Little League World Series

The Little League World Series is a counterpart of the MLB World Series for children under 13. It started in 1947 and is held every August in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania, USA. (The postal address of the organization is in Williamsport, but the stadium complex is in South Williamsport.) At first it was only between cities of the U.S. (much like the MLB "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 United States, where games from the Series and even from US regional tournaments are often broadcast on ESPN or ESPN2.

World Series Breakdown

Currently, the LLWS is broken up into two divisions: The United States Division and The International Division. There are two pools per division, 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 divisional 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 the divisional finals, whose winners advance to compete in the finals of the Little League World Series: the top American team versus the top International team.

Related Topics:
United States - International - Round robin - Versus

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As of August 14, 2005, the Pools are broken down as follows:

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United States Division

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Pool A

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• Mid-Atlantic-Newtown, Pennsylvania (def. Toms River, New Jersey)
• Northwest-Ewa Beach, Hawaii (def. Boise, Idaho)
• Midwest-Davenport, Iowa (def. Lino Lakes, Minnesota 6-4)
• Southeast-Maitland, Florida (def. Buckhead, Atlanta, Georgia 3-1)

Pool B

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• New England-Westbrook, Maine (def. Cranston, Rhode Island 7-2)
• West-Vista, California (Southern California) (def. Tracy, California (Northern California) 7-2)
• Great Lakes-Owensboro, Kentucky (def. Kankakee, Illinois 11-10)
• Southwest-Lafayette, Louisiana (def. Bryant, Arkansas 4-1)

International Division

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Pool C

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• Pacific-Hagåtña, Guam
• Mexico-Mexicali, Mexico
• Canada-Surrey, British Columbia (def. Toronto, Ontario 6-1)
• EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa)-Moscow, Russia (def. Utrecht, Netherlands 8-3)

Pool D

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• Latin America-Valencia, Venezuela (def. Altagracia, Venezuela by forfeit)
• Asia-Chiba City, Japan
• Transatlantic-Arabian American Little League, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia (def. Ramstein American Little League, Ramstein Air Base, Germany 13-2)
• Caribbean-Willemstad, Curaçao (def. Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles 8-0)

Note: 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.

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