2024-08-25 19:15:03
Stephen Keener places his hand on Patrick Wilson’s shoulder.
The moment carries a certain symbolism.
On Sunday, Keener, 67, will watch his final Little League World Series game as president and CEO of Little League Baseball Inc. On Jan. 1, Wilson, 55, the senior vice president of operations, will replace him.
“First off, Pat’s ready,” Keener, 67, said with a smile. “It’s that time in my life where I had to make some decisions about my future and I just thought this was the right time. Mostly because having somebody like Pat prepared and ready to assume this position gives me a real high comfort level that I’m going to leave the organization in really good hands.”
Keener took over the organization in 1994 and led it through its greatest growth. Fed by growing interest from sports network ESPN, the Little League World Series has exploded into the national consciousness. In the year ending, Sept. 30, 2022, Little League Baseball Inc. had revenues of $27.8 million, including $11.3 million from broadcast rights fees and $4.94 million from its World Series tournaments, according to the federal tax return that nonprofits must file.
A native of the Williamsport area, Keener never left Little League’s home. He played Little League as a kid first for Loyalsock, then Woolrich in Clinton County.
Years later, he returned to Williamsport as an intern with Little League Baseball and began working with its executive staff in 1980. The position opened the door to a 44-year career.
He was promoted to vice president in 1991 before becoming president in 1994.
“While I was in the midst of that internship, a full-time professional position opened up. I’d been here for about four or five weeks, and the administrative folks here offered me that job on a full time basis,” Keener said. “I’ve been here ever since.”
ESPN showed interest in televising the World Series live the same year. The World Series was first broadcast via tape-delay in 1963 by ABC, which carried the championship game until 1985 on its signature program, “Wide World of Sports.”
ESPN started airing two semi-final games in 1982 as ABC continued airing the championship game. The World Series’ popularity then grew with live broadcasts.
“We did that for a while, because of the popularity of the event. The fact that it was very appealing to a television audience, it just grew in its popularity. Therefore the media companies like ESPN and ABC wanted to do more, and that was to our benefit,” Keener said.
The access of live World Series games helped put Williamsport on the map. The tradition that continues today with more fans than ever.
Little League spans the globe
Little League’s facility in South Williamsport was built in the late 1950s and funded by First Community Foundation Partnership of Pennsylvania. It was funded under one caveat — the public would be able to use it. Every year, the facility hosts Little League programs, district tournament games and activities for the community, Keener said.
“To this day Williamsport has become kind of a mecca for Little League Baseball. It’s always interesting to me that a lot of our leagues around the country, when they select their tournament team to play to try to get here, they call it their Williamsport team,” Keener said. “They don’t call it their all-star team or whatever. They call it their Williamsport team, which I think is really kind of a nice testament to the impact and the power of Little League being based in Williamsport.”
Little League goes beyond baseball and softball, boys and girls. It goes beyond the “mecca” of Williamsport. It’s an international program that covers the globe.
“It’s a program that’s in 84 countries, thousands and thousands of neighborhoods and communities. These are the conversations we always have, that these kids are phenomenal players,” Keener said.
Cuban connection established
Keener recounted key moments that pushed Little League Baseball to new heights. For one, he established connections with Cuba, allowing its Little League team to compete internationally.
It all began as a meeting with Fidel Castro’s son.
“I had an opportunity and was actually in Taiwan for what was called, then an international Baseball Association meeting. And I had the opportunity to talk with a gentleman named Antonio Castro, who happens to be the youngest son of Fidel Castro,” Keener said.
The meeting sparked interest in allowing Cuba into Little League International.
When President Barack Obama eased embargo restrictions on Cuba in 2016, Little League Baseball was allowed to meet officially with Cuban representatives.
“It looked like there might be an opportunity there, given that we could travel to Cuba, we could have conversations with them. That led to a visit to Havana in the spring of 2016 with Major League Baseball,” Keener said.
During spring training, the Tampa Rays played an exhibition game against the Cuban National Team in Havana. Keener said he was fortunate to attend that trip because he had the opportunity to meet Cuban Baseball Federation officials.
“They said they had some interest, but they really didn’t know anything about us. We knew it was going to be a kind of an educational process, and it was going to take a little time,” he said.
Keener and Wilson made several trips to Cuba the following few years. They also visited Panama for a meeting with the Pan-American Baseball Confederation. Their officials came from Central, North and South American countries.
He and Wilson met with Ricardo Ferkari, the president of the World Baseball/Softball Confederation, and Cuban Baseball Manager Higinio Vélez.
They worked out an agreement to allow Cuba to play in Little League International.
“Pat and I came home and he kind of took the lead on this and worked to draft the agreement with the Cuban baseball federation,” Keener said.
They returned to Havana, Cuba in 2019 to celebrate the agreement’s signing. Cuba competed the next two years in the Caribbean Regional tournament but lost to Curacao both times. In 2023, Cuba won a reserved spot through something called direct entry to be the Caribbean Regional team at the World Series.
The political differences between the U.S. and Cuba still created hurdles. Little League was not permitted to pay for the team. For Cuba to have the same benefits as other teams – transportation, housing, etc. – the team had to be licensed through the Foreign Asset Control Office.
“Pat actually worked on this and with our attorneys. We were able to secure the appropriate licenses from our government to allow us to pay for everything that we want to do,” Keener said.
Big league play comes to town
Keener never envisioned the Little League Classic with Major League Baseball teams, but he led the effort to bring a special game to the Little League World Series in 2017. The first year, the Pittsburgh Pirates played the St. Louis Cardinals at Bowman Field.
“I don’t know if any of us could have ever really envisioned the Little League Classic with Major League Baseball,” Keener said.
This year, the Detroit Tigers beat the New York Yankees in the Classic, which became a way for Little League players from all over the world to experience a major-league game.
“Seeing how it’s evolved and become a nice part of the World Series. What’s so great about it is that these kids who are here probably, for most of them, have never been to a Major League Baseball game,” Keener said “To have the opportunity to sit in the front row and watch a Major League Baseball game play while they’re having this experience, I just think it just adds to that memory that they’re that they’re going to have for the rest of their lives.”
Wilson: ‘I’m a kid from Williamsport’
Wilson joined Little League International in 1993. Since then, he worked as the vice president of operations assistant, the director of regional operations and the assistant tournament director before becoming senior vice president of operations.
Another Williamsport area native, Wilson played his share of baseball when he was younger. He played for Pudgie’s Pizza in the Maynard Little League.
“I was terrible,” he laughed. “But I would still go to the field even when I wasn’t playing because that’s where all my friends were and hang out on the bleachers.”
Wilson sees his primary goal as growing Little League further.
“Because of my operations roles, I have always been out with the volunteer leadership in the field across the world, and have made many trips on behalf of the organization, to continue to work with them and help grow the program, support them and continue the great work we’ve always done,” Wilson said.
In the months ahead, Wilson plans to assess new ideas and needs alongside other executive staff members and plan the future.
Wilson said the people he works with and meets along the way are a large part of what keeps him enjoying what he does and traveling the world, meeting teams.
“I’m a kid from Williamsport, Lycoming County. I never thought I’d probably go very far. I’ve been to over 50 countries now. I never thought when I was a kid that I would ever probably leave Lycoming County,” he said. “When I go out on those trips, I get to meet people from all walks of life, all experiences, but they’re all interested in volunteering and serving the Little League program. It’s overwhelming sometimes about their passion not for the World Series but the service to kids in their community.”
Keener: ‘Privileged and honored’
Keener — who, according to a 2022 Little League federal tax form bill earned more than $500,000 a year in his job — doesn’t know what his future holds in retirement. But he does plan on lowering his golf handicap above anything else, he said.
“I really have tried purposely not I really haven’t been too reflective about all of this. Maybe that’ll come in the next couple of months. But what it sort of all comes back to for me is I enjoy engaging with people. I’ve been privileged and really honored to meet so many people of all walks of life,” Keener said.
“Maybe when it’s all over Sunday night, I’ll look back and I might feel differently. But right now, I just want to get us through another tournament and crown a champion and, most importantly, get them home safely.”
