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Contract will allow Little League International to provide even more direct benefits to local leagues
SUSSEX COUNTY, Del. (Jan. 4, 2007) – Little League International has signed an eight-year television contract extension with ESPN, expanding national coverage to include all eight of its baseball and softball world series tournaments, including the championship game of the Senior League Softball World Series at the Lower Sussex Little League Complex in Sussex County. Stephen D. Keener, president and chief executive officer of Little League Baseball and Softball, made the announcement today at Little League International in Williamsport, Pa., along with John Skipper, executive vice president, content, ESPN, Inc., in New York.
The 2007 Senior League Softball World Series, for 14-16 year olds, is scheduled for Aug. 5-11. The final game on Aug. 11 (at a time to be determined) will be televised nationally on ESPN or ESPN2 for the first time since Sussex County began hosting the tournament in 2004.
"Little League is pleased that television viewers around the country will see what Senior League Softball World Series families have known for years," Mr. Keener said. "And that is the outstanding tournament that Little League volunteers in Delaware have provided for the past three years, as well as the hospitality of the people of the greater Sussex County community."
Here's the links to the local stories: Martin Donovan in The Leader and Bruce Layton in The Wave
At least 49 games in all eight divisions of Little League Baseball and Softball will be televised nationally each year starting in August 2007. The U.S. and World Championship games in the Little League Baseball World Series will again be televised on ABC, with other games appearing on ESPN’s expanding family of networks. Previously, the greatest number of Little League games to be televised nationally was 43, in 2006.
"Having Little League games on national television has helped us communicate the benefits of our program to millions of viewers annually since 1963," Mr. Keener said. "We’re grateful that our partners at ESPN share that vision, and we are pleased to announce that the coverage has now expanded to all divisions of Little League play. We also are pleased to announce that this new contract means that Little League International will be able to provide more than $1 million in direct financial benefits to local Little League programs."
The multi-media agreement includes coverage across 15 ESPN platforms – ESPN on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN HD and ESPN2 HD, ESPN Classic, Spanish-language ESPN Deportes, ESPNEWS, ESPNU, ESPN International, ESPN Radio, ESPN.com, ESPN360 (the company’s growing interactive and customizable broadband service), Mobile ESPN Publishing (ESPN’s wireless content licensing business) and other ESPN-branded services (i.e. iPod, video-on-demand, etc.).
"Little League captures the heart of sport – a balance of competitiveness, sportsmanship, and passion for the game," Mr. Skipper said. "This new deal will allow fans to enjoy Little League World Series content any way they choose to experience these moments that touch so many."
In 2007, for the first time, all 32 games of the Aug. 17-26 Little League Baseball World Series in Williamsport will be televised on ABC, ESPN, or ESPN2.
In addition, ESPN and ESPN2 will continue to carry all eight of the U.S. Regional Championship finals in the Little League Baseball division. The U.S. regional finals have been televised by ESPN and ESPN2 every year since 1997.
The two semifinal games and the World Championship game of the Little League Softball World Series (11-12-year-olds), scheduled for Aug. 9-15 in Portland, Ore., will be televised on ESPN or ESPN2.
In addition to the final game of the Senior League Softball World Series, the championship games of the following tournaments also will be televised on ESPN or ESPN2: Junior League Baseball (13-14-year-olds), at Taylor, Mich., Aug. 12-18; Senior League Baseball (14-16 year olds), at Bangor, Maine, Aug. 12-18; Big League Baseball World Series (16-18 year olds), at Easley, S.C., July 28-Aug. 4; Junior League Softball (13-14-year-old girls), at Kirkland, Wash., Aug. 12-18; and Big League Softball (16-18-year-old girls), at Kalamazoo, Mich., Aug. 13-18.
The contract extension calls for more than 390 Little League Baseball and Softball tournament games to be televised nationally through 2014, which will mark the 75th anniversary of Little League’s first season, in 1939.
New Contract Provides Direct Benefits to Local Little Leagues
"Our new partnership with ESPN will bring a significant increase in value," Mr. Keener said. "As a result of that, we have taken definitive steps to increase the financial benefits provided to our local leagues."
Free Background Checks – In partnership with ChoicePoint, Little League International will provide every local Little League in the U.S. with 80 free criminal background checks of volunteers in each league. Additional checks will be $1 each.
During the last several years, ChoicePoint has provided the checks to local Little Leagues at a cost of $1.50 per person. In 2006, nearly 100,000 background checks were conducted on Little League volunteers through ChoicePoint.
Normally, the cost for these background checks to non-Little League organizations may be as high as $19.95 per person thorough ChoicePoint. This arrangement with ChoicePoint represents a savings to local leagues of more than $1 million, but also provides easy access to a more efficient and thorough process for local leagues to screen volunteers.
Mandatory background checks for all managers, coaches and certain other volunteers began in Little League in 2003. At a minimum, local leagues are required to conduct a check of the National Sex Offender Database on these volunteers. However, a more extensive criminal background check, such as that offered through ChoicePoint, is recommended.
Charter Fees Reduced – For the first time in Little League’s 68-year history, the fees paid by the local volunteer organizations to become "chartered" Little Leagues will decrease for every division of play. In 2006, charter fees were $18 per team.
Starting in 2007, fees have been lowered to $16 per team, representing a savings of more than $300,000 per year for local leagues.
Promotional Messages – While having 49 games on national television, adding up to more than 100 hours of programming, is one of the best ways for Little League International to communicate its message to the public, Little League also will receive time for public service announcements (PSAs) during other times of the year on the ESPN family of networks.
Some of the PSAs will be aired during the winter and spring, and are aimed at promoting registration at the local Little League level.
Coaching Initiative – Still being formulated, it is Little League International’s intent to offer an on-line coaches resource center and training program at no charge to all Little League managers and coaches worldwide. Based on the fees charged to individual coaches or leagues in other youth baseball and softball programs, this initiative represents a savings of more than $250,000 for local Little Leagues and volunteers.
Services Already Provided by Little League
"We’re grateful to ESPN for making it possible to offer these benefits, particularly the free background checks and the reduction in charter fees," Mr. Keener said. "We’ve always wanted to do that for our local programs, but until now have not been able to do so."
Included among the services currently provided to chartered local Little Leagues by Little League International:
All of us involved in the series want to express our condolences to the family of Mr. Freeman, and honor his memory. His contributions that led to the playing of the Softball World Series in Sussex Country probably will never be completely known.
Wer're going to miss him and his help.
A story from the local newspaper follows: Real estate developer Joshua Freeman and a woman pilot from Virginia were killed
Nicole Smith of Milton pitched the whole game, striking out 8 and holding the host team to just 2 runs.
This East team had finished #2 in several regionals, and this win was especially good for their coaches. We'll try to provide links to the various newspaper stories about the game over the next few days.
Earlier, the Beast of the East pulled off a bottom of the 7th win over Southwest, scoring 2 runs to win 3-2.
East meets District III today at 3:30 PM for the title.
Central lost to Latin America 1-0 tonight, after Southwest also won, giving all 3 of the top teams in the B Pool identical 3-1 records. Central finished on top due to the tie-breaker, runs allowed divided by defensive runs played. Earlier Southwest had played a full 7 innings against Europe to raise their defensive innings total - that put them ahead of Latin America.
The Semi-Final games both look to be outstanding games - and could result in a rematch of one of the tournament's opening games, but lets see what happens on Friday.
Earlier Latin American and Southwest battled to a close game that Southwest won 3-1 and West got in the win column with a 16-2 win over Europe.
Seven Pitchers still have 0.00 ERAs, Nicole Smith (East 3-0), Angela Gillis (Central 1-0), Kelsey Riggleman (Dist III 1-0), Felicia Mendoza (West 0-0), Olivia Findley (Central 1-0), Zenofia Leito (Latin America 0-0) and Dani Campbell (Central 0-0) have not allowed a run yet.
Central had little trouble, shutting out West 7-0, and East found that the South team was better than their earlier game - they had to shut them out to win 2-0.
The big win was Latin American over Europe. The team from the Netherlands Antilles rolled up Europe 22-0 in 5 innings.
District III has a 13-0 lead over the South team heading into the bottom of the 5th, Southwest leads the West team, 5-1 in the top of the 5th. Wins by Dist III, Southwest and West would put them at 1-1, good position should their respective pool leaders falter, South was playing their first game Monday.
All the games Tuesday are scheduled for the afternoon so all the teams can have a "get to know you" party Tuesday night - Sky Brady will entertain.
3 games down, and still a bunch to go...
In the battle of the C's - Curacao and California [the West team], Latin America was able to get a lead and keep it, winning 4-2 behind a 6 strikeout performance by pitcher Suliviendra Hooi. West's Felicia Mendoza also had 6 K's in relief, but Latin America put up 3 runs in the first inning and that was enough.
The "Beast of the East" showed their power, and District III was a little rusty as the East almost shut out Nanticoke, winning 6-1. East's Nicole Smith was almost unhitable as she struck out 5 and allowed only one hit in 4 innings. Larissa Luu came in for the final 3 innings and only allowed 1 run on 3 hits.
Nanticoke, Dist III commited 2 errors, but it was timely hitting [6 runs on 6 hits] and good baserunning that put all those runs up on the board for the team from Pennsylvania.
Here's the Wilmington News Journal story about the game
Over at Connie Mack field - Central needed 8 innings to beat Southwest, 2-1. We'll have the official box scores up this afternoon, once we fix the "computer problem" at Connie Mack.
You can see the official Box Scores and Scorebooks in the Games Section: Click Here
We'll also try to post the links to stories from the web here as we find them.
Meanwhile, here's the link to the Little League Official Site with all the dates and locations of the Regional Tournaments...
-LLWS-
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