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:
— 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.
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Source: Little League International, AP reporting
