Through the course of his long career, Little League Baseball President Stephen D. Keener has witnessed and helped steer the evolution of the youth sports organization.

He has also had the opportunity to meet interesting and celebrated figures from baseball and other worlds.

“I’ve had some amazing experiences,” Keener told members of the Williamsport Chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR).

By the time Keener became Little League President in 1994, girls had long earned the right to play with boys in game competition.

That happened in 1974.

What remained in the distance future was the Major League Baseball Little League Classic game.

The annual contest held in Williamsport during the Little League World Series features two Major League baseball teams.

But efforts to hold such a game in the city initially met with resistance.

Keener credited Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti with helping make it happen.

In 2016, Petitti was a Major League Baseball executive who launched the MLB Network.

On July 3, 2016, the Miami Marlins and Atlanta Braves played at Fort Bragg, North Carolina with the game broadcast on ESPN. It was the first regular season professional sports event held at a military base.

“That year at the Major League Baseball All-Star Game I talked to Tony and suggested we do something like that,” Keener said.

Petitti liked the idea as did MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred.

A niggling issue was Bowman Field, (now Journey Bank Park at Historic Bowman Field) perceived by some MLB officials as not up to standards for such a game.

“Some felt it was a cow pasture,” Keener said with a smile.

But financing was secured for improvements to the facility, and by the next year, the first game was held between the Pittsburgh Pirates and St. Louis Cardinals.

Keener noted that Little League this year celebrates the 50th anniversary of girls playing the youth sport.

It will be marked with a series of games at the Little League Baseball complex and an appearance by Maria Pepe.

Pepe won a court case against Little League in the early 1970s after she was banned from playing for the Young Democrats team in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Keener noted that then-Little League President Dr. Creighton Hale was adamantly against girls competing against boys.

Now, many girls play Little League and have played in Series games.

The first girl to appear in the Series was Victoria Roche, of the European champion Brussels team in 1984.

Keener noted the enormous contributions of women overall to Little League Baseball in the way of volunteerism and their support of their own kids who play the game.

He recalled former First Lady Barbara Bush telling Hale that Little League would not be able to survive without the efforts of women.

Little League continues to evolve.

Last year, the first team from Cuba qualified for the Little League World Series.

Most of the Cuban Little Leaguers, Keener noted, had never been out of their nation.

“I just felt good to give kids a good experience,” he said.

Keener said Little League forms bonds among people, including between parents and their children.

He noted the special relationship Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer had with his stepfather through Little League as the manager of his team.

Palmer was a frequent visitor to Little League World Series as a broadcaster.

However, it’s the people who become involved in Little League at the grassroots level, managing teams, volunteering their time, that help the youth sport organization thrive, he noted.