2006 Little League World Series

Infobox LLWS
Year=2006
Start_date=August 18
End_date=August 28
Teams_participating=16
Champion=Northern Little League
flagicon|USAflagicon|Georgia (U.S. state) Columbus, Georgia
Runnerup=Kawaguchi City Little League
flagicon|JPN Kawaguchi, Saitama, JapanThe by|2006 Little League World Series, held in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania, took place between August 18 and August 28, one day later than originally scheduled. Inclement weather forced the cancellation of the third-place game on August 27 and the postponement of the championship game also scheduled for that date. The Northern Little League of Columbus, Georgia defeated Kawaguchi City Little League of Kawaguchi, Japan in the championship game of the 60th Little League World Series. The event was broadcast in the United States on ABC Sports, ESPN and ESPN2 in both analog and high-definition. The U.S. Championship game of the 2006 Little League World Series was the last sporting event telecast under the ABC Sports brand name in the United States.

Games were held in the two stadiums located at Little League headquarters in South Williamsport:
*Howard J. Lamade Stadium — the main stadium, opened in 1959, with seating for 10,000 in the stands and hillside terrace seating for up to 30,000 more
*Little League Volunteer Stadium — a newer facility, opened in 2001, that seats slightly over 5,000, primarily in the stands

Qualification

Between five and twelve teams take part in 16 regional qualification tournaments, which vary in format depending on region. In the United States, the qualification tournaments are in the same format as the Little League World Series itself: a round-robin tournament followed by an elimination round to determine the regional champion.

Infobox LLWSQualifiers
A1=flagicon|New York Staten Island, NY
Mid-Atlantic
Mid-Island
A2=flagicon|Illinois Lemont, IL
Great Lakes
Lemont
A3=flagicon|Arizona Phoenix, AZ
West
Ahwatukee American
A4=flagicon|Georgia (U.S. state) Columbus, GA
Southeast
Northern
B1=flagicon|New Hampshire Portsmouth, NH
New England
Portsmouth
B2=flagicon|Oregon Beaverton, OR
Northwest
Murrayhill
B3=flagicon|Missouri Columbia, MO
Midwest
Daniel Boone National
B4=flagicon|Louisiana Lake Charles, LA
Southwest
South Lake Charles
C1=flagicon|MNP Saipan
Pacific
Saipan
C2=flagicon|VEN Barquisimeto
Latin America
Cardenales
C3=flagicon|CAN flagicon|British Columbia Surrey, BC
Canada
Whalley
C4=flagicon|KSA Dhahran
Transatlantic
Arabian-American
D1=flagicon|MEX Matamoros
Mexico
Matamoros
D2=flagicon|JPN Kawaguchi, Saitama
Asia
Kawaguchi City
D3=flagicon|RUS Moscow
Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA)
Brateevo
D4=flagicon|Curaçao Willemstad
Caribbean
Pabao

Results

Pool play

The top two teams in each pool moved on to their respective semifinals. The winners of each met on August 27 to play for the Little League World Championship. Teams marked in "green" qualified to the knockout stage, while teams marked in "red" were eliminated.

USA

* Ties are broken based on records in head-to-head competition among tied teams. If a clear winner cannot be determined from head-to-head results, 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 advances.

* The New England vs Midwest game was postponed due to a rain delay and was played on August 20.

International

* Ties are broken based on records in head-to-head competition among tied teams. If a clear winner cannot be determined from head-to-head results, 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 advances.

* Asterisk (*) denotes no-hitter thrown

* The Saipan vs Venezuela game was stopped in the 8th inning due to a rain delay and was completed on August 21.

Elimination round

Round8
24 August - 15:00 - Lamade |flagicon|Saudi Arabia Dhahran, Saudi Arabia|1 |flagicon|JPN Kawaguchi City, Japan| 4
23 August - 15:00 - Lamade "(4 innings)"|flagicon|VEN Barquisimeto, Venezuela|0 |flagicon|Mexico Matamoros, Mexico|11
24 August - 19:30 - Lamade|flagicon|Georgia (U.S. state) Columbus, Georgia|8 |flagicon|New Hampshire Portsmouth, New Hampshire|0
23 August - 19:30 - Lamade|flagicon|Illinois Lemont, Illinois|3 |flagicon|Oregon Beaverton, Oregon|4
26 August – 19:30 - Lamade|flagicon|Japan Kawaguchi City, Japan |3 |flagicon|Mexico Matamoros, Mexico|0
26 August – 15:30 - Lamade|flagicon|Georgia (U.S. state) Columbus, Georgia |7 |flagicon|Oregon Beaverton, Oregon|3
28 August – 17:00 - Lamade|flagicon|Japan Kawaguchi City, Japan |1 |flagicon|United States of Americaflagicon|Georgia (U.S. state) Columbus, Georgia |2
"The consolation game between Matamoros, Mexico and Beaverton, Oregon, scheduled for August 27 at Volunteer Stadium, was cancelled due to rain, and both teams will share third place. The championship game was originally scheduled for 15:30 US EDT on August 27, but was postponed due to rain. The game was originally rescheduled for 20:00 on August 28, but changed because of weather concerns."

Mid-Island incident

Television coverage aired throughout the United States on ABC Sports and ESPN. At first, there was no delay on its broadcasts, despite the fact that all managers and coaches were equipped with miniature microphones. That changed after two incidents; one in a preliminary game where an unidentified California pitcher told his coach that " [the umpire] ain't giving me shit" in reference to a tight strike zone, but the other, more important incident took place late in a preliminary-round game in which a player for Mid-Island Little League of Staten Island, New York, who was not publicly identified, told his teammates to "just score one fucking run" that was broadcast live on ESPN. In response, the team's manager, Nick Doscher, slapped the player, a violation of a Little League policy against physical contact targeting players. Both the player and manager were reprimanded, and ESPN and ABC imposed a five-second delay on future telecasts. The incident was part of the continuing legacy of the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy.

ee also

*Little League
*Little League World Series

External links

* [http://www.littleleague.org/series/ Official site]
* [http://www.littleleague.org/series/2006divisions/llbb/series.htm Little League World Series results] LLWS