Former President Herbert Hoover called the vastly popular union of local leagues “one of the greatest stimulants of constructive joy in the world.” By 1956, the total skyrocketed to more than 4,000, and another thousand had sprung up in just another three years. By 1951, the organization had grown to 776 separate programs. In 1947, the first year of the Little League World Series, Hammonton, New Jersey, founded the first Little League outside of Pennsylvania. Stotz and the organizers hoped to avoid player disputes and to keep competition fairly even with this approach. In order to provide structure to expansion, the national offices limited each new league to a geographical area encompassing about 20,000 residents. He told community leaders that boys should be able to play like the big-leaguers they idolized and that these local leagues were the perfect solution.Īlthough Little League was not the first league to attempt organized youth baseball, it signaled the first such attempt that actually flourished outside of the original community. He started expanding, traveling around central Pennsylvania and then all over the eastern seaboard in order to visit Sunday school classes, school boards, and YMCAs. Stotz dubbed the fledgling project “Little League,” and espoused his goals of teaching sportsmanship, fair play, and teamwork to the initial standard of 8- to 12-year-old boys. On June 6, 1939, Lundy Lumber defeated Lycoming Dairy 28-3 in the inaugural game. The original three teams, which were managed by Stotz and his two brothers-in-law, bore the names of these sponsors: Lycoming Dairy, Lundy Lumber, and Jumbo Pretzel. The eager Stotz also sought financial support from local businesses, three of which gave in to his pitch and together donated a few hundred dollars. He and the recruits cleared a vacant lot, marked out a baseball diamond two-thirds the size of regulation dimensions, built a backstop, and planted grass. Stotz recruited players at the local schools and churches. Although the boys were excited, the real league wouldn’t truly take off until the following spring. Up to that point, kids could only play organized ball once they reached high school. It turned out that the pair liked the idea quite a bit, prompting them to gather their friends for practice the following day. At the end of the year, the best teams would play for the championship of the league. Umpires would call the games, so arguments about balls and strikes, catch or no catch, fair or foul, would not interrupt play. According to Charles Euchner, a former Little League player and author of Little League, Big Dreams, Stotz then asked his nephews a series of questions: How would you boys like to play on a baseball team? How would you like to play in uniforms, just like the major-league players use? With real equipment – a fresh supply of balls and bats, with catcher’s gear. He later said the idea of organizing youth baseball came to him in a revelation as he played catch with his two nephews in front of his house on Isabella Street. In the summer of 1938, during which Stotz laid the groundwork for his brainchild, he was 28 years old and working at the Pure Oil Company. If Williamsport is the organization’s birthplace, then Carl Stotz is its father. The story of Little League can be traced back to a young, ambitious clerk at a local oil-supply company. How did this remote town of about 30,000 residents become the dream destination of millions of young baseball players? Ever since Little League Baseball was born in Williamsport in 1939, the town and its World Series tournament for 11- and 12-year-old players have formed the epicenter of American youth sports. “Every Little Leaguer dreamed of Williamsport, although none of us really knew where it was or how to get there,” he told the San Diego Union-Tribune in 2001. Yet his greatest sports memory remains playing baseball in a dusty, miniature field in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, when he was 11-year-old Little Leaguer. Little League’s World Series takes place in Williamsport every year.īrian Sipe set passing records at San Diego State University and was named the National Football League’s Most Valuable Player in 1980, when he passed for more than 4,000 yards and led the Cleveland Browns to their first playoff berth in eight years.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |