Little League creates baseball blueprint
“Is Pitt County the baseball capital of North Carolina?”
High School Overtime, a well-known high school sports association, recently issued a statement regarding Pitt County's dominance in the high school baseball postseason rankings. Three schools — Ayden-Grifton High School, Rose, and D.H. Conley High School — are all ranked as number one seeds in the 3A, 6A, and 7A divisions for the North Carolina High School Athletic Association.
While these impressive rankings for all three schools reflect the strength of high school baseball in Pitt County, they also speak volumes about the foundation that high school baseball players have been building upon over the last 75 years: Greenville Little League (GLL).
When most individuals think of Little League Baseball, they think of Saturday mornings, an old dirt field, and some popcorn from the concession stand if they get lucky. This typical stereotype is nothing like the thoughts that come to mind when locals think of GLL. The reality for Greenville consists of Stallings Stadium, Jumbotrons,
graphic by maggie Jarman
Marvin Jarman, and multiple regional and World Series appearances.
“[GLL players] weren't aware that at one time it was just some aluminum bleachers and a little press box back there, and that's it," commissioner of GLL Brian Weingartz said. "Now, all of a sudden, they just expect that when you come up to bat, you're going to be in a stadium, your name's going to get announced to you, you're going to look up on the big board, and your picture's going to be up there."
Weingartz has been commissioner for 28 years, but his love for the league began far before that when he started umpiring Little League games in 1999. Throughout the decades of being involved in the organization, Weingartz believes the program continues to show dedication to the game.
“When I got here, we had 16 great coaches, and we have 16 great coaches right now who really work hard with their kids,” Weingartz said. “We're consistently pretty good all the time, you know, and sometimes we're really good.”
Unlike other nearby Little League programs, GLL consists not only of a major and minor league, but also of two divisions within the major league. Across these different divisions, there is a total of 20 teams and, not including all-stars, just under 200 games played within one season.
Despite the increase in pressure to participate in travel sports, the number of teams within the league has remained relatively constant throughout the years, and the reputation behind the organization and its high-class approach towards baseball has continued to grow.
“[Travel ball] is a struggle that every league has to deal with… I deal with it constantly in my job; our leagues from all across the Southeast ask, ‘How do you combat it,?’” Assistant region director of the Southeast for Little League International, Scott Rogers said. “But everybody who lives [in Greenville] knows that Little League's the expectation… and travel ball is second in that area.”
Throughout GLL's history, multiple players have gone on to play and coach in Major League Baseball (MLB). Even the alumni who haven’t made it to the MLB level have made lasting impacts on the baseball community throughout Greenville and have stuck around to coach in the league in order to continue the exceptional culture.
“Greenville Little League's been blessed with having some really good volunteer managers and coaches over the years, who put the game into those young minds early,” Rogers said. “It sets that expectation for them, it sets the expectation for families in that area as well, that this is baseball, this is serious.”
The level of play experienced early on by families in the league sets a standard for the coming years of baseball for athletes, instilling a common mindset of hardwork and togetherness amongst all who have any connection to GLL.
“It's a very community-based league... everybody knows everybody, and they're truly there for one reason: that's to play Greenville Little League baseball,” Rogers said. “There's so many areas out there that want to draw players from all other different towns and things like that, where Greenville's truly drawing from just Pitt County.”
GLL has set a strong precedent for young boys who have later become the powerhouses of teams in Pitt County today, including Rose.
“Having a great youth program like that definitely sets the tone early, and it 100% translates into success for those higher levels of competition when you get into high school,” Rogers said.