Posted at 10:13 a.m., Monday, January 28, 2008
Baseball: Little League tweaks Series region lineup
Associated Press
SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — Little League Baseball tweaked its lineup for this year's World Series.Champions from Europe and a territory comprised of the Middle East and Africa will advance to the World Series under new regional divisions announced today by Little League.
Those divisions will replace the Transatlantic region, which was made up primarily of teams of U.S. citizens living overseas; and a region that included Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Under the new lineup, teams of U.S. children living abroad will compete geographically instead of within their own division to advance to the World Series.
Eight international teams and eight U.S. teams will compete Aug. 15-24 in South Williamsport for the Little League World Series title.
The change was made in large part because of a new partnership announced last week with the Confederation of European Baseball, in which teams in nearly 40 countries will start playing under the Little League banner, Little League spokesman Lance Van Auken said.
"It brings a lot more players from the native European leagues. The competition will get a lot better," Van Auken said.
