Every Little Leaguers Dream!!!

What is every little leaguers dream? To play baseball or softball in the Little League World Series in Williamsport Pennsylvania. When I was a small boy I played Little League baseball. Our daughter played in Little League base-ball with the boys and later played Little League softball with the girls. We both played our sport with passion and wanted to win district, regionals, and state. Why? We wanted to play on the big stage at the Little League World Series in Williamsport Pennsylvania.

Since we are about 30 miles south of the town of Williamsport we made the daytrip over to see the place that eluded both mine and my daughter’s teams. Now my daughter got closer to Williamsport than I did as her team won the Texas State championship when she was ten years old. However, at that time 10 year olds couldn’t advance past the state championship.

Williamsport claims to be the birthplace of little league and the Carl E. Stoltz field was founded in 1939 where it was first played. All of the facilities are very impressive considering that they aren’t affiliated with a college or of a heavily sponsored team. The first building you might see is the Administration building which is right next door to the Peter J. McGovern Little League Museum. The museum portrays the history of little league from its beginnings to the current time where now both baseball and softball are played around the world.

      

The 2011 Series will begin August 16th and once again feature 16 teams from around the world. The excitement and energy of all the youth that played here can be felt by simply walking on the field and looking over to the statue of mighty Casey standing by the enormous score board. And something that I didn’t know was that admission to all Little League Baseball and Softball World Series games is free.

 

Williamsport also is home to many people of wealth and their million dollar restored homes along fourth street. These homes and their varied architectural styles are worth a visit here as well. Many of todays photos are from the homes along fourth street.

They also have a small brew pub on fourth street called Bullfrog Brewery. This is more of an upscale microbrewery but does sport some nice brews. Sharon opted for the Billtown Blonde a lightly colored ale with a smooth clean and crisp flavor at about 5.5% alcohol. My favorite was the Edgar IPA this is a hoppy and lively beer with just a hint of bitterness (8% alcohol). The beer went really well with a Rueben sandwich we ordered to split while enjoying the beverages. After all it was International Beer Day on August 5th 2011. A Worldwide Celebration of Beer annually at local pubs, bars and breweries all over the world.

It is suppose to rain most of the day today and then tomorrow we have a short travel day of less than 100 miles. We are headed to the area known for its wilderness in northern Pennsylvania where we will meet our first blogger – that should be fun…