The spiffed-up World of Little League museum in Williamsport boasts a rare Babe Ruth uniform and other treasures, just in time for Billtown’s 67th World Series
It’s August, and all roads lead to Williamsport.
I’m in a line up of four cars waiting to turn left, across traffic, on Route 15 South in South Williamsport, destined for the World of Little League museum in the shadow of Lamade Stadium, where the 67th Annual Little League Baseball World Series games will be broadcast worldwide from August 15 through the 25. Already, three northbound cars have steered quickly into the parking lot and their contents have spilled out onto the asphalt on this hot summer day and are bounding toward the front door of the baseball mecca like thirsty, focused baseball players sliding into home.
I count them: four, two, five plus a stroller…and a straggler, bobbing across the parking lot in a royal blue baseball cap. Every one of them is smiling.
Once inside the sparkling new spaces of the World of Little League: Peter J. McGovern Museum, their enthusiasm only increases. The young visitors stand awe struck before a Babe Ruth uniform displayed grandly in a gorgeous glass case. The million-dollar artifact—a plain gray wool jersey with the number “3” stitched in red on the back that The Babe wore on a 1934 barnstorming tour of eighteen games in Japan—arrived by armored truck with a police escort in early June, on loan from an anonymous donor. It was set in place like a crown jewel shortly before the museum reopened following a nine month-long, $4.3 million renovation.
“The reaction to the Babe Ruth uniform has been great,” said Lance Van Auken, Little League vice president and executive director of the museum. “People don’t expect to see something like that at a museum in Williamsport. It’s such an iconic item from baseball history and from international relations, too. Visitors are amazed when they see it.”
While Route 15 throngs with thousands of fans bound for the famous games at Lamade Stadium, next door Van Auken is eager to show off the glittering new museum to some of the world’s most passionate baseball fans, the little league lovers who make the pilgrimage to Williamsport each summer.
Like the games themselves, there’s nothing quite like the Little League museum anywhere else.
Visiting from Florida, a young baseball player, left, and his softball- playing sister, right, explore the interactive Global Connections Touch Table in the newly renovated World of Little League Museum.
As I toured the dramatic new exhibits, the young visitors gaped at a Ruthian autographed baseball displayed with the uniform. It’s the ball The Babe hit 500 feet in Williamsport during a barnstorming tour shortly after the Yankees won the 1923 World Series.
Elsewhere were precious pieces of the baseball pastime—the first Little League whistle, a bat carved from the last wedge of wood chopped by Cy Young. Some more curious objects are a piece of the Berlin Wall, a NASA spacesuit, a box of Mrs. Paul’s fish sticks. All tell a unique tale in the vast, sparkling story of Little League as do the recorded voices and visuals of the individuals who made an impact—from the visionary man who hit upon the idea of a young boys’ league seventy-five summers ago to the trailblazing girls who broke gender barriers and fought for their place on the field.
The World of Little League museum is not just a spectators’ sport. The newly re-envisioned museum is a multi-faceted, interactive, multimedia experience extending far beyond the borders of a baseball diamond. It’s not just a baseball museum. It’s not a kid’s museum, though children adore it. It aims to enchant lovers of history, technology, and story—especially the story of how a dusty ball field in rural Pennsylvania became an international crossroads bridging nations and cultures like a little Olympics.
Five years after Babe Ruth wore the gray wool on display, the first Little League game was played in Williamsport, organized by city resident Carl E. Stotz. He conceived the idea the summer before and set about experimenting with informal games and identifying local business sponsors before fielding three teams—Jumbo Pretzel, Lycoming Dairy, and Lundy Lumber. The first official Little League game was played on June 6, 1939, with the Little League Baseball World Series premiering eight years later, in the summer of 1947.
Stotz’s first whistle and first base are on display in the “Heritage” section of the World of Little League, which is laid out in six galleries identified as “innings.” Gazing intothe first glass case of Stotz memorabilia, I see the reflection of a thirteen-year-old Stotz from an enlarged 1920s photograph featuring him with a team of pinstriped players decorating the opposing museum wall.
Van Auken says the glass reflection was not deliberate; it appears to be yet another element of the divine design, containing planned and unplanned surprises.
Following the nod to Stotz, the mementoes of young girls are next—Maria Pepe of Hoboken, New Jersey, whose legal case resulted in the inclusion of girls in 1974, and Kathryn “Tubby” Johnston of Corning, New York, the first girl to unofficially play in the American Little League. (See the accompanying sidebar on Tubby).
All throughout the museum, women are recognized for their big contributions to Little League, including influential baseball and softball players; the first female volunteer, Grayce Stotz, wife of Carl; and the first female appointed as chairman of the Little League International Board of Directors, Dr. Davie Jane Gilmour, president of Pennsylvania College of Technology, in Williamsport. Now at the helm, Gilmour’s recent, groundbreaking appointment has received considerable national press.
Joe DiMaggio, one of the towering figures in baseball history, visits the Tokyo, Japan, team prior to a game at the 1976 Little League World Series. (His 56-game hitting streak in 1941 is considered one of baseball’s signature achievements and a record that will likely never be broken.)
Van Auken says the notable amount of female focus in the museum “is very intentional” and reflects the contributions made by girls and women throughout Little League’s history.
“For many years, girls were excluded and ignored, so we wanted to make sure the museum is an inclusive display,” he said, noting that half of museum visitors are female.
Other barrier-breaking accounts are highlighted in tributes to the Little League Challenger Division for special needs children and a special exhibit honoring the 1955 Cannon Street YMCA Little League All-Stars from Charleston, South Carolina. At the time, the African-American team was unable to advance into tournament play because the sixty-one other all-white leagues in their state refused to play them. Still, Little League hosted the team at that year’s World Series, permitting them to stay in dorms with the competing teams and forging a bond that has continued into present day. In 2002, Cannon team members, who at that point were in their fifties, were invited to the World Series to accept a 1955 South Carolina State Champions banner on center field. Three team members returned this summer for the opening of the new museum.
Of all the museum’s multimedia, the component that guests gravitate to most is the “Global Connections Touch Table,” an interactive element that engages visitors with trivia games, world-wide team information, and an opportunity to send messages to those teams.
During my visit to the museum, I randomly selected a team in Belgium and sent them a greeting while a young visitor standing next to me gleefully messaged his home team in Virginia.
For many families, their children are eager to run off some steam in the museum’s activities section. The fourth “inning,” titled “In the Game,” features interactive simulations including a timed home plate-to-first base running exhibit, a catcher’s station, and a shortstop fielding section.
The museum concludes with Little League’s Hall of Excellence and “Taking it Home” exhibits. Here, guests view evidence of the league mantra: “We don’t make big league players, we make big league people.”
Famous former players are heralded, but an extensive look is also given to those who acquired leadership skills while playing Little League and grew into quality citizens, sharing their talents and being of service to their communities, country, and the world. There are also tributes to former Little Leaguers who lost their lives in 9/11 or recent combat.
While there, I met two sets of local grandparents touring with visiting grandchildren from Tennessee and Wisconsin, as well as young families on summer vacations—the Wongs from California, the Schneiters from Florida, and the Kolbs from Virginia. The out-of-towners were en route to or from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York; Gettysburg and Washington D.C. sightseeing; a Baltimore Orioles game; and a white-water rafting trip. All had intentionally set aside time to visit the Little League complex.
Van Auken says many visitors wind up at the museum by chance because of its central location. (The museum is at 525 Route 15 Highway, South Williamsport, PA; for hours and more, the web site is http://www.littleleague.org/learn/museum).
“We see a lot of people headed to or from the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown and Niagara Falls, using Route 15, or a lot heading west on Interstate 80 from New Jersey or New York to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio,” he explained. “They might not be consciously thinking about stopping, but when they connect Williamsport with the Little League Baseball World Series, they just drop in.”
In August, when all roads lead to Williamsport.
Another classic image captured by the “Eye of the Little League World Series,” Putsee Vannucci, the 1953 World Series offers a close play on the bases between Front Royal, Virginia, and Vancouver, British Columbia. Virginia emerged victorious 3-2.
Baffin Bay in 2008. Canada may be missing the
boat on using Arctic shipping to encourage development at the same time
Russia steams ahead on its own northern waters, some experts say.
(Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press)
A ship passes through Norwegian waters in the Arctic. (Balazs Koranyi/Reuters)
