Aug 1, 2018 4 min read

Bob Gregg emphasized several times that he should not be the focus. The klieg lights, he advised, should be directed at the Dick’s Sporting Goods PONY League World Series, the annual six-day diamond-fest that vaults Washington into the center of the youth baseball universe. The 2018 extravaganza will run Aug. 10-15 at Lew Hays Field in Washington Park.

Yes, the tournament is the main attraction, featuring 10 teams of 13- and 14-year-old players from around the globe. There will be two local squads – one from Washington County, one from within a 75-mile radius of the city of Washington – plus champions from the Eastern, Western, Northern and Southern zones of the U.S., and four international zone titlists: from Mexico, Asia Pacific, Europe and the Caribbean.

Gregg, however, is a linchpin of this event, a heavy hitter in a lengthy lineup of people who keep the local tournament humming. So, a lesser light shines on him. Gregg, 58, has been chairman of World Series Tournaments Inc. since 1984, when the series returned to Washington – its roots – after an 11-year hiatus. The series has since remained in the county where PONY League baseball began in 1951.

The operations director and a part-time sportscaster at Washington radio station WJPA, Gregg is a Washington High School graduate and erstwhile Division I college hurler.

You have a multitude of duties with the PONY World Series. Can you describe some of the primary ones?

There are people like me all around the country who are chairs of organizations that host local tournaments. We are in charge of securing the field, getting sponsorship, housing, feeding and transporting the players, and organizing a Fanfest. Dick’s and Washington County Tourism (Promotion Agency) are our sponsors.

Operating the series is more than a one-person undertaking, is it not?

While the overall responsibility is on my shoulders, we have hundreds of people contributing. We have parking, field maintenance, cleanup, concessions, publicity, press box committee. There are a lot of social media duties. But we do what we have to do to make it happen. We want to make the World Series jump from Washington County to around the world.

It appears to be doing that. The series has had a strong international flavor, and seems to be gaining visibility. What is being done to reach out to a global audience?

All of the games will be video streamed in high definition in a five-year partnership with mlb.com. That enables people who are unable to travel here, like families of players from Austria and Chinese Taipei, to watch. Five games will be televised locally on AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh, which is new this year. That’s the network that carries Pirates and Penguins games.

How important is it for Western Pennsylvania in general, and Washington County in particular, to stage the PONY series?

We felt this event belonged here and we’d do everything we could to keep it here. The financial impact on this area is big. Eight teams of 18 players and coaches have to be housed, fed and transported, and parents, aunts, uncles and siblings may come along. Asia Pacific and Austria won’t bring a lot of fans; the U.S. teams bring a lot. We’re talking lodging, meals, shopping and entertainment opportunities. When the schedule works out (as it has this year), players get passes to the Washington County Agricultural Fair. Kids from California and the international teams enjoy doing something different like that. And the retail community has been outstanding, putting out welcome bags.

Are changes being considered for the series?

There are a couple of pieces we’re looking at. We’d like to have more parking. Having an area for fan-sponsor interaction would be great. We have to continue to look at things. This event is vital to who we are. It weaves into the fabric of what this community is.