All-American Girls Professional Baseball League plate, closer even than in regulation softball and much closer than the baseball distance of 60 feet, 6 inches. Pitchers threw underhand windmill, like in softball, and the distance between bases was 65 feet, five feet longer than in softball but 25 feet shorter than in baseball. Major similarities between the AAGPBL and baseball included nine player teams and the use of a pitcher's mound (softball pitchers throw from flat ground). By 1948 the ball had shrunk to 10 3/8 inches, overhand pitching was allowed, and the mound was moved back to 50 feet. Over the history of the league,
Little League Baseball Red Sox catcher, Jason Varitek. 1984:: Victoria Roche, a 12-year-old from Belgium, becomes the first girl to play in the Little League World Series. 1988: Tom Seaver is the first former Little Leaguer to be enshrined in the Peter J. McGovern Museum Hall of Excellence. 1989: Poland becomes the first former Warsaw Pact nation to receive a Little League charter. Trumbull, Connecticut, led by future NHL star Chris Drury, wins the Little League World Series. 1991: Future NL All Star Jason Marquis pitches the Staten Island South Shore Little League team to third place in the Little League World Series