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 1956: Carl Stotz severs his ties with Little League Baseball in a dispute over the direction and control of Little League. Stotz believed the league was becoming over-commercialized by Little League president, Peter J. McGovern. Stotz remains active in youth baseball with the "Original League" in Williamsport. Little League records its first on-field death in Garland, Texas as 12-year-old Richard "Rick" Oden is hit in the head by a pitch thrown by Jerry Armstrong. The city park location of the incident is renamed "Rick Oden Field." As batting helmets are yet to be developed, Garland teams finish the season wearing