Email

Sports: Key moments in Little League’s 75-year history

Owen Newcomer warms up before a Little League game in Williamsport, Pa. , May 28, 2014. Newcomer is the great grandson of Dick Hauser who played on one of the original Little League teams in 1939, making him a fourth generation Little Leaguer. (AP Photo/Ralph Wilson)

Little League is marking its 75th anniversary with a new PBS documentary, a partnership with Major League Baseball and a website that’s collecting players’ memories and photos. Some important dates in the history of Little League:

Owen Newcomer warms up before a Little League game in Williamsport, Pa. , May 28, 2014. Newcomer is the great grandson of Dick Hauser who played on one of the original Little League teams in 1939, making him a fourth generation Little Leaguer. (AP Photo/Ralph Wilson)

— 1938: Using neighborhood boys as his guide, Carl Stotz, of Williamsport, Pennsylvania, draws up rules and field dimensions.

— 1939: First game is played June 6. Lundy Lumber beats Lycoming Dairy 23-8.

— 1947: Hammonton, New Jersey, starts first Little League outside Pennsylvania. The inaugural National Little League Tournament, the forerunner of today’s Little League World Series, is played.

— 1951: The first international Little League program forms in British Columbia.

— 1956: Carl Stotz severs ties with Little League in a dispute over program’s direction.

— 1957: Monterrey, Mexico, becomes the first international team to win the Little League World Series.

— 1963: ABC’s Wide World of Sports broadcasts Little League World Series championship game.

— 1964: Little League chartered by U.S. Congress.

— 1971: Aluminum bat used for first time.

— 1974: Little League changes policy to admit girls, following lawsuits.

— 1978: Little League surpasses 6,500 local leagues.

— 1985: First live broadcast of championship game.

— 1992: Stotz dies.

— 1997: Little League baseball participation reaches peak of 2.6 million.

— 2001: Little League endures birth-certificate scandal at World Series.

— 2007: Little League introduces pitch-count limits in effort to reduce arm injuries.

— 2014: Little League celebrates 75th anniversary.

___

Source: Little League International, AP reporting

Related posts

International Criminal Court issues arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Hamas officials

Trump’s criminal conviction won’t stop him from getting security clearance as president

What Ukraine can now do with longer-range US missiles − and how that could affect the course of the war