Ask 100 people if they have ever heard of Carl Stotz and 100 people would say "who?" Yet, Carl probably had the biggest influence of anyone in the history of organized sports.
He also would say "you gotta be kidding me," if he was around to see what goes on today.
Stotz is known as the "Father of Little League Baseball," a program that has transcended all borders, races, languages and backgrounds to bring boys and girls together on ballfields to play both baseball and softball worldwide. Today it can even be seen on TV around the world during the annual Little League World Series.
When Carl was growing up in Williamsport, a small town in north central Pennsylvania, organized baseball didn't exist. What did exist back then was "sandlot" ball where kids would gather on their own, make up their own teams and rules, and play for hours.
However, the older kids in the neighborhood never let Carl play with them; he was just a "little kid." Consequently, he missed out on one of life's greatest pleasures with nothing to do on boring summer days.
Later on, while working at a local sandpaper plant during his late twenties, he came up with an idea for allowing his two nephews, and other little kids, the opportunity to do something he could never do when growing up.
They would play baseball in an organized format. They would play in Little League.
Stotz discussed the idea with a couple friends who thought the idea was great and each created their own team. The first game was played on June 6, 1939. The following day the results were printed in the local Williamsport Sun paper with as much enthusiasm as it covered Major League baseball.
Stotz had to be a visionary as he made rules early on that prevented kids from throwing curveballs because he thought it wouldn't be good for growing arms. He designed rubber cleated shoes so kids wouldn't get hurt. And get this - he made cards up to hand out to any unruly parent that said, "please let the kids just play ball."
In just a decade after the 1939 debut, organized Little League spread into more than a dozen states, with more than 850 teams and more than 200 leagues. Today, there are over 2 million kids - boys and girls - playing Little League baseball worldwide.
So the program is a huge success, right? From a numbers standpoint you've got to agree. But from a child development standpoint I, along with a host of others, would beg to disagree.
For some kids it's a great experience, but for others one would have had to live in Donetsk, Russia, to not have seen and read the stories of cheating and stealing, and the physical and emotional abuses brought about by programs run by volunteers with little or no accountability.
Having been a strong advocate for changing the culture of not only Little League Baseball, but all little league sports, I made three suggestions early in my career to the president of Little League Baseball.
One, make leagues who use public facilities be required to live up to the National Standards for Youth Sports. If they don't, forbid them from using public facilities.
Two, make every coach be required to be trained and held accountable to living up to a strict code of ethics. If they don't, get rid of them.
And three, and most importantly, don't let parents sign their kids up for sports unless they themselves go through an orientation on their role as a youth sports parent.
Not too unreasonable to make these recommendations, right?
But the response from the president of Little League was, and I quote, "Remove my name, and the name of Little League Baseball, from your mailing list."
I wonder if Carl Stotz would have said the same thing?