Players will actually play at Lamade Stadium, home to the Little League World Series as well as Carl Stotz Memorial Field, near the site of the first Little League games played in 1939.   “The coaches and families will experience the friendship and celebration that all-star players enjoy during the Little League Baseball World Series, while the players will get the chance to play on the same fields where Little League’s world champion is crowned, and where the program started.”

The Baseball Factory will attend the Jamboree and provide a skills challenge and instruction for all Jamboree players.

Major League Baseball (MLB), founding partner of the Jamboree, continues to provide educational materials for the event as it has for the first five years. This year, MLB will provide the opportunity to present Breaking Barriers: In Sports, In Life, to all Jamboree participants. The Breaking Barriers program is multi-curricular character education program that was developed by MLB and Scholastic Inc. This program utilizes baseball-themed features, activities and lessons to teach children in grades 4-8 the values and traits they need to deal with the barriers and challenges in their lives. Using baseball as a metaphor for life, the curriculum is based on nine values demonstrated by the late Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson. 

Congratulations to South Fulton Little League!   Bring back lots of photos and wonderful memories.   

By Communications Division
WILLIAMSPORT, Pa.
December 9, 2008

The Little League International Board of Directors unanimously resolved today to select Warner Robins, Ga., as the site of the new Southeast Region Headquarters, it was announced by Stephen D. Keener, President and Chief Executive Officer of Little League International.

“On behalf of the Board of Directors, I want to thank Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, Mayor Donald S. Walker, and the leaders and citizens of Warner Robins, for their part in helping to bring the new home for the eight-state Little League Southeast Region to Central Georgia,” Mr. Keener said. “We trust our relationship will continue to grow, and that the people of the Warner Robins area will enjoy having this important center of Little League activity in their community. And we know that our volunteers in the Southeast Region will find that the new site will be convenient because of its more central location, and the facilities will be first-rate.”

The original field of 18 cities in six states was narrowed to Morganton, N.C., and Warner Robins in November. Both cities were represented by teams in the Little League Baseball World Series in recent years.

“We are grateful as well to Morganton, and in particular, Mayor Mel Cohen,” Mr. Keener said. “This was an extremely difficult decision, which was undertaken with a great deal of deliberation. Our Board of Directors was very impressed by both of the proposals.”

Little League teams from Georgia won the Little League Baseball World Series in 2006 and again in 2007. The 2007 winner was Warner Robins American Little League.

“With back-to-back world champions and a strong passion for Little League, I cannot imagine a better place than Georgia for the Southeast Region Headquarters,” Gov. Perdue said. “Little League is a great program that I was proud to be a part of during my youth, and we will be honored to host the regional playoffs each year as the Southeast representative to the Little League World Series is determined. Little League is a world-class organization and I am proud to welcome them to Georgia.”

The next phase in the process will be to reach a contractual agreement with Warner Robins. Upon completion of that agreement, operations at the current Southeast Region Headquarters in Gulfport, Fla., a suburb of St. Petersburg, will begin transferring to Warner Robins.
 
The Southeast Region Headquarters serves as the administrative center for Little League Baseball and Softball activities in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. The annual Southeast Region Championship game (formerly the Southern Region Championship game) has been televised nationally on ESPN or ESPN2 every year since 1997.
 
As the site for the new Regional Headquarters is developed in Warner Robins, it will be necessary to play the 2009 Little League Baseball and Softball Regional Tournaments at an alternate location. That location, Ceredo-Kenova, W.Va., to be used only for one year, was announced on Monday.

Little League Baseball and Softball is the world’s largest organized youth sports program, with more than 2.6 million players and 1 million volunteers in every U.S. state and 75 other countries.

By
WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. and Atlanta, GA
December 4, 2008

A perfect 3-0 record in the Little League Baseball World Series Championship Game, and home state to winners of two of the last three World Series titles, Georgia has experienced a groundswell of Little League enthusiasm, which the Atlanta Metro YMCAs have parlayed into the foundation for a diverse youth sports program.

“Our goal is to create an excitement about baseball among minority children in urban areas throughout Atlanta,” Rc Pruitt, Group Vice President of the Metro Atlanta YMCA, said. “Little League wanted to establish a point of entry in Atlanta, and in looking at Little League, its brand and philosophy, it fit with what our YMCAs are doing. We feel there is stability and connection to communities that mirrors the YMCA’s mission.”

Working with the League Development Department at Little League International, and the Little League Urban Initiative, seven branches of the YMCA of Metropolitan Atlanta and three with the Butler Street YMCA, are coordinating three chartered leagues with baseball and softball divisions for children ages 7 to14. The YMCAs offering Little League programs are: The Villages at Carver, Bill Lucas, J.D. Winston, Westside Whitehead, Centennial Place, South DeKalb, East Lake, Decatur, Andrew and Walter Young, and Summit.

“There is a lot of synergy around the recent Little League World Series champions from Georgia,” Mr. Pruitt said “The goal for our first Little League season was to have 500 children participating. We ended up chartering six teams and servicing more than 450 kids through our affiliation with Little League.”

The Atlanta Braves Baseball Academy at The Villages at Carver Family YMCA is a joint partnership between the Metro Atlanta and Butler Street YMCAs, and the Atlanta Braves. The facility was the central location for games, while the different YMCAs formed their own teams and hosted their own practices.

“For our program to be successful the Braves and Little League are key,” Mr. Pruitt said. “They’re our anchor partners and pivotal to the long-range outlook of the academy.

“Little League provides the program and structure,” Mr. Pruitt said, “while the Braves, through significant financial and commercial contributions to the Academy, are committed to providing long-term support and services to children in communities across metro Atlanta.”

The Braves, through the Baseball Academy, have provided technical support and resources to the YMCA in the form of clinic instruction for Little League players and volunteers, as well as field construction. To date, the YMCA has built four fields at the Atlanta Braves Baseball Academy through donations by Braves’ players John Smoltz, Chipper Jones, Mike Hampton and former Brave, Brian Jordan, and the Atlanta Braves Foundation.

“The Atlanta Braves Baseball Academy gives our organization the opportunity to further demonstrate our commitment to the youth in our community,” Ericka Newsome-Hill, Executive Director of the Atlanta Braves Foundation, said. “Through our partnership with the Metro Atlanta YMCAs and Little League, it is our goal to significantly increase the number of inner-city youth playing baseball and help develop within them a love for the game.

“The instruction at the baseball academy coupled with the YMCA programming not only exposes the children to the sport but also provides them with the necessary character development tools to succeed in life,” Mrs. Newsome-Hill said.

“Last year (2007) was our first full year with Little League,” Mr. Pruitt said. “We did not just jump into this. After researching other youth baseball programs, we decided Little League gave us the best opportunity to succeed in terms of resources, training and equipment.

“Little League sets a high standard, and gave us the opportunity to develop a framework,” Mr. Pruitt said. “This is a program in progress. We did a lot of great things last year, but we still have a lot of work to do. It’s our plan to expand our program to other YMCAs in the suburbs, because we want more communities coming together and creating more diversity.”

Critiquing the first full season of operating a Little League program, Mr. Pruitt was pleased with the overall outcome, but knows that there are plenty of untapped neighborhoods who can benefit from the Atlanta Metro YMCA’s Little League program.

Growing participation by working with the Atlanta Park and Recreation Department and incorporating other YMCAs throughout suburban Atlanta will benefit the program.

“The key to our success is word of mouth and how well we communicate,” Mr. Pruitt said. “In December, calls will go out to players and coaches from last year, reminding them to register for 2009.

“We’ll continue to offer incentives to get more players involved, and as part of an aggressive sponsorship program, we are putting together a brochure we can market,” he said. “We want to create a baseball brand that we all can be proud of, and hopefully in the next four to five years we’ll have 1,000 or more children playing.”

The YMCAs in Atlanta have served suburban and inner city residents for 150 years and continue to build upon the Y’s national legacy of building strong families, strong kids and strong communities. Locally, the YMCAs in metro Atlanta serve more than 140,000 children annually in after-school care, summer camps, and youth sports, while nationally, one in three Americans reports participating in a YMCA program at some point in their life.

The YMCA, founded in London, England, in 1844, is one of the largest social service organizations in the world, responding to the diverse needs of individuals in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, Europe, and North America.

There are more than 2,600 YMCAs in the United States. The YMCA, which has its world headquarters based in Chicago, currently serves more than 40 million youth and families worldwide.

Anyone interested in registering a player in one of these Little League programs, or donating time as a league volunteer, is asked to call The Villages at Carver Family YMCA, at: 404-635-9622.

For more information on the YMCA/Little League partnership, contact Rc Pruitt, at: 404-373-6561, or via e-mail, at: rcpruitt@ymcaatlanta.org. Little League’s website is: www.LittleLeague.org.

Would you like to find out how the game of baseball has influenced the lives of 140 Major League ballplayers?  In his first book, "Stepping Up to the Plate", David Kloser set about gathering information by interviewing over 300 of today’s Major League Baseball players to get their reactions to the importance of teamwork, how they have overcome personal challenges, and how they define success.

We all KNOW that youth sports teach our children valuable lessons that can be used throughout their lives.  Now, find out what valuable lessons such ballplayers as Jason Giambi, Gary Sheffield, John Smoltz and Alex Rodriguez have learned from baseball.  Players talk about the kind of teammates they want on their team, how they deal with those embarrassing errors, how they handle obnoxious fans, and how a positive attitude affects their game.

Each chapter in the book ends with two opportunities for the reader to reflect upon what he/she has just read.  “Step up to the challenge” asks the reader to answer questions about how they would react in various situations.  “Step out of the box to look for the signs” asks the reader to put himself in someone else’s shoes for a week with a specific challenge.

"Stepping Up to the Plate: 2nd Inning" is now available.  When you order, you can request the author autograph the books.   The new book contains more players, more interviews and two new chapters; one on respect and a bonus chapter on life lessons.  The new book goes for $9.95.

These books are written for the young players in your family.  They will learn how the pros view the game and how they deal with the challenges of playing in the Major Leagues.

Use the books as a league fundraiser during registration.  You will be giving your players opportunities to look at the game in a new light plus you will be able to raise money for your league.   Contact David Kloser for more information:  david@steppinguptotheplate.com. 

Visit the web site to sign up for the free monthly newsletter:  www.steppinguptotheplate.com

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. (Oct. 16, 2007) – The Georgia Sports Hall of Fame (GSHF) in Macon, Ga., welcomed its three Little League Baseball World Series championship teams to open a special exhibit highlighting the state’s success in Williamsport.

The teams, whose victories span 25 years, are the only teams from Georgia ever to have appeared in Williamsport, and each appearance has resulted in a World Series championship.

Warner Robins American Little League defeated Tokyo, Japan’s Kitasuna Little League, 3-2, in eight innings to win this year’s title. One year ago, Columbus Northern Little League beat Japan, 2-1, for the 2006 championship. In 1983, East Marietta National Little League was the first Little League team from Georgia to reach the Little League Baseball World Series, and on the strength of 3-1 win over Liquito Hernandez Little League for the Dominican Republic, became the first team from Georgia to win the World Series championship.

With three World Series championships, Georgia is third among U.S. states for the most Little League Baseball World Series titles. California leads the nation with five championships, and Pennsylvania, Connecticut and New Jersey are next with four each.

Representatives from each of the teams attended the reception and where on hand for the unveiling of the new Little League exhibit.