Play Ball!: The Story of Little League Baseball

by Lance Van Auken and Robin Van Auken

Book Overview

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. Play Ball! charts Little League's history from the earliest days and shows how, in many respects, its history parallels America's...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0271021187
• ISBN13: 9780271021188
• Release Date: April 2001
• Publisher: Penn State University Press
• Length: 243 Pages
• Weight: 2.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 8.8" x 11.4"

Customer Reviews

For all Little League fans

Play Ball!: The Story Of Little League Baseball is a comprehensive and profusely illustrated history of a quintessentially American approach to organized recreation for children. Beginning with its debut in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, in 1939 when Carl Stotz, once having agreed to a game of catch with his nephews who were to young to play organized baseball ended up a year later with having created company a business community sponsored, three-team league baseball team for kids. The first official Little League game was played at Park Point in Williamsport on June 6, 1939, launching an organized team sport phenomenon that continues down to the present day. Play Ball! discusses such historically relevant issues as racial and gender equity (devoting an entire chapter to the struggle for girls to participate in the organization) and Carl Stotz split with Little League that still divides the community of Williamsport where it all began. The informative text is enhanced with appendices that include the winners of all Little League Baseball and Softball World Series; a year-by-year history of Little League; countries in Little League; as well as lists and pictures of some of the famous people who played the game as children. Play Ball! is very highly recommended and informative reading for all Little League fans!