It takes thousands of volunteers to make a world series
One of the slogans used over the years to promote the Pony League World Series was “The world comes to Washington.”
It’s an accurate catchphrase because this year there will again be teams from five countries vying for the world series championship that will be played Aug. 7-12 at Lew Hays Pony Field located in Washington Park.
However, before the world shows up in our corner of Western Pennsylvania, and before the television cameras came to Washington for the World Series Media Day event at PONY Baseball and Softball Inc. headquarters — it was held Thursday morning — the people from PONY have gone to all parts of the baseball world.
It takes more than just a village to put on a baseball tournament of this scale.
It takes thousands of people, almost all of them filling thankless roles behind the scenes but without them the world series wouldn’t be possible.
“I have about 400 people who we call field directors, and there are varying degrees: section directors, region directors, zone directors,” PONY president Abe Key explained. “Pre-COVID that number was about 600. During COVID, the baseball and softball seasons were basically shut down, and a lot of those people had a summer off and liked it. People said they loved doing this, ‘But I’m going to take a break.’ A lot of them were older, and a lot of them had been with us for a long time, and they decided to step away and that was OK.
“So we’re down to about 400 to run the organization administratively, and one of their responsibilities is recruiting new teams and assimilating new teams into leagues, working with local leagues in a geographic area, managing tournament competition. We have a field director at every tournament, making sure the tournaments are run according to the rules and the players are eligible. That’s just field directors. Behind them are the league volunteers and that number is in the thousands and thousands. For the most part, all leagues are still run by volunteers.”
When the 10-team field is determined, that’s when World Series Tournaments Inc., the all-volunteer organization that runs the Pony League World Series, comes into play. Nathan Voytek, World Series president and chairman, said Thursday that it takes more than 500 volunteers to work the tournament. Again, all of them volunteering and performing necessary support behind the scenes.
The hours put in by these volunteers are long but the tasks are vital. Their efforts have helped the Pony League World Series grow from a baseball tournament for kids into an event for Washington County.
“Sometimes you have to remind everybody why we’re doing this. We’re doing it for the kids,” Key said. “Sometimes adults lose a little focus, egos get in the way, but at the end of the day we’re here for only one reason and that’s to make sure kids get a chance to play.”
Who’s in
Six of the 10 spots have been filled. Joining host Washington County will be European Zone champion Paderborn, Germany; defending champion and Asia-Pacific Zone winner Chinese Taipei (Taichung City); Mexican Zone winner Navojoa, Mexico; Caribbean Zone champion Guaynabo, Puerto Rico and North Zone winner Bay County, Mich., which will be making its 14th consecutive appearance in Washington.
The Host Area tournament, which includes teams from within a 75-mile radius of Washington, is currently being held in Mt. Lebanon.
Lights, camera …
As many as 12 games from the Pony League World Series will be televised on KDKA+, SportsNet Pittsburgh and New England Sports Network, beginning with the opening night game between Bay County and Guaynabo. Washington County’s opener Aug. 8 (5 p.m.), against either Paderborn or the South Zone representative, will be shown live on NESN.
All Pony League World Series games will be streamed via PLWS.TV.
Sports editor Chris Dugan can be reached at dugan@observer-reporter.com