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Baseball is played throughout much of the world by youths ranging in age from five to sixteen. The main differences between youth baseball and adult baseball are the number of innings played and the dimensions of the field.
The most popular youth organization in the world is Little League Baseball with over 2.3 million children ranging in age from five to sixteen. This organization boasts leagues in over 100 countries worldwide: 55 countries in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East; 23 countries in Asia; 29 countries in Latin America; and 2 countries in North America.
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In 1938, Carl E. Stotz came up with the idea to organize a group of youths to play baseball in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, a small community in the United States. With some assistance from his friends, George and Bert Bebble, organized a group of three teams in 1939 into a league. That league is now recognized as the beginning of the Little League organization.
The first Little League game was played on June 6, 1939 between the Lundy Lumber team and the Lycoming Dairy team. Lundy Lumber won by a score of 23-8. Lycoming Dairy would eventually defeat Lundy Lumber in the season ending series by a score of 3-2.
The number of Little Leagues in Williamsport expanded to two in 1940. By 1948, there were 94 leagues with over 5600 players in the United States. In 1951, Canada established the first Little League outside of the United States. 1964 was the first year that Little League had over 1 million participants. By 1985 the number of youths had doubled to over 2 million participants. In 2003, there were over 7100 baseball leagues worldwide with 2.3 million youth participants ranging in age from five to sixteen.
Totaling the number of players each year, there has been over 81 million youths participating in the organization since 1939. This makes Little League the world's largest youth organization.
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In the spring of 1972, twelve-year-old Maria Pepe of Hoboken, New Jersey crossed the gender line and joined her local Little League team. Although welcomed by her all male teammates and manager for her talent in baseball, opposing teams contacted the Little League’s national office in protest of her gender.
The team was warned by the national Little League office that if they did not remove Maria from the team, its membership in the Little League organization would be revoked. Maria was reluctantly withdrawn from the team by her manager after playing in three games.
After getting permission from Maria's parents, the National Organization for Women took up Maria’s cause with the court system. On November 17, 1973, the court ruled that Little League Baseball had no right to prevent a female from participating in the organization.
By order of the courts, Little League Baseball revised its charter in 1974 to allow females to participate. That same year they started a Little League softball organization. Since then, over 7 million young girls have participated in baseball and softball in the Little League organization worldwide.
Although Maria played in only three games during her baseball career, her determination to compete with her male counterparts set a precedent for women in sports as a whole. She played softball during her college years while receiving her Masters in Business Administration. Eventually she went on to become a financial controller at a university medical center.
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