Celebrate youth baseball during National Little League Month

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — September marks a celebration of one of the most popular youth sports in the country.

Every September you can celebrate National Little League Month by supporting local teams, attending games, selling concessions at games or even volunteering to coach a team.

Little League was founded in 1939 and is now considered the world’s largest organized youth sports program. According to the official Little League nonprofit organization , approximately 2 million players and 1 million adult volunteers in all 50 states and more than 80 countries.

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The play culminates each year in the Little League World Series, which crowns seven champions annually, according to Little League.

Tennessee has been a Little League powerhouse for the last several years, growing in popularity steadily for youth wanting to be involved.

“Little League is one where it’s for everybody, regardless of skill level,” Mike Yerty, District 7 Administrator, told News 2. He serves the area of Middle Tennessee that includes Goodlettsville, Madison, McCabe Park, Murfreesboro, Nolensville and the Parkwood Community.

While there are travel teams and school teams available for children to play, Little League provides another opportunity to those who may not make those teams to play.

Yerty has been on the board for the Murfreesboro team for the past seven years and only recently took over as District 7 Administrator. He first got involved when his stepson started playing, after a recommendation from a friend to join the board.

“Now I do it more for me. I enjoy being involved. I enjoy giving back to the community,” he told News 2. “There’s something about seeing that moment where kids have a breakthrough, they have a big achievement they’ve been working toward—the pure joy and excitement from kids. Being a part of that and seeing them realize their potential, it’s something I really enjoy being a part of.”

While there is a standard of rules to follow for official Little League teams, different teams in different regions can adapt their rules to fit the needs of their respective communities, Yerty said. Some leeway involves how local regions structure their own divisions, such as with age groups or pitching styles.

Above all, though, Yerty said the discretion is meant to allow local Little Leaguers to stay safe while learning the team sport and having fun while doing it. For example, there are time limits for younger players in order to keep children from exhausting themselves.

Bat regulations also contribute to safety measures implemented in Little League, as do the use of “safety balls” in tee ball, Yerty said. There are also regulations in coach pitch ball that require the player pitcher next to the coach to wear protective gear for their faces.

The ultimate goal, Yerty said, is to figure out a way to include every child who wants to be involved.

“The one thing we try to look at locally is how do we accommodate as many kids that want to play as we can,” he said.

Murfreesboro has seen significant growth, and with that growth comes more interest in Little League. At this point, Yerty said he and other organizers are looking at the possibility of having to ask the city to provide more fields for league play.

“If we grow any further we’re either going to have to limit the number of kids we can take or we’re going to have to shorten games or find another way to allow these kids to play,” he said.

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That growth in Murfreesboro could also be tied to the success of Middle Tennessee Little Leaguers. According to Yerty, Goodlettsville and Nolensville Little League teams have taken top honors in the state multiple times over the last several years.

Since joining the Southeast Region—made up of Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia—in 2002, Tennessee has won the region seven times.

The Nolensville team has been the champions for 12u ball three years in a row—2021, 2022, and 2023.

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