| Little League World Series |
Article Index for Little |
Website Links For Little League |
Information AboutLittle League World Series |
|
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. 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, 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. 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 , 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:
The eight divisions which compete in the International Bracket are as follows:
There is considerable territorial overlap between the Transatlantic and EMEA regions. The leagues within the so-called "Transatlantic" region generally consist of children and other dependents of American expatriates, typically Armed Forces personnel, international organization members, and oil company workers. The leagues within the "EMEA" region, conversely, generally consist of players native to the league's own country. LITTLE LEAGUE WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS [http://www.schenectadyny.info/cgi-bin/Blah/Blah.pl?b=schll,m=1094997004 1954 Schenectady Little League Honored] FAMOUS PARTICIPANTS IN LITTLE LEAGUE 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 players that were not from within its City Limits and some being overage. SEE ALSO
EXTERNAL LINKS |
|
|