"Play
Ball! is a delightful walk down the storied history of Little League
Baseball. For those of us who played the dreams of our youth, it
brings back mighty memories. For those of us reluctant adults who
still dream, it’s a wonderful reminder of what might have
been." —John Grisham
"It’s funny: after 40 years, I can’t remember much
else about a lot of the boys I grew up with, but if you give me
one of their names, I can usually remember what Little League team
he played on." —Dave Barry
On
any given spring evening, 360,000 children around the world can
be found on the dusty mounds and grassy fields of a Little League
field. With more than four million people playing or volunteering
in Little League games every year, Little League is the institutional
rite of passage into the quintessential American pastime.
Little League Baseball began in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, in 1938,
when Carl Stotz, an oil company clerk, agreed to a game of catch
with his young nephews-who were too young to play organized baseball.
He recalled how it felt to be left out, and promised to think of
a way for the boys to have a league of their own. With the help
of neighbors George and Bert Bebble, Stotz created a three-team
league. After being turned down by fifty-six businesses, Carl finally
convinced a lumber company, a dairy, and a pretzel maker to sponsor
the teams, for $30 each. On June 6, 1939, the first Little League
Baseball game was played at Park Point in Williamsport.
Play
Ball! charts Little League's history from the earliest days
and shows how, in many respects, its history parallels America's
history: isolation in the beginning; rapid expansion; a civil war
of sorts, followed by reconstruction; struggle's over civil rights
and gender equity; and foreign entanglements. A microcosm of American
society, Little League reflects, and is affected by, cultural, political
and historical trends. Today, Little League is played on 12,000
fields in every U.S. state and in 103 other countries on six continents.
Little League also sanctions play in softball, Tee Ball, and baseball
for disabled children-called the Challenger Division. The Little
League Baseball World Series, played annually in Williamsport, is
watched by crowds of 40,000 each year in person, and by more than
ten million on ABC's Wide World of Sports.
The
authors were given full access to the Little League Baseball archives
and have created a fully illustrated and comprehensive history.
Play Ball! contains appendixes including winners of all Little
League Baseball and Softball World Series, a year-by-year history
of Little League, countries in Little League, and lists of some
of the famous people who played the game as children, including
Kevin Costner, Mark McGwire, and George W. Bush.
Play
Ball! will interest parents, former players and coaches, fans
of Little League Baseball, general baseball enthusiasts, and anyone
who has ever picked up a ball and bat. |
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