Plot Synopsis

Each summer since 1947, Williamsport, PA has hosted the Little League World Series for young baseball players from around the world, who converge on the city to determine a world champion. Carl E. Stotz organized the nation's first league for boys' baseball in Williamsport in 1939, consisting of only three teams but laying the foundation for an organization with a mission to provide equipment and teach players "the ideals of sportsmanship, fair play and teamwork." Just eight years later, Williamsport hosted the first World Series, then known as the National Little League Tournament, with the Maynard Midgets winning the crown. The next year, with 94 leagues around the nation, Lock Haven, PA defeated a team from St. Petersburg, FL in the first series to include a team from outside Pennsylvania. In 1952, the first non-US team played in the World Series. The next year, with the program encompassing 46 states, Canada, the Panama Canal Zone, Hawaii and Puerto Rico, the series was televised for the first time, with CBS broadcasting the event and Jim McKay calling the game, in which Birmingham, AL defeated Schenectady, NY 1-0. To qualify for the Little League Baseball World Series, a team comprised of the best 11- and 12-year-olds in a Little League program must advance through the world's largest elimination tournament. At the Little League Baseball World Series in South Williamsport, the attendance is normally well over 300,000, with crowds of 30,000 or more for the championship game. A record total of 414,905 fans attended the 2011 World Series, with millions more watching the games on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3.com and ABC.