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Little League World Series Evolves but Baseball, Memories Remain Constant

By David Barron, Houston Chronicle , 08/21/18, 12:00PM PDT

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11- and 12-year-olds “can be goofy, and they can exceed expectations. They can be outstanding, and they can be human. You keep things in perspective.”

Bill Martin’s first trip to Williamsport, Pennsylvania, was by train along with his 1950 Houston Little League teammates, who returned home three games later as champions of the fourth annual Little League World Series — Houston’s first preteen hardball sensations.

These days, Martin and his wife, Freda, travel to small-town Pennsylvania by car, content to enjoy the sights along the way and to watch from the stands as a new generation of athletes make memories that they, too, can cherish for a half-century and beyond.

“These boys,” Martin said this week as he and his wife drove through the Virginia countryside, “are fixing to get into something they’re going to remember for the rest of their lives.”