|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Organizers of a new Little League World Series, being held in the East Bay, hope that everyone in the area will come to the free games so that Max Baer Park, home of Granada Little League, can continue to host the games.
The first Little League World Series for the new league will be held in Livermore starting at the end of the weekend, bringing in teams not only from across the country, but from around the world.
“We’ve got 10 teams coming in to Northern California for the inaugural series,” said tournament director Dave Wetmore, a San Ramon resident who has been administrator for Little League District 57, which runs from Alamo to Livermore, for the last 11 years.
This Little League World Series will include teams from Asia, Latin America, Puerto Rico and Canada, along with five teams from the United States, from the east, southeast, southwest, the west, the central U.S. and a local team.
“I coordinate all of them coming in,” Wetmore said. “As soon as they get here, its our responsibility to feed them, provide transportation, and house them.”
Teams will head into San Francisco on July 28, and they’ll be shuttled to local hotels for the night. The next day, there will be an awards ceremony for each of the teams who have already won bragging rights to their division at the Bankhead Theater in Livermore, followed by a parade.
Pleasanton National Intermediate, a team of 13-year-old players in Pleasanton National Little League, will represent District 57.
The teams are largely 13-year-old players, although some of the international teams have had to bring in 11- and 12-year-olds to have enough on a team, Wetmore said.
He said the new series has different pitching base path distances, giving kids the opportunity to transition from the shorter distances (46 foot pitching and 60 foot base paths) in most little leagues to the longer (60 foot, 6 inch pitching and 90 foot base paths) used in the bigger leagues, high schools and colleges.
The new league is holding its inaugural tournament July 30-Aug. 5 at Max Baer Park, home of Granada Little League, in Livermore.
Hosting the tournaments is a big deal. ESPN will televise the final game, and the Intermediate World Series could be an annual event for Livermore if all goes well and the turnout for the games — which are free — is high.
“It’s basically probably ours until we don’t want to do it anymore,” Wetmore said. “It’s a lot of work.”
That includes not only making all the arrangements for the kids and their families, but preparing fields and other miscellany.
“We’re raising the dollars. We have no intention of it going anywhere else,” Wetmore said, adding that local families have dug deep into their own pockets to make the series happen.
International teams will compete against each other, as will the American teams, with the winners going head to head in the finals.
The series is also a big deal for the host team, the winners of local play. A local team is included in the series for the work involved in putting on the event.
“It is the first Pleasanton team to make it to the Little League World Series,” said Andrea Lander, a player’s mom. “Pleasanton National won the District 57 Championship by beating Granada, 9-2, in the final game.”
Pleasanton National will play in the first game, on Tuesday.
Livermore was chosen last summer as the site for the World Series in the newest division of play from among several cities, including Vancouver, Washington and Chicago.
“It was a difficult choice, since all the cities are so close in terms of what they have to offer,” said Stephen D. Keener, president and CEO of Little League Baseball and Softball. “Ultimately, the Board of Directors settled on Northern California, the greater San Francisco area, Livermore, and Granada Little League, as its top choice.”
Wetmore said part of the decision may have to do with his long history with little league baseball.
The San Ramon resident has been a Little League volunteer for 26 years. He began his association with Little League in 1987 as the player agent and vice president for the San Ramon Little League. The following year, he served as president of the league for one year before joining the district staff.
“They know me,” he said.
It doesn’t hurt that District 57 welcomed the 50/70 pilot program with open arms.
“People see it as a great way to make the transition from the Little League field to the standard baseball diamond. For us, it has kept more players in our programs into their teenage years,” Wetmore said.
He thinks the intermediate distances that are used in the division are a good thing both for the players and their families. With the big jump to larger distances, some players drop out or transfer to “elite travel-type programs.”
“It’s just another opportunity to stay in your community, play with your friends, and save a little out of your pocketbook,” Wetmore said.
Wetmore is director of Purchasing and Contracts at the Contra Costa Community College District, and for the next few weeks, he’ll have to find a way to do that and everything that’s coming his way with the new series headed to the area.
