity; and foreign entanglements.
A microcosm of American society, Little League reflects,
and is affected by, cultural, political and historical trends.
Today, Little League is played on 12,000 fields in every
U.S. state and in 103 other countries on six continents.
Little League also sanctions play in softball, Tee Ball,
and baseball for disabled children-called the Challenger
Division.
The Little League Baseball World Series, played annually
in Williamsport, is watched by crowds of 40,000 each year
in person, and by more than ten million on ABC's Wide World
of Sports. The authors were given full access to the Little
League Baseball archives and have created a fully illustrated
and comprehensive history. Play Ball! contains appendixes
including winners of all Little League Baseball and Softball
World Series, a year-by-year history of Little League, countries
in Little League, and lists of some of the famous people
who played the game as children, including Kevin Costner,
Mark McGwire, and George W. Bush.
Play Ball! will interest parents, former players and coaches,
fans of Little League Baseball, general baseball enthusiasts,
and anyone who has ever picked up a ball and bat.
Lance Van Auken is the Media Relations
and Publications Director of Little League Baseball. He
joined Little League in 1993 as its Southern Region assistant
director. A Little League player from age seven to eighteen,
he also has volunteered since 1980 as an umpire, manager,
coach, and league vice-president. Robin Van Auken is a writer
and also owns The Omnibus.
Play Ball! The Story
of Little League Baseball by
Lance and Robin Van Auken
Little League Baseball, Little
League, the logo, medallion, and keystone are registered
trademarks and service marks belonging exclusively to Little
League Baseball, Incorporated.
© 2001 Little League® Baseball and Penn State University
Press
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