Washington again prepares to host 68th annual PONY League World Series

Four of 10 teams already have qualified for the 68th annual PONY League World Series slated for Aug. 9-15 at Lew Hays PONY Field in Washington.

This year’s international event for players ages 13-14 was previewed Thursday at PONY headquarters, next to Washington Wild Things Park.

For fans attending the series, it might be a look at the MLB stars of tomorrow. After all, reigning National League MVP Christian Yelich of the Milwaukee Brewers played in the 2006 series.

London will be the United Kingdom’s first representative to the PONY World Series from the European Zone.

Guasave, Sinaloa will represent Mexico, and the Caribbean Zone winner is Arecibo, Puerto Rico. Defending champion Chinese Taipei will carry the hopes of the Asia-Pacific Zone.

This will be the 51st consecutive season Washington — birthplace of the organization in 1951 — will host the World Series, and county and commercial officials are ready to go.

“We have hosted teams from across the world and some of the finest 13- and 14-year old players,” said Jeff Kotula, president of the Washington County Tourism Promotion Agency. “We have a heritage of hosting this series, and we want to show off everything Washington County has to offer. About two-and-a-half million dollars is generated into the area with the series.”

Other qualifiers will come from the Washington County area, as well as a local team within a 90-mile radius of Washington, and teams from the North, South, East and West United States.

The 10 teams will compete in a double-elimination tournament starting at 5:30 p.m. Aug. 9 when Arecibo takes on the East Zone winner.

The championship game is 7 p.m. Aug. 15 and will be televised by AT&T Sports. The game was moved back a day to accommodate a late-afternoon Pirates broadcast from Anaheim.

AT&T also will carry five other series games, and 1450 AM will continue its 60-year tradition of play-by-play broadcasts, now augmented by live streaming. Former Pirates broadcaster Lanny Frattare will be the anchor.

Dick’s Sporting Goods is the World Series sponsor.

“It’s good that we have four qualifiers already. That means Dick’s doesn’t have to scurry around putting all the players’ names on uniforms for the three days before the series starts,” said tournament president Bob Gregg, longtime Washington area radio personality.

The Washington County qualifier will be between the Washington, Canonsburg and McGuffey school district youth leagues. Gregg also hopes that someday Peters Township, Charleroi and other county PONY leagues will join in the qualifying tournament.

Popular off-field activities also will continue.

“We’ll have the Fan Fest at Dick’s in Washington on August 8 and the home run derby and fastest runner contest on Friday (Aug. 8) morning at 11,” Gregg said. “On Saturday at 9:30 a.m., we have the Champions League game for special needs kids. You come away from this game with a great feeling as these kids just love to play the game.”

For more information, fans are urged to visit www.ponyworldseries.org.

Bases in PONY League play are 80 feet, and the pitchers’ mound is 54 feet from home plate.

PONY baseball, founded by Hays in Washington in 1951, is an acronym for Protect Our Nation’s Youth.