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Little League Baseball

non-profit organization in the USA

Layered newspapers, civic records and oral-history reels arranged as chronological evidence
History and societyInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 27, 2026
Entity authorityQ608201
Source-derived summary

Little League Baseball and Softball (officially, Little League Baseball Inc) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania, United States, which organizes local youth baseball and softball leagues throughout the United States and the rest of the world.

It was founded in 1939 by Carl Edwin Stotz as a three-team league in the adjacent larger town of Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The ensuing Little League organization was incorporated on October 10, 1950, with Stotz serving as the organization's first commissioner for 18 years until 1955. Little League Baseball encourages local volunteers to organize and operate Little League franchise programs that are annually chartered through Little League International. Each local league can structure itself to best serve the children in the area in which the league operates. Several specific divisions of Little League baseball and softball are available to children and adolescents ages 4 to 16. The organization holds a congressional charter authorized by the United States Congress under Title 36 of the United States Code.

The organization's administrative office is located in South Williamsport of Lycoming County, Pennsylvania. The first Little League Baseball World Series was played in Williamsport in 1947. The Little League International Complex in South Williamsport hosts the annual tournament of the Little League Baseball World Series at Howard J. Lamade Stadium and adjacent Little League Volunteer Stadium, and is also the site of the Peter J. McGovern Little League Museum, which provides a history of Little League Baseball and Softball through interactive exhibits for children.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Little League Baseball” as non-profit organization in the USA. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Little, League and Baseball.

Editorial reviewMost valuable as an event-and-institution map that identifies actors, dates and record creators for deeper historical inquiry. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1939, 1950, 1955, 1947—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1939-01-01. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Little, League and Baseball providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Little League Baseball”, the useful work is to connect “non-profit organization in the USA” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q608201. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1939, 1950, 1955 and 1947.

Critical limits

Institutional narratives can privilege the records that survived while minimizing voices that were never formally collected. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.

Best used for
  • Event chronology
  • Institutional context
  • Locating named record creators
Verify next

Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Little League Baseball”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Little League Baseball primary sources, Little League Baseball archive and Little research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Little League Baseball”?
  2. Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
  3. What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Little League Baseball” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.