Carl Edwin Stotz (1910–1992), a longtime resident of Williamsport, Pennsylvania, founded Little League Baseball in 1939. He began experimenting with his idea in the summer of 1938 when he gathered his nephews, Jimmy and Major Gehron, and their neighborhood friends. They tried different field dimensions over the course of the summer and played several informal games. The following summer, they felt that they were ready to establish what later became Little League Baseball. The first small league organized in Williamsport had just three teams, each sponsored by a different business. The first teams, Jumbo Pretzel, Lycoming Dairy, and Lundy Lumber Company were managed by Stotz and his friends, George and Bert Bebble. The men, joined by their wives and another couple, formed the first Little League board of directors. The first league game took place on June 6, 1939, when Lundy Lumber defeated Lycoming Dairy, 23–8. Lycoming Dairy became the champions of the first half of the season and then defeated Lundy Lumber, the second-half champions, in a best-of-three championship series. The following year, a second league was formed in Williamsport, and Little League Baseball grew to become an international organization with nearly 200,000 teams in every U.S. state and more than 80 countries. However, when that season ended, a Little League meeting was held, and it was decided that girls would be banned from Little League baseball. From 1951 through 1973, Little League baseball was restricted to
boys only. In 1974, due to a lawsuit brought on behalf of
Maria Pepe by the
National Organization for Women, the
New Jersey Superior Court decided that Little League baseball must allow girls to play. In the final week of December 1974, President
Gerald Ford, signed a bill that opened Little League baseball to girls. According to the Little League Baseball and Softball participation statistics following the 2008 season, there were nearly 2.6 million boys and girls in Little League Baseball worldwide. Of these, approximately 400,000 are registered in softball leagues (including both boys and girls). Starting in 2022, for tournament purposes, Little League Baseball was divided into 20 geographic regions: ten national and ten international. Each summer, Little League operates seven World Series tournaments in various locations throughout the U.S. (Little League softball and Junior, Senior, and Big League baseball and softball).
Timeline Early years 1939: Little League is established by Carl E. Stotz, George Bebble, and Bert Bebble. The first season is played in a lot close to
Bowman Field. Lycoming Dairy is the first season champion.
1949: After a decade, Little League is featured in the nationally famous weekly longtime magazine, the
Saturday Evening Post and on
newsreels shown in neighborhood movie. Commissioner Stotz receives hundreds of requests for information on forming local leagues from all over the country. Little League incorporates in the
State of New York. After earning her way onto the team and being assigned first base, she tells her coach that she is a girl, but he keeps her on the team. She is forced to quit after just one season because a new rule, known as the Tubby Rule, is created to bar girls from participation. The rule remains in force until 1974.
1951: Leagues are formed in the western province on the Pacific Ocean coast of
British Columbia, in the neighboring
Dominion of Canada to the north and in the old U.S. territory of the
Panama Canal Zone surrounding the
Panama Canal, in
Central America, making them the first youth baseball leagues outside the United States. In 1955, in the beginnings of the growing nation-wide
Civil rights movement, when, Morrison entered his Cannon Street All-Stars into the city tournament, white leagues reacted by drafting a resolution requesting a whites-only tournament. All 55 white teams eventually withdrew from the city and state tournament. The Cannon Street All-Stars became the 1955 South Carolina state champions by forfeit. However, they were informed by then national Little League Baseball president Peter J. McGovern that they would not be permitted to represent the state at the regional championships in Williamsport. Little League executives invited the Cannon Street All-Stars as guests to attend the tournament in which they were barred from playing. No team from South Carolina would reach the World Series tournament until 2015.
1956: Stotz severs his ties with Little League Baseball, Inc. after 18 years in a dispute over the direction, policies and control of the league. Stotz believed that the league was becoming overly commercialized by then-president Peter J. McGovern. Stotz remains active in youth baseball with the "Original League" in Williamsport for the next 38 years until his death in June 1992. With batting helmets yet to be developed, Garland League teams finish the season wearing youth football helmets over their baseball caps when batting. Later in the year, pitcher Fred Shapiro throws a perfect game in the Little League World Series.
International era poses with Little Leaguers from Chile in
Santiago 1957: Angel Macias throws a
perfect game and
Monterrey, Mexico, becomes the first team from outside the United States to win the Little League World Series. (Portrayed in the 2010 film
The Perfect Game.) and
Jenny Fulle, and a Little League Softball program for both boys and girls is created. Bunny Taylor becomes the first girl to pitch a
no-hitter.
1975: In a controversial decision, all foreign teams are banned from the Little League World Series. International play is restored the following year.
1988:
Tom Seaver is the first former Little Leaguer to be enshrined in the Peter J. McGovern Museum Hall of Excellence.
1992: Stotz, the founder of Little League, dies. Lights are installed at Lamade Stadium, allowing the first night games to be played. The series is expanded from single-elimination to round-robin format.
Long Beach, California, managed by former major-leaguer
Jeff Burroughs and starring his son, future major-leaguer
Sean Burroughs, is named series champion after
Zamboanga City, Philippines is forced to forfeit for using ineligible players.
2011: The World Series officially eliminates the two four-team brackets and puts all eight teams in the United States bracket and all eight teams in the International bracket, with a
SEC baseball tournament-style flipped bracket on the loser's bracket in order to prevent rematches, but does not require the loser to defeat the winner's bracket team twice in either Saturday championship game from which the winner advances to the Sunday final.
2012: The
Middle East and Africa Region produces the first team from the African continent in the Little League World Series, one from Lugazi Little League of
Uganda. On August 29, Little League announces a major reorganization of the international brackets, effective with the 2013 LLWS: •
Australia is spun off from the Asia–Pacific Region and will receive its own berth in the LLWS. This reflects Australia's rise to become the fourth-largest country, and largest outside North America, in Little League participation. • The Middle East and Africa Region is disbanded. • Middle Eastern countries, except for Israel and Turkey (which had been in the Europe Region – see below), are placed in the
Asia–Pacific Region. • African countries are to be placed in the former Europe Region, which is renamed the
Europe and Africa Region. Israel and Turkey, members of
the European zone of the
International Baseball Federation, remain in the renamed region. The Intermediate (50/70) Division, which had operated on a pilot basis since the 2011 season, is announced as an official Little League division, the first new division since 1999. The division, which launches fully in the 2013 season, has the same age limits as standard Little League but extends the pitching rubber to 50 feet from home plate and features bases 70 feet apart. The field is also larger than in standard Little League, and the rules are closer to those of standard baseball.
2013: Davie Jane Gilmour becomes the first woman to lead the Little League board of directors. The first
Intermediate Little League World Series is held in
Livermore, California.
2014: On August 15, 2014,
Mo'ne Davis of the Taney Dragons becomes the first girl in
Little League World Series history to earn a win as a pitcher and to pitch a shutout. Davis also becomes the first Little Leaguer to appear on the cover of
Sports Illustrated (issue date: August 25, 2014). ESPN's coverage of the August 20 semifinal game, featuring Davis, brings a 3.4
overnight rating, which is an all-time high for Little League on the network. Jackie Robinson West becomes the first all-African-American Little League team to win the U.S. championship, but its title is later stripped after violations of the 1997 region regulations are discovered.
2018: Little League changes its age rules, moving the birthday deadline from May 1 back to August 31. This allowed 13-year-olds to play Majors level this year against 11-year-olds, but 11-year-olds born between May and August were unable to play the following year.
2020: The LLWS is canceled due to the
COVID-19 pandemic.
2021: The LLWS is contested with a 16-team field of U.S.-only teams, another effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.
2022: The LLWS is held without COVID-related restrictions for the first time since 2019. The tournament size increases from 16 to 20 teams, with the addition of two new regions within the U.S. and two additional direct qualifiers among international teams.
2025: The Tung-Yuan Little League gives Chinese Taipei the island's first LLWS championship since 1996 with a 7–0 victory over the Summerlin South Little League from Las Vegas, Nevada in the final. ==Regions==