Founded in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, in 1939, little-league baseball expanded rapidly into many suburban communities during the 1950s. With more than 5,000 leagues in the US and Canada, by 1960 baseball was easily the leading participant sport in the country Leagues are divided into different age groups up to the age of twelve (fifteen in the senior leagues); play is colored by baseball rituals including a little-league pledge. Its world series in Williamsport, televised on ABC’s Wide World of Sport, recently featured teams from Japan and Latin America.

While little-league has sponsored clinics in Latin American countries like the Dominican Republic (noted for producing major-league players), it has not sponsored them in the inner cities of the United States. Only 15 percent of major leaguers are now African American, whereas in basketball the figure is closer to 78 percent.

In the 1990s, little-league is losing out to soccer; it has not attracted the large numbers of girls engaging in sport since the 1970s.