Little League World Series

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See also: 2007 Little League World Series

The Little League World Series is a baseball tournament for children aged 11, 12 and 13 years old. Named for the World Series in Major League Baseball, it was first held in 1947 and is held every August in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania in the United States. (The postal address of the organization is in Williamsport, but the stadium complex is in South Williamsport.) Initially, only teams from the US competed, but it has since become a worldwide tournament. The tournament has gained popular renown, especially in the United States, where games from the Series and even from regional tournaments are broadcast on ESPN.

In 2006, the age limit was changed such that players could turn 13 after May 1, not August 1, as had previously been the case. As the competitions take place in the summer, many of the players have already turned 13 before the World Series. The 2006 tournament also marked the end of the American Broadcasting Company broadcasts under the "ABC Sports" name. As of September 1, 2006, all Disney sports properties are under the ESPN title, regardless of which channel from Disney airs the sporting event.

The Little League World Series is one of eight tournaments sponsored by Little League International. Each of them brings baseball or softball all-star teams from around the world together in one of four age divisions. The tournament structure described here is that used for the Little League Baseball World Series. The structure used for the other World Series is similar.

[edit] Qualifying tournaments

In the summer months leading up to the Little League World Series, held each year in August, Little Leagues around the world select an All-Star team made up of players from its league. It is these All-Star teams that compete in district, sectional, state, and regional tournaments hoping to advance to Williamsport for the Little League World Series. How many games a team has to play varies from region to region. In the United States, the tournaments at the lowest (district) level lack nationwide standardization. Some use pool play or double elimination, while others use single elimination.

In the United States, the fate of district winners varies widely from state to state. In some larger states such as New York, Florida and California, the district winners advance to one of many sectional tournaments. The winners of each sectional tournament then advance to a state or divisional tournament, currently held only in Texas and California, which closely resemble the state tournaments held in less densely populated states. Most smaller states lack competition at the sectional level and go straight from district to state tournaments. A handful of states are composed of only one district, and the district champion is the automatic state champion.

With four exceptions, every state as well as the District of Columbia crowns a state champion, and sends that team to represent it to one of eight regional tournaments. The Nevada state champion advances to the West Regional tournament. The Georgia state champion advances to the Southeast regional tournament. Because of their large geographic and population size, California and Texas send two representatives to their regional tournament. Northern California and Southern California both send teams to play in the West region tournament. Texas East and Texas West (whose areas encompass more than the geographical areas of East Texas and West Texas, splitting roughly along the I-35/I-37 corridor) compete in the Southwest region tournament. Because of their sparse population, the Dakotas have one district spanning the two states, and its winner becomes the joint champion and advances to the Midwest region tournament.

The state champions, as well as the Northern California, Southern California, Texas East, Texas West and Dakotas champions, compete in one of eight different regional tournaments. Each regional tournament winner then advances to the Little League World Series. See [1] for a comprehensive breakdown of current and historical US regional tournament locations, participants and results.

Other countries and regions pick their own way of crowning a champion. Little League Canada holds tournaments at the provincial and regional level to field five champions at the national tournament: Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, the Atlantic Provinces, and the Prairie Provinces. The host site of the national tournament varies from year to year, and the home team gets an automatic berth as the sixth team. The winner of the national tournament earns the right to represent Canada at the Little League World Series.

[edit] World Series breakdown

The Little League World Series consists of 16 teams—8 from the United States, and 8 from other countries. Prior to 2001 there were eight teams in the LLWS: four U.S. teams (North, South, East, and West) and four international (Canada, Latin America, Europe, and Asia). (In 1975 there were only four teams in the LLWS, all from the United States. The international teams returned in 1976.)

The 16 teams are divided into two brackets, the United States Bracket and the International Bracket. Each team is then randomly assigned to one of two "pools" in their respective bracket. In the opening days of the tournament, the teams compete round robin within their own pool. The top two teams in each pool advance to the semifinal of their bracket, where the 1st place team from one pool competes against the 2nd place team from the other. The respective winners advance to play in either the United States or International Final. The U.S. champion and the International champion advance to compete in the Little League World Series Championship Game.

The eight regional tournament winners which compete in the United States Bracket of the Little League World Series, as well as the states those regional champions could possibly hail from are as follows:

• New England (ME, NH, VT, MA, RI, CT)
• Mid-Atlantic (PA, NY, NJ, MD, DC, DE)
• Midwest (ND/SD, NE, KS, MN, IA, MO)
• Great Lakes (MI, WI, OH, IN, IL, KY)
• Southeast (VA, WV, NC, SC, GA, FL, AL, TN)
• Southwest (MS, LA, AR, TX East, TX West, OK, CO, NM)
• Northwest (AK, WA, OR, ID, MT, WY)
• West (AZ, NV, UT, CA (Northern), CA (Southern), HI)

The eight divisions which compete in the International Bracket are as follows:

• Canada
• Mexico
• Caribbean
• Latin America
• Japan
• Asia-Pacific
• Europe-Middle East-Africa (EMEA)
• Transatlantic

The Trans-Atlantic and EMEA regions are geographically identical. Leagues from the Trans-Atlantic region generally consist of children and other dependents of American expatriates, typically Armed Forces personnel, international organization members, and oil company workers. The leagues within the "EMEA" region consist of players native to the league's own country. Representative teams for the Trans-Atlantic region must be at least 51% nationals of Canada, the U. S. or Japan. Teams for the EMEA region can have no more than three players from those three countries.

Beginning in 2007, the Japan champion will advance to Williamsport. The Asia Region and Pacific Region will now be combined to form the Asia-Pacific Region.

[edit] Venues

Two venues host World Series games: Howard J. Lamade Stadium and Little League Volunteer Stadium. Lamade Stadium has hosted games since 1959, while Little League Volunteer Stadium opened in 2001 when the field expanded to 16 teams. Prior to 1959 the Little League World Series was held at Original Little League on West Fourth Street in Williamsport, PA.

Both fields have symmetrical fences, with a distance of 225 feet from home plate to each of the outfield positions. That distance had been 205 feet before 2006.

Admission to all LLWS games is free. Lamade Stadium has a berm beyond the fences that has held up to 45,000 spectators.

[edit] Little League World Series champions

[edit] Championship tally by country

[edit] Championship tally by U.S. state

[edit] Famous participants in Little League World Series

• Wilson Alvarez - MLB Player (1982 World Series)/ Maracaibo, Venezuela
• Jim Barbieri - Former MLB Player (1954 World Series, 1966 MLB World Series)/ Schenectady, New York
• Jason Bay - MLB Player (1990 World Series)/Trail, British Columbia
• Larvell Blanks - Former MLB Player (1962 World Series)/ Del Rio, Texas
• Derek Bell - Former MLB Player (1980, 1981 World Series, 1992 MLB World Series Champion)/ Tampa, Florida
• Sean Burroughs - MLB Player (1992, 1993 World Series)/ Long Beach, CA
• Matt Cassel - NFL Quarterback for the New England Patriots (1994 World Series)/ Northridge, California
• Bill Connors - Former MLB Player (1954 World Series)/ Schenectady, New York
• Chris Drury - NHL Player (1989 World Series Champion, 2001 Stanley Cup Champion)/ Trumbull, CT - 1989 LLWS MVP, 1998 Hobey Baker Award Winner, 1999 Calder Memorial Trophy Winner
• Ray Ferraro - Former NHL Player (1976 World Series)/ Trail, British Columbia
• Dwight Gooden - Former MLB Player (1979 World Series, 1986 MLB World Series Champion)/ Tampa, Florida
• Charlie Hayes - Former MLB Player (1977 World Series, 1996 MLB world Series Champion)/ Hattiesburg, Mississippi
• Ken Hubbs - Former MLB Player (1954 World Series)/ Colton, California 1962 National League MLB Rookie of The Year and Gold Glove Winner
• Keith Lampard - Former MLB Player (1958 World Series)/ Portland, Oregon
• Carney Lansford - Former MLB Player (1969 World Series, 1988 & 1990 MLB World Series Runner-Up, 1989 MLB World Series Champion)/ Santa Clara, California 1981 MLB Batting Champ, 1988 AL All-Star, 1992 Hutch Award Winner
• Vance Lovelace - Former MLB Player (1975 World Series)/ Tampa, Florida
• Jason Marquis - MLB Player (1991 World Series & 2006 MLB World Series Champion)/ Staten Island, New York 2005 NL Silver Slugger
• Stephane Matteau - Former NHL Player (1982 World Series, 1994 Stanley Cup Champion)/ Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec
• Lloyd McClendon - Former MLB Player & Manager, Currently a MLB Hitting Coach (1971 World Series)/ Gary, Indiana
• Lastings Milledge - MLB Player (1997 World Series)/ Bradenton, Florida
• Jim Pankovits - Former MLB Player (1968 World Series)/ Richmond, Virginia
• Marc Pisciotta - Former MLB Player (1983 World Series)/ Marietta, Georgia
• Boog Powell - Former MLB Player (1954 World Series, 1969 & 1971 MLB World Series Runner-Up, 1966 & 1970 MLB World Series Champion)/ Lakeland, Florida
• Turk Schonert - Former NFL Player and Currently a NFL Quarterback Coach (1968 World Series)/ Garden Grove, California
• Gary Sheffield - MLB Player (1980 World Series, 1997 MLB World Series Champion)/ Tampa, Florida 1992 MLB Batting Champ, 7-Time NL All-Star, 2-Time AL All-Star, 5-Time Silver Slugger
• Brian Sipe - Former NFL quarterback and 1980 NFL MVP (1961 World Series)/ El Cajon, California
• Carl Taylor - Former MLB Player (1954 World Series)/ Lakeland, Florida
• Hector Torres - Former MLB Player (1958 World Series)/ Monterrey, Mexico
• George Tsamis - Former MLB Player (1979 World Series)/ Campbell, California
• Pierre Turgeon - Former NHL Player (1982 World Series / Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec 4-Time NHL All-Star
• Jason Varitek - MLB Player (1984 World Series, 1994 NCAA CWS, 2004 MLB World Series Champion)/ Altamonte Springs, Florida
• Ed Vosberg - Former MLB Player (1973 World Series Runner-Up, 1980 NCAA CWS Champion, 1997 MLB World Series Champion)/ Tucson, Arizona
• Dan Wilson - Former MLB Player (1981 World Series)/ Barrington, Illinois 1996 AL All-Star
• Rick Wise - Former MLB Player (1958 World Series, 1975 MLB World Series)/ Portland, Oregon

Gale Gilbert former quarterback from California (starting the 1982 Band Game vs Stanford and NFL with the Buffalo Bills (Super Bowl) San Diego (Super Bowl) Chargers and Seattle Seahawks.(1974 World Series Runner-up Red Bluff, Ca.)

[edit] Championship notes

• In 1975, Little League Baseball banned all non-US teams from the World Series. After considerable criticism, the ban was rescinded the following year.[2]

• In 1985, Mexicali (MX) represented the Western Region of the United States because of its proximity to the El Centro/Calexico area in Southern California, and the potential players from that region could have played for that city's leagues. It represented California's District 22 in the Southern California region, and won the Western Region tournament. After the 1985 Series, the region was shifted from California leagues to Mexico leagues. Similarly, the South Lake Tahoe (CA) Little League plays in the Nevada region of Little League in order to save on travel costs with the team closer to other leagues in Nevada than to those in California.

• In 1992, Long Beach declared a 6–0 winner after the international tournament committee determined that Zamboanga City had used ineligible players that were either not from within its city limits, overage, or both.

No teams from Taiwan (now required to compete as "Chinese Taipei") participated after the 1996 tournament until the 2003 tournament, after the Chinese Taipei Baseball Association decided its leagues would no longer charter with Little League, claiming inability to comply with rules enacted in 1992 regarding the maximum size of player pools and number of participating teams in leagues based at schools, and residency requirements, which Little League Baseball had stated they would enforce more strictly, especially after the 1992 incident. To this point, the still-dominant Taiwanese team has entered 19 out of 60 World Series Finals, only losing two of them. This is more than any team has achieved so far.^[1]

[edit] Television coverage

The first broadcast of the Little League World Series on television was on ABC Sports (now ESPN on ABC) in 1963. At first, only the championship game was televised. Since the late 1980s, when the tournament was reorganized, both the U.S. and international championships, the "semifinals," have been shown. As the years passed, more telecasts were added on ABC, ESPN, and ESPN2. In 2006, 28 of the 36 games were televised on the three networks.

The 2006 world championship game was to be the last telecast on ABC Sports before ESPN's complete takeover of the sports division and name change. However, the final was postponed one day because of rain and was shown by ESPN2.

In January 2007, it was announced that ESPN, ESPN2, and ABC had extended their contract with the Little League organization through 2014.[3] That year, every game of the LLWS was scheduled to be televised for the first time, with all but one game live on ESPN, ESPN2 or ABC. (The other game was to be available online at ESPN360, then shown on ESPN2 the next day.)[4] In addition, a number of games were to be shown in high-definition on one of ESPN's two dedicated HD channels, or on ABC HD. The championship games in all other divisions, as well as the semifinals and finals of the Little League Softball World Series, was scheduled for either ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU.

[edit] Radio coverage

Most LLWS games are broadcast live on local radio station WRAK 1400AM, which is owned by Clear Channel. The radio broadcasts are also streamed online at the LLWS page at littleleague.org.

[edit] See also

• Danny Almonte - the center of an age fraud investigation during 2001 series

• List of Little League World Series broadcasters

[edit] References

1. ^ Taiwan, once dominant, to return to Little League, Associated Press Newswires, 25 April 2003, The Associated Press.

[edit] External links

• Official site
• Peter J. McGovern Little League Museum
• Comprehensive information on regional tournaments
• 1954 Schenectady Little League Honored