Carl E Stotz

Carl E. Stotz, the lumberyard clerk who stumbled over a lilac bush during a backyard game of catch with his two young nephews in 1938 and came up with the idea for Little League baseball. Although he eventually broke with the organization he founded, Mr. Stotz, a lifelong Williamsport resident who later served as tax collector there, never tired of describing the summertime mishap that launched the vast Little League game now played by more than 2.5 million youngsters in more than 30 countries. Dimensions for Boys As he frequently recalled it, Mr. Stotz banged a leg against the bush, then while he sat on the back steps and the pain subsided, he suddenly blurted out to his nephews: "How would you like to play on a regular team with uniforms, your own cap, a new ball for every game and bats your size?" on June 6, 1939, on a field he laid out himself, Lundy Lumber beat Lycoming Dairy, 23-8, and Little League baseball was born. The league soon expanded and quickly spread across the country. There was a Pennsylvania state tournament in 1947, and two years later a national championship, the first Little League World Series, was held. But by 1955, Mr. Stotz had become so disenchanted by what he saw as an increasingly impersonal national organization that he filed suit to regain control of the movement from the professionals he had installed. There was an eventual out-of-court settlement that left the professionals in charge, and Mr. Stotz, though invariably invited to the annual World Series and to the official Little League museum, just as invariably declined. He later formed a new league for Williamsport youngsters and established his own museum in a converted toolshed behind his house. Mr. Stotz is survived by his wife, Grayce; a sister, Julia Hipple; two daughters, Monya Lee Adkins and Karen Myers, and four grandchildren.