Baseball-loving visitors find Original Field in Williamsport worth the trip

There is an indistinguishable beauty associated with baseball in the United States.

The French language has a saying, "je ne sais quoi," which can translate to define capturing something indescribable, or a special distinguishing feature.

Whatever the case, there is undoubtedly a je ne sais quoi feeling when visiting the original Little League World Series location.

Located just across the street from Historic Bowman Field, another landmark in Williamsport's illustrious baseball history, Carl E. Stotz Field is a must-visit during this time of year.

A visit to the landmark Tuesday morning, and you can still see tourists and passersby who make it a mainstead to visit the venue. One group was lead by Chris Gee, the head coach of West Chester's East Side Little League team that lost to Media in the state championship; the same Media team that advanced all the way to the tournament in South Williamsport.

"We were coming up on the Little League World Series," said Gee. "[We were] Googling before we came up and found the fields here. We wanted to find out the place where Little League started."

"I think just reading through the history of Little League," added Gee. "Coming out and seeing the field, just imagining the history of the Little League World Series before it moved down to the other stadiums, it's very meaningful to be here and share with the boys who are out here taking batting practice now."

This preservation of history couldn't have been done without the work of countless volunteers who put the time and effort to preserve this historic location. One of them, Cyrus Jackson, was on hand Tuesday morning while visitors frequented the location.

Jackson is a local of Williamsport who has been a volunteer for 23 years, and recently was moved to vice president of the location while managing Lundy's Construction -- the oldest Little League team in history, originally named Lundy's Lumber.

"A lot of people don't understand what a volunteer is," said Jackson. "It means dedicating your time for a cause. As you see..." Jackson motioned to those checking out the museum and youngsters on the field taking batting practice, "…this is the cause. We like to see this for two weeks every year... It's a good place to coach; a good place to come and see history."

"This place means a lot," added Jackson. "It means that a man [Carl E. Stotz] had a dream -- made that dream into a reality, and the kids love it. People love it. I love when players who played in 1947 come back and sit down."

Memorial Park and Carl E. Stotz Field played host to the Little League World Series from 1947 to 1958, and remains a popular attraction to look back on history and even participate in the game.

"We had Tennessee on our field Saturday practicing," Jackson said. "They were on our field Saturday and they practiced for two hours, and they were awesome."

"It's history. It's where it all began," said Jackson. "They wanna be out there on the pitcher's mound where Cy Young threw his last pitch. They wanna be on the field where the first Little League World Series games were played. They wanna be on that mound where the first perfect game in Little League history was thrown."

Fast forward to 2023, and the Little League World Series as a whole is rightfully applauded as a pure game, played by kids from the best in the world with aspirations for hardware.

While that remains the case today, there remains a je ne sais quoi feeling that can only be had when visiting the original location.

"You go over to the big fields," said Gee. "And obviously it's big stadiums and concession stands and gift shops. You come over here and it looks like every Little League field in America right here. You aspire to look like this field.

"It's like being at home," Gee said. "You can see people coming out of town to watch games here, and it's great to think about the history."