From left: Weston Carbone, 7, Ty Carney, 7, Shelton Bryant, 8, and Nolan Hennessy, 7, wait to bat at a game in Woburn, Mass. on May 3. (Porter Gifford for Parade)Posted on 08/08/2014 11:02:16 AM PDT by FlJoePa
From the first pitch in 1939, Little League has given American kids a place to play — and dream. This week, award-winning sportswriter Steve Rushin pays tribute to the game that connects us all.
As my 7-year-old plays softball on a diamond behind a firehouse in West Granby, Conn., she doesn’t know that Little League links her to children across the planet. She’s too busy trying, literally, to walk and chew gum at the same time.
Nor does Maeve know that Little League, an organization that unites 2.4 million children around the world, celebrates its 75th anniversary on June 6. And it all grew from a single lilac bush. In 1938, Pennsylvania oil company clerk Carl Stotz tripped on a shrub during a backyard game of catch with his nephews, decided they needed a better place to play, and assembled three teams. Today there are 160,000 Little League teams in more than 80 countries. Millions of people will watch the Little League World Series this August. Last year’s final between teams from Japan and California drew 3.9 million viewers, which explains why ESPN/ABC extended its contract with the league for eight more years, doubling the fee it will pay to $60 million.
From left: Weston Carbone, 7, Ty Carney, 7, Shelton Bryant, 8, and Nolan Hennessy, 7, wait to bat at a game in Woburn, Mass. on May 3. (Porter Gifford for Parade)Despite the countless distractions available to kids today, many are still obsessed with baseball. Solitary pursuits like playing video games and skateboarding can’t compete with the thrill of mobbing a teammate as he scores the winning run—nor do they end with a postgame trip to Dairy Queen. “It resonates with kids today because the game itself, by its nature, is not just a lot of fury,” says Lance Van Auken, executive director of the World of Little League Museum in South Williamsport. “The downtime gives players a chance to talk to each other on the bench and have fun.”
"My dad wanted to give his nephews a chance to play," says Karen Stotz Myers of her dad, Little League founder Carl Stotz (above, with his nephews in 1939) (Courtesy of Little League Organization)Stotz could not have imagined how his idea would grow when he was playing with his nephews, Jimmy and Major, in his Williamsport backyard that summer day in 1938. To the boys, he laid out the idea for an organized league. “They said, ‘Who would we play?’ ” Stotz recalled years later. “ ‘Will people come to watch us? Do you think a band would ever come to play?’ ”
To find out, Stotz began seeking support from local businesses; he got 56 rejections before Lycoming Dairy gave him $30, which he used to purchase equipment and some uniforms at Kresge’s department store. That check was followed by two more, from Lundy Lumber and Penn Pretzel Company.
And so it was that on June 6, 1939, on a field two-thirds the dimensions of a big-league diamond, the first Little League baseball game was played. Lundy Lumber beat Lycoming Dairy, 23–8. At the museum in South Williamsport, a gray flannel Lycoming Dairy uniform is encased in glass like the Hope Diamond. The museum itself is a shrunken-down Cooperstown, a shrine to the game and its holy treasures.
It’s also a window into both the league’s history and our own. South Williamsport’s impressive Howard J. Lamade Stadium, which can hold up to 40,000 spectators, hosts the Little League World Series, which began in 1947 and has since reflected the changing world around it. In 1955, when 61 all-white leagues in South Carolina refused to play Charleston’s Cannon Street YMCA All-Star squad—comprised of African-American boys—Little League barred the white teams from taking part in the World Series. The Cannon Street players didn’t get a chance to compete against the best in their region. But that summer, they were invited to attend the series in Williamsport as spectators.
Richard Heinbach crosses home plate during the first Little League World Series in 1947 (Courtesy of Little League Organization)Yet girls were banned from 1951 to 1974. In 1973, the National Organization for Women filed a discrimination claim on behalf of 12-year-old Maria Pepe of New Jersey. The case ultimately helped open the league to all children. “The institution of Little League is as American as the hot dog and apple pie,” Sylvia Pressler, the hearing examiner for New Jersey’s Civil Rights Division, said then. “There is no reason why that part of Americana should be withheld from girls.”
Forty years later, more than 360,000 girls play Little League softball, and others choose to play on baseball teams with the boys. In 1994, Krissy Wendell of Brooklyn Park, Minn., became the first girl to start at catcher in the Little League World Series. She went on to win two Olympic medals in women’s ice hockey.
Photos of Wendell and other famous Little Leaguers like Bruce Springsteen, George W. Bush, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Tom Selleck fill the South Williamsport museum. But some of the most poignant exhibits honor the lives of players lost to tragedy. Christina-Taylor Green was the only girl on her Tucson-area team in 2010. The following January, she died in the shooting that critically injured Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. One of the fields she played on in Arizona is named for her, and an angel statue stands sentry over the diamond. The museum displays a tribute to her.
Christina happened to be born on Sept. 11, 2001, the day that New York firefighter Michael Cammarata, another Little League alum, lost his life in the collapse of the World Trade Center. The youngest firefighter to die on 9/11, Cammarata played in the Little League World Series in 1991. The number he wore in South Willamsport is now the only one retired at Howard J. Lamade Stadium. His old “11” hangs on the right field wall.
Among Williamsport’s other precious artifacts is a fist-size chunk of the Berlin Wall hammered out near the Brandenburg Gate. “When the Iron Curtain fell,” explains Van Auken, “people of Poland and the Czech Republic wanted Levi’s and McDonald’s and Little League.” Fittingly, the museum tour begins and ends where baseball does, at home plate: the one that Stotz carved with a pocket-knife from a supply of black rubber found in his father’s basement and used in the first Little League game. A few steps away, visitors can see Little League’s very first first base, which was sewn by Stotz’s sister, Laurabelle, Little League’s version of Betsy Ross.
Stotz died in 1992, but his will always be the first family of Little League, a game passed down through the generations, many of which are still stitched together by baseball. “Baseball in general, and Little League in particular,” says Van Auken, “helps families connect.”
I know this to be true. Growing up in Bloomington, Minn., I loved the ritual of dressing for Little League—in white socks, blue stirrups, belted pants, a double-knit jersey, and the cap I’d hold over my face to screen out mosquitoes in right field. Last month, three of my children—ages 5, 7, and 9—marched in their first Little League parade. The procession ended at our town’s municipal park, with its little diamond flanked by dugouts, two sets of bleachers, and a small scoreboard sponsored by the local eye doctor. My children wore their Little League uniforms, and a band played. And as the flag beyond the right field fence began to flutter, so did my heart.
Good game on now (espn) between SD and Nebraska. Great game earlier between PA and NY.
Wow. Awesome!
I remember my first at bat in Little League. I took a pitch right in the head. lol Least I got on base.
Lots of good memories——my kids and grand kids.
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How the world has changed.
I played LL back in the 50s.
At a field about a mile and a half bike ride away.
We played in the afternoons on weekdays, so mom home was taking care of my siblings and Dad was at work.
Now it’s like semi-pro ball. If your kid isn’t going to clinics and instructional camps year round, he’s not even gonna get on the team.
BBCOR has hurt the game.
South Dakota now up 5-3 in the 3rd inning.
I’d love to see the return to wood bats, but it’s not cost effective. Also the first splintered bat to embed itself into a pitcher’s forearm would be the end of that.
Why can’t they make a composite, solid bat with the feel of wood, no ping, and no breaking?
Nebraska can’t get out of it’s own way. Now 7-3. This game is far from over though.
They like charging $299-$499 for a bat that wears out in one season.
They don’t use BBCOR in Little League - not until 14U & high school.
Interesting, my son is now 15 and plays at a higher level that is all BBCOR. When he played 11u and 12u ball they were all BBCOR, but I assumed LL was the same since they usually lead the way in stupid “improvements”. I had read an article that there was a complaint in LLWS since over the last two years the number of home runs hit has dropped dramatically. I figure it was BBCOR related.
Every year the bats get a little hotter after they basically gutted them 4 years ago. A bat you buy today will be sub-standard next year.
I actually held a Parade Magazine in my never nicotine stained fingers the other day. The first time since I stopped subscribing to dead-tree newspapers in the 90’s.
Eight pages and virtually devoid of content. Those Jehovah’s Witness tracts they hand out have better and more compelling content.
Little League has barrel dimension limits & a list of “acceptable” bats. They don’t allow big barrel bats. For travel ball you can use big barrel bats until 14U. A few years ago travel ball required everybody to get new bats with their 1.5 impact ratio stamp on the bat. Must have been driven by the bat manufacturers. So everybody had to go out & buy new bats that are supposed to have less pop than the prior bats, but more than the BBCOR. It’s a real racket — I have 3 boys playing almost every weekend. Gets expensive pretty quick.
My personal opinion is that Little League is outdated & needs to change to “real” baseball rules.
My son plays on a 15U showcase travel team and has to use BBCOR. The can use big barrel drop 3’s all through high school and 18u travel ball. We also play in 1 or 2 wood bats tournaments a season. I like those.
It is all about diversity.
Yeah, I much prefer wood bats too. But I can understand the cost factor. I’d rather buy a metal bat every 2 years than a bunch of wood bats every year. Love the sound of a wood bat though.
Delaware kid’s favorite hobby: “Messing with my sister”.
Announcers praised him for his honesty.
I played it and coached it, but haven’t been around it in decades, I wonder if I would still like it.
I think you would Ansel. It’s kids and baseball. What’s not to like?
It’s been two decades since I was Little League age but I still follow.
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