| Current season or competition: 2011 Little League World Series |
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| Sport | Baseball |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1947 |
| No. of teams | 16 |
| Country(ies) | International |
| Most recent champion(s) | Huntington Beach, California, United States |
| Most titles | Taiwan / Chinese Taipei (17) |
| Official website | LittleLeague.org |
The Little League Baseball World Series is a baseball tournament for children aged 11 to 13 years old. It was originally called the National Little League Tournament and was later renamed 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.[1] (The postal address of the organization is in Williamsport, but the stadium complex is in South Williamsport.)
Initially, only teams from the US competed in the "World Series" 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 series takes place in August, many of the players have already turned 13 before the World Series.
While the Little League Baseball World Series is frequently referred to as just the Little League World Series, it is actually 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, but sometimes with different regions.
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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 and/or divisional 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 Pennsylvania, 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, the latter only being held in Texas and California and are similar to 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 4 exceptions, every state as well as the District of Columbia crowns a state champion,[2] and sends that team to represent it to one of eight regional tournaments. The exceptions involve California, Texas, and the states of North Dakota and South Dakota. Because of their large geographic and population sizes, California and Texas send two representatives to their regional tournament; Northern California and Southern California in the West region tournament and 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. However, North Dakota does not have any towns who play through Little League, and 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 host team gets an automatic berth as the sixth team. The tournament is played as a round robin and uses the page playoff format. The winner of the national tournament earns the right to represent Canada at the Little League World Series.
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 (Central, South, East, and West) and four international (Canada, Latin America, Europe, and the Far East). It should be noted that in 1975 there were only four teams in the LLWS, all from the United States. The international teams returned in 1976.
From 2001 to 2009, the 16 teams were divided into two brackets, the United States Bracket and the International Bracket. Each team was then randomly assigned to one of two "pools" in their respective bracket. In the opening days of the tournament, the teams competed round robin within their own pool. The top two teams in each pool advanced to the semifinal of their bracket, where the first place team from one pool competed against the second place team from the other. The respective winners advanced to play in either the United States or International Final. The U.S. champion and the International champion advanced to compete in the Little League World Series Championship Game.
On April 14, 2010, Little League announced that starting in 2010, round robin play would be replaced by a double-elimination bracket in each pool. The winners of each pool would advance to single elimination US and International Championship games, and the winners of those games would advance to the World Championship game. Every team would play a minimum of three games: the four teams that lost their first two games would cross over and play U.S. vs. International games.[3]
On June 16, 2011, it was announced that the double-elimination format had been modified. The pools were eliminated in favor of placing the eight U.S. teams in one bracket, and the eight International teams in another bracket. The tournament remains double-elimination until the U.S. and International Championship games, where it becomes single-elimination. Each team still plays a minimum of three games, as the concept of "crossover" games was kept.[4]
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:
The eight divisions which compete in the International Bracket are as follows:
Prior to 2008, instead of two separate geographic regions, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa held two coterminous regions:[5]
The Transatlantic and EMEA regions were geographically identical. Leagues from the Transatlantic region generally consisted of children and other dependents of American expatriates, typically Armed Forces personnel, international organization members, and oil company workers (such as the team representing the Saudi Aramco Residential Camp in Dhahran, which advanced to the World Series 19 times through 2007, including all the tournaments from 2001 through 2007). The leagues within the "EMEA" region consisted of players native to the league's own country. Representative teams for the Trans-Atlantic region had to have at least 51% nationals of Canada, the U.S. or Japan, while teams for the EMEA region could have no more than three players from those three countries.
Teams in the reorganized Europe and MEA regions no longer have nationality restrictions, as evidenced by the 2009 series. In that year, both regions were won by teams made up primarily of children of American expatriates. Europe was represented by a team from Ramstein Air Base, a United States Air Force base in Germany, while MEA was represented for the second time in its two-year existence by the team from the Saudi Aramco camp.
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.
Both fields have symmetrical fences, with a distance of 68.6 m (225 feet) from home plate to each of the outfield positions. That distance had been 62.5 m (205 feet) before 2006.
Admission to all LLWS games is free for all spectators. However, stadium seats for the World Championship game are distributed in a random drawing of all interested parties due to high demand.[6] Lamade Stadium has a berm beyond the fences that has allowed the facility to hold up to 45,000 spectators.
| Team | Championships | Last |
|---|---|---|
| Taiwan / Chinese Taipei | 17 | 1996 |
| Japan | 7 | 2010 |
| California | 7 | 2011 |
| Pennsylvania | 4 | 1960 |
| Connecticut | 4 | 1989 |
| New Jersey | 4 | 1998 |
| Mexico | 3 | 1997 |
| Georgia | 3 | 2007 |
| New York | 2 | 1964 |
| Texas | 2 | 1966 |
| South Korea | 2 | 1985 |
| Venezuela | 2 | 2000 |
| Hawaii | 2 | 2008 |
| Alabama | 1 | 1953 |
| New Mexico | 1 | 1956 |
| Michigan | 1 | 1959 |
| Washington | 1 | 1982 |
| Kentucky | 1 | 2002 |
| Curaçao | 1 | 2004 |
| Team | Championships |
|---|---|
| International | 31 |
| United States | 34 |
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.[10] 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.)[11] 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.
In June 2011, it was announced that ESPN would add 17 games to its schedule on ESPN 3D.[12]
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.
Each of the other seven divisions of Little League Baseball has its own World Series format.
| Division | Location | First Held | Series |
|---|---|---|---|
| Little League Baseball | South Williamsport, Pennsylvania | 1947 | Little League World Series |
| Junior League Baseball | Taylor, Michigan | 1981 | Junior League World Series |
| Senior League Baseball | Bangor, Maine | 1961 | Senior League World Series |
| Big League Baseball | Easley, South Carolina | 1968 | Big League World Series |
| Little League Softball | Portland, Oregon | 1974 | Little League World Series (softball) |
| Junior League Softball | Kirkland, Washington | 1999 | Junior League World Series (softball) |
| Senior League Softball | Sussex County, Delaware | 1976 | Senior League World Series (softball) |
| Big League Softball | Kalamazoo, Michigan | 1982 | Big League World Series (softball) |
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| Notable Figures: Carl Stotz Honors: Little League Baseball awards • Peter J. McGovern Little League Museum In Popular Culture: Video games: Little League World Series Baseball Movies: Mickey Well-known Players: Danny Almonte • Aaron Durley • Carolyn King • Maria Pepe Miscellaneous: Little League Elbow • White House Tee Ball Initiative |