Little League World Series
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The Little League (Baseball) World Series is a baseball tournament for children under 13, 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.) At first it was only between teams from the US (much like the major league World Series), but it now truly lives up to its designation and has become a worldwide tournament. The tournament has gained popular renown, especially in the US, where games from the Series and even from regional tournaments are often broadcast on ESPN or ESPN2.
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.
| Division | Location | First Held |
|---|---|---|
| Little League Baseball | Williamsport, Pennsylvania | 1947 |
| Junior League Baseball | Taylor, Michigan | 1981 |
| Senior League Baseball | Bangor, Maine | 1961 |
| Big League Baseball | Easley, South Carolina | 1968 |
| Little League Softball | Portland, Oregon | 1974 |
| Junior League Softball | Kirkland, Washington | 1999 |
| Senior League Softball | Sussex, Delaware | 1976 |
| Big League Softball | Kalamazoo, Michigan | 1982 |
Qualifying tournaments
In the summer months leading up to the tournament, every Little League organization around the world competes in district, sectional, state, and regional tournaments in hopes of advancing to Williamsport. Just how many games a team has to play varies widely from region to region. In the United States alone, for instance, the tournaments at the lowest (district) level lack nationwide standardization. Some use pool play or double elimination, others use single elimination.
In the US, the fate of district winners varies widely from state to state. In certain larger states such as New York and Florida, the winners have to survive sectional tournaments before advancing to state tournaments. Other 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, all 50 states crown a state champion and then send one representative to its regional tournament. Because of their large geographic and population size, California and Texas send two each: Northern California and Southern California play in the West region, Texas East and Texas West compete in the Southwest region. Conversely, because of their sparse population, the Dakotas have just one district spanning the two states, and its winner becomes the joint champion. Teams from the District of Columbia compete in the Maryland district.
The state champions compete in eight different regional tournaments, with the eight winners advancing to the Little League World Series. See [this page] for a comprehensive breakdown on US regional tournament locations and participants.
Other countries and regions select their own way of crowning a champion. Little League Canada, for instance, 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.
World Series breakdown
Currently, the LLWS is broken up into two brackets: the United States Bracket and the International Bracket. Each bracket is further divided into eight divisions, and each division is reresented by one team. For the competition, there are two pools within each bracket, and four teams per pool. 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 semifinals, 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 Finals, whose winners then advance to compete in the Little League World Series Championship Game: the top American team versus the top International team.The eight divisions which compete in the United States Bracket 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, W TX, OK, CO, NM, E TX)
- Northwest (AK, WY, WA, OR, ID, MT)
- West (AZ, NV, N CA, UT, S CA, HI)
- Canada
- Mexico
- Caribbean
- Latin America
- Pacific
- Asia
- Europe-Middle East-Africa (EMEA)
- Trans-Atlantic
Little League World Series champions
[1954 Schenectady Little League Honored]
Famous participants in Little League World Series
- Ray Ferraro- Former NHL Player (1976 World Series)
- Pierre Turgeon- NHL Player (1982 World Series)
- Stephane Matteau- Former NHL Player (1982 World Series)
- Chris Drury- NHL Player (1989 World Series)
- Jason Varitek- MLB Player (1984 World Series)
- Gary Sheffield- MLB Player (1980 World Series)
- Sean Burroughs- MLB Player (1992, 1993 World Series)
- Jason Marquis- MLB Player (1991 World Series)
- Lastings Milledge- MLB Player (1997 World Series)
Notes
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.† - Long Beach declared a 6–0 winner after the international tournament committee determined that Zamboanga City had used ineligible players that were not from within its city limits and some being overage.
See also
- Danny Almonte - the center of an age fraud investigation during 2001 series
External links
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