Tokyo’s Big-Time Little League
August 29, 2017
On Sunday, August 27, an all-star baseball team from Tokyo, Japan, won the Little League World Series by defeating a team from Lufkin, Texas, 12-2. The Little League World Series is a competition played each year in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania, among kids aged 11 to 13. The tournament, first played in 1947, includes 16 Little League teams from the United States and the rest of the world. Little League Baseball is the world’s largest organized youth-sports program, with nearly 180,000 teams.
On Aug. 27, 2017, young Tokyo ballplayers celebrate their Little League World Series championship at Howard J. Lamade Stadium in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Credit: Courtesy of Little League Baseball and Softball
The ballplayers from Tokyo’s Kitasuna Little League dominated the final at South Williamsport’s Howard J. Lamade Stadium, despite a lightning start by the boys from Texas. Chandler Spencer blasted the first pitch of the game from Tokyo starter Tsubasa Tomii for a long home run to left. Two batters later, first baseman Hunter Ditsworth tucked one inside the right field foul pole for another homer and a 2-0 lead. That was it for Texas, however, and Tokyo responded with three runs in the second inning and four in the third.
Tokyo continued the attack in the fifth, and the team’s lead quickly approached the 10 runs needed to win by the so-called “mercy rule.” After tallying four in the inning for an 11-2 lead, a single to right by outfielder Natsuki Yajima drove in the 12th run to end the game. After a quick celebration in front of their dugout, members of the Kitasuna team respectfully thanked their opponents. They then raced to the center field wall to rub the bronze bust of the stadium’s namesake, Howard J. Lamade—a longstanding tradition for the winning team. (Lamade was a Pennsylvania newspaper publisher and a key figure in the early years of Little League Baseball.)
The Tokyo all-stars rolled through the international bracket of the tournament, winning all five of their games by a combined score of 39-3, including a 5-0 win over Mexico to reach the Little League World Series final. The championship was the 4th for Tokyo in the last six years, and the 11th overall for teams from Japan. The Lufkin, Texas, squad fought through the tough domestic tournament, edging the all-stars from Greenville, North Carolina, 6-5 to win the United States title and reach the final. The tournament’s 32 games drew a total of nearly 500,000 fans.
