ESPN Expands It's Little League World Series Coverage To Include Regional Semifinals

I think I made this perfectly clear last August, but I love the Little League World Series and think that ESPN does an awesome job covering it. Well the awesome just got awesomer as ESPN is further expanding its coverage of the LLWS to include regional semifinals. From a Little League press release.

One of the most popular summer programming events on the ESPN family of networks, the Little League Baseball World Series, will see even more of its International Tournament televised with the announcement of expanded coverage by the cable network.

“We’re delighted to grow our coverage of the Little League regional semis,” said Len DeLuca, ESPN senior vice president, programming and acquisitions. “The Little League World Series merits more national attention as one of the leading sports events in the dog days of summer. We can capture more stories from expanding our coverage of the eight regionals in the United States.”

ESPN and its family of networks have expanded its coverage of Little League Baseball’s Regional Tournaments by 14 games. Last year, ESPN televised eight Little League Baseball regional tournament games, all championship contests. This year ESPN will again cover all eight regional championship games in addition to selected semifinal games in regional play. ESPN platforms will provide coverage of 22 Little League Baseball International Tournament games leading up to their coverage of the Little League Baseball World Series.

Beginning Aug. 10, ESPN has added the Southwest Region semifinals from Waco, Texas; the two semifinal games from the Mid-Atlantic Region in Bristol, Conn.; semifinal games in the Great Lakes and Midwest Regions held in Indianapolis, Ind., and semifinals games in the Northwest and West Regions played in San Bernardino, Calif.; and, the Southeast Region semifinals in Warner Robins, Ga.

Twelve of the games will be televised on ESPN2, with the games also available on ESPN3.com. Two of the games will be exclusive to ESPN3.com.

“We are pleased ESPN has decided to expand its coverage of the Little League Baseball International Tournament,” Stephen D. Keener, President and Chief Executive Officer of Little League Baseball and Softball, said. “I think this shows ESPN believes the core values of Little League Baseball and Softball are meaningful to its viewers. There also is an increasing fan interest in tournament play in all eight divisions of Little League tournament play. We are thankful to have ESPN as a media partner to help us promote the benefits of the Little League experience.”

With the additional games, ESPN and its family of networks will air up to 56 games of the Little League Baseball International Tournament and a total of 65 games across the eight divisions of play in the Little League Baseball and Softball International Tournaments. All games will be televised live.

The entire schedule of Little League Baseball and Softball International Tournament games expected to be televised will be released in June.

The only regional semifinals not on ESPN will be the games in the New England Region, which will be televised on NESN (New England Sports Network).

My vacation is in August this year so I will likely miss most of this, but it is still good to see ESPN taking a great thing and making it even greater. Last year the Mid-Atlantic and New England semifinals were shown on MSG and NESN respectively, but that was it. There was no way to watch any of the other regional semis. I know some people are probably thinking that this is too much, but I look at it as you can always watch something else and for people like me who just love watching these games, the more I get the better it is. From the time the U.S. regionals begin to the time a world champion is crowned, only 3 weeks have gone by so this is not even something that gets old at all. It's a good time for involved and this expansion is, in my book, a win for who enjoy the LLWS!