Carl stotz biography

Carl Stotz

Williamsport in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania — The American Northeast (Mid-Atlantic)

 

Lycoming County MVP

City of Williamsport Sports Walk

 

 

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, June 6, 2021

1. Carl Stotz Marker

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Carl Stotz. Lycoming County MVP.

Stotz was the founder of Little League baseball. His vision was to give children the opportunity to emulate their Major League heroes. In 1939, his dream gave rise to the world’s largest youth sports organization. He spent years growing the league before establishing the first Little League World Series in 1947. Stotz was inducted into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in 1975. . This historical marker is in Williamsport in Lycoming County Pennsylvania

 

Stotz was the founder of Little League baseball. His vision was to give children the opportunity to emulate their Major League heroes. In 1939, his dream gave rise to the world’s largest youth sports organization. He spent years growing the league before establishing the first Little League World Ser

Opinion: On Little League and the legacies of Carl Stotz

Millions and millions of kids and adults have been influenced by Little League Baseball, but only a fraction of these folks know much about its founder, Carl E. Stotz, and his complex legacies. Stotz was an exemplary leader whose abilities were highlighted in Pulitzer Prize winner Gary Wills’ study of leadership types, "Certain Trumpets: The Call of Leaders." By Wills’ key definition, leaders mobilize others toward shared goals, and Stotz's performance was a grand slam.

It was in Williamsport, Pa., in 1938, that Stotz, unemployed and poor, developed his vision of a scaled-down baseball game while seeking recreational diversion for his two nephews, ages 6 and 8. He laid down the rules of play, the dimensions of the field, the type of equipment and the importance of volunteers. Box scores appeared in local papers. For Baby Boomers, Little League would become “the greatest thing.”

Stotz promoted his leagues for their character building, educational value and the unadulterated joy of playing baseball. Volunteerism was anoth

Carl Edwin Stotz was born in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, in 1910. By his early 20s he was working for Pure Oil Company as a clerk, supporting his wife, Grayce Ake and his first of two daughters, Monya Lee. To pass his time, he played ball in his backyard with his sister's two sons, Harold "Major" and Jimmy Gehron. While playing with the two boys one afternoon, Stotz tripped over the roots of a lilac bush as he chased after a wild pitch. Sitting down on the back porch to nurse his wounds, Stotz had an epiphany that would forever change the lives of 11- and 12-year-old boys and their families across the world. In Stotz's famous quote, as cited in Van Auken's Play Ball! The Story of Little League Baseball, he expresses his vision to his two nephews:

How would you boys like to play on a baseball team? How would you like to play in uniforms, just like the major-league players use? With real equipment- a fresh supply of balls and bats, with catcher's gear. Umpires would call the games, so arguments about balls and strikes, catch or no catch, fair or foul, would not interrupt play. C

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