2009 Little League World Series

2009 Little League World Series
Dates	August 21– August 30
Teams participating	16
Champion	Park View Little League Chula Vista, California
Runner-up	Kuei-Shan Little League Taoyuan County (now Taoyuan City), Chinese Taipei (Taiwan)

Howard J. Lamade Stadium during the 2009 Little league World Series

The 2009 Little League World Series, was the championship little league baseball game and was held in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The 2009 Little League World Series, was held in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. It began on August 21 and ended on August 30. Eight teams from the United States and eight from throughout the world competed in the 63rd edition of the tournament. In the championship game, the United States champions from Chula Vista, California defeated the international champions from Taoyuan County, Chinese Taipei (Taiwan). This was the first tournament in which a team from Taiwan reached the championship game since 1996, and the first championship for a team from the state of California since 1993.

Groups

Pool A	Pool B	Pool C	Pool D
Staten Island, New York Mid-Atlantic Region South Shore National	Peabody, Massachusetts New England Region Peabody Western	Willemstad, Curaçao Caribbean Region Pabao	Kaiserslautern, Germany Europe Region KMC American
Mercer Island, Washington Northwest Region Mercer Island	Chula Vista, California West Region Park View	Chiba City, Chiba Japan Region Chiba City	Reynosa, Tamaulipas Mexico Region Guadalupe Trevino Kelly
Warner Robins, Georgia Southeast Region Warner Robins American	San Antonio, Texas Southwest Region McAllister Park American	Dhahran, Saudi Arabia MEA Region Arabian American	East Vancouver, British Columbia Canada Region Hastings Community
Urbandale, Iowa Midwest Region Urbandale East	Russellville, Kentucky Great Lakes Region Logan County/Russellville	Maracaibo, Venezuela Latin America Region Coquivacoa	Taoyuan, Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) Asia-Pacific Region Kuei-Shan

• Republic of China, commonly known as Taiwan, due to complicated relations with People's Republic of China, is recognized by the name Chinese Taipei by majority of international organizations including Little League Baseball (LLB). For more information, please see Cross-Strait relations.

Results

Pool play

The top two teams in each pool move on to their respective semifinals. The winners of each will meet on August 30 to play for the Little League World Championship. Teams marked in green qualified to the knockout stage, while teams marked in red were eliminated.

Ties are broken based on records in head-to-head competition among tied teams. In the event of a three-way tie for first place, the tie is broken by calculating the ratio of runs allowed to defensive innings played for all teams involved in the tie. The team with the lowest runs-per-defensive-inning ratio is ranked first and advances. Second place is determined by the head-to-head result of the other two teams. If the three-way tie is for second place, the runs-per-defensive-inning ratio rule is used. The team with the lowest run ratio advances, the other two teams are eliminated.^[1]

United States

Pool A

Rank	Region	Record	Runs Allowed	Defensive Innings	Run Ratio
1	Georgia	3–0	8	18	0.444
2	New York	2–1	11	18	0.611
3	Iowa	1–2	22	18	1.222
4	Washington	0–3	18	18	1.000

Pool B

Rank	Region	Record	Runs Allowed	Defensive Innings	Run Ratio
1	Texas	3–0	4	16	0.250
2	California	2–1	6	17	0.353
3	Massachusetts	1–2	27	17	1.588
4	Kentucky	0–3	39	13	3.000

All times US EDT.

Pool	Away	Score	Home	Score	Time (Venue)
August 21
A	New York	10	Washington	2	1:00 pm (Volunteer Stadium)
A	Georgia	11	Iowa	3	5:00 pm (Volunteer Stadium)
B	Massachusetts	1	Texas	10	8:00 pm (Lamade Stadium)
August 22
A	Georgia	6	New York	3	3:00 pm (Lamade Stadium)
B	Kentucky	0	California	15 (F/5)	8:00 pm (Lamade Stadium)
August 23
A	Washington	3	Iowa	5	Noon (Lamade Stadium)
B	Kentucky	0	Texas	12 (F/4)	2:00 pm (Volunteer Stadium)
B	California	14	Massachusetts	0	6:00 pm (Volunteer Stadium)
August 24
A	Georgia	3	Washington	2	4:00 pm (Lamade Stadium)
A	New York	8	Iowa	3	8:00 pm (Lamade Stadium)
August 25
B	Kentucky	3	Massachusetts	12	4:00 pm (Volunteer Stadium)
B	Texas	6	California	3	8:00 pm (Lamade Stadium)

International

Pool C

Rank	Region	Record	Runs Allowed	Defensive Innings	Run Ratio
1	Curaçao	3–0	15	18	0.833
2	Japan	2–1	18	18	1.000
3	Saudi Arabia	1–2	13	16	0.813
4	Venezuela	0–3	12	16	0.750

Pool D

Rank	Region	Record	Runs Allowed	Defensive Innings	Run Ratio
1	Mexico	3–0	3	17	0.176
2	Chinese Taipei	2–1	3	16	0.188
3	Canada	1–2	23	18	1.278
4	Germany	0–3	43	14	3.071

All times US EDT.

Pool	Away	Score	Home	Score	Time (Venue)
August 21
D	Chinese Taipei	16	Germany	0 (F/4)	3:00 pm (Lamade Stadium)
August 22
D	Canada	1	Mexico	2 (F/7)	11:00 am (Lamade Stadium)
C	Venezuela	1	Curaçao	2	1:00 pm (Volunteer Stadium)
C	Saudi Arabia	2	Japan	5	6:00 pm (Volunteer Stadium)
August 23
D	Canada	0	Chinese Taipei	8	3:00 pm (Volunteer Stadium)
C	Japan	11	Curaçao	12	8:00 pm (Lamade Stadium)
August 24
D	Mexico	13	Germany	0 (F/4)	Noon (Lamade Stadium)
C	Venezuela	4	Japan	5	2:00 pm (Volunteer Stadium)
C	Saudi Arabia	3	Curaçao	5	6:00 pm (Volunteer Stadium)
August 25
C	Venezuela	3	Saudi Arabia	5	Noon (Lamade Stadium)
D	Canada	14	Germany	13	2:00 pm (Volunteer Stadium)
D	Mexico	3	Chinese Taipei	2	6:00 pm (Volunteer Stadium)

Elimination round

	Quarter-finals				Semi-finals				Final
	August 26 – 4:00 pm – Lamade
	C2 Japan	0
					August 29 – Noon – Lamade
	D1 Mexico	6
					Mexico	4
	August 27 – 4:00 pm – Lamade
					Chinese Taipei	9
	D2 Chinese Taipei	5
									August 30 – 3:00 pm – Lamade
	C1 Curaçao	2
									Chinese Taipei	3
	August 26 – 8:00 pm – Lamade
									California	6
	A2 New York	1
					August 29 – 7:00 pm – Lamade (F/4)
	B1 Texas	4
					Texas	2			Third place
	August 27 – 8:00 pm – Lamade
					California	12
	B2 California	11							Mexico	5
	A1 Georgia	10							Texas	4
									August 30 – 11:00 am – Volunteer

The United States championship game on August 29 was originally scheduled for 3:00 pm US EDT. After a pair of lengthy rain delays in the international championship game, maintenance required to repair the field for the next game, and to make sure the field was dry enough to play on, it was rescheduled for later that night.

2009 Little League World Series Champions
Park View Little League Chula Vista, California

Champions Path

The Park View Little League won 18 games and lost 2 games to reach the Little League World Series.^[2][3][4] Overall, their record was 23–3. Their three losses came again Sweetwater Valley LL, Torrance LL (both from California), and McAllister Park American LL (from Texas). Park View became the ninth team and most recent from San Diego County to qualify for the Little League World Series as the last one was Vista, California in 2005. They also were the third team from San Diego County in the past nine years to qualify for the Little League World Series.^[5] During the West Regional the team hit 34 home runs in total and was accused of cheating. A Little League Official looked into the accused cheating but found no evidence to back up the accusation.^[6]

Round	Opposition	Result
District 42
Winner's Bracket Quarterfinals	Luckie Waller LL	16–0
Winner's Bracket Semifinals	Imperial Beach LL	17–1
Winner's Bracket Finals	Sweetwater Valley LL	8–1
District 42 Championship	Sweetwater Valley LL	7–10
District 42 Championship	Sweetwater Valley LL	8–2
Section 7
Section 7 Group Stage	Brawley LL	8–5
Section 7 Group Stage	Rancho San Diego LL	9–1
Section 7 Group Stage	Lemon Grove LL	5–3
South California Divisional
Winner's Bracket Semifinals	Corona National LL	14–4
Winner's Bracket Finals	Rancho Santa Margarita LL	5–4 (7 inn.)
South Sub-Divisional Championship	Rancho Santa Margarita LL	16–1
South Championship	Torrance LL	0–18 (4 inn.)
South Championship	Torrance LL	7–6
South Championship	Torrance LL	19–12
West Regional
Group Stage	Cedar American LL	27–1 (4 inn.)
Group Stage	Central East Maui LL	15–2 (4 inn.)
Group Stage	Arrowhead LL	20–1 (4 inn.)
Group Stage	Legacy LL	10–5
Semifinals	Legacy LL	15–2 (4 inn.)
West Region Championship	Lakeside LL	11–4

Legacy

President Barack Obama poses for a picture while holding up a jersey given to him by members of the Little League World Championship team from Chula Vista, Calif., in the East Room of the White House, Feb. 5, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

The City of Chula Vista organized a celebration parade for the team with the team riding on a fire engine which led them to a rally at Southwestern College. They received a congratulations from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger^[7] The team also met President Barack Obama in Washington D.C. and gave him a team jersey, team plaque and the key to the City of Chula Vista.^[8] A book was written about the Chula Vista team called The Blue Bombers: The True Story of the 2009 Little League World Champions written by San Diego County Residents.^[9] A memorial wall was proposed to commemorate the team in Chula Vista.^[10] The team also appeared on The Tonight Show hosted by Conan O'Brien.^[11] The team was honored at the San Diego Padres and Chargers games.^[12][13]

References

External links

• Official site