Pasadena will host this year's 50/70 Intermediate Southern California State Championship Little League Tournament, a stop on the way to the 2024 Little League Intermediate 50/70 World Series.

The free Tournament consists of 18 to 19 games, which will be played daily at Victory Park, from July 3 through 12 -- except for July 4.

The Tournament will feature a 50-foot pitching distance and 70-foot base paths (hence the term, "50/70"). Younger Little Leaguers often see a 46-foot pitching distance and 60-foot base paths, while Major League ballparks have a pitching distance of 60 feet, 6 inches and 90-foot base paths.

Chris Jervey, President of Pasadena American Little League (PALL), explained the reasoning behind the 50/70 format: "One of the recent goals by Little League International, the parent organization of course, of Pasadena American Little League and many other and all the other little leagues, was to create division inside of the league that would benefit the kids that were transitioning from a smaller baseball diamond to a larger, the full size baseball diamond. For a lot of kids that are 13 years old or so, they really haven't matured physically to the point where they're ready to play on the big field."

Jervey added, "We sort of took up the mantle early and knowing that this would be a little bit of a change for our parents and for our community, knowing that it would just be a better thing to do for the kids at that age and to really make sure that their physical development was matched with the size of the field. It's something that we took up early on, I think maybe earlier than some other leagues."

The series will feature intermediate level Little League All-Star teams, consisting mostly of 13-year-olds, traveling from Santa Barbara to the Mexican border.

The Tournament is hosted by PALL and Little League District 17, which represents Altadena, Arcadia, Monrovia, Pasadena, San Marino and Sierra Madre. This may be the first time PALL has hosted a state Tournament, at least in recent memory. As Jervey noted, "I don't actually know if we've ever hosted a state Tournament before. This would definitely be the first time we ever hosted the intermediate Tournament. We only redid our field to be able to play on this size a few years ago, three or four years ago."

As PALL President Chris Jervey explained, "California produces more Major League ballplayers than anywhere else in the country." He added, "Fans will see some of the best youth baseball players in the state," and "we might catch a future big-leaguer or two."

The winner of the Pasadena Tournament will compete in the 50/70 West Region Tournament in Nogales, Arizona.

Southern California Little League is divided into 39 districts, more than any other state, and the Southern California Tournament champion will face off against state champions in the West Regional Tournament.

Jervey explained the Tournament structure: "This is a continuation of a very large Tournament that runs all the way from the district level all the way to the national and international level." He added, "Typically the Tournaments are double elimination, so you have an opportunity to lose once, but you can stay in the Tournament until you lose a second time and then you're out of the Tournament. Every round is that same kind of a format and the winner of every round progresses."

The winners of the nation's various Region Tournaments will face each other until a U.S. champion is named. That team will then face an international champion from the worldwide Tournament, leading to the Intermediate 50/70 World Series.

Regarding the preparation for the Tournament, Jervey stated, "We knew going into the season, which our league season starts all the way in October, not the actual games, but our league year, we knew pretty much around the beginning of the end of last year, beginning of this year that District 17 might have an opportunity to host this Tournament. We really didn't sort of get the opportunity, we didn't kind of commit to it. We didn't kind of know that it was all set in stone until really a little bit later in the actual league calendar. We probably probably secured it in April."

Jervey also highlighted the impact of the Tournament on the local community: "It's a really great opportunity for us to showcase our beautiful hometown. I mean, those of us that live in Pasadena know how special of a place it is. It's an honor and it's a wonderful opportunity to show off how special this place is and how lovely our community is." He added, "We hope that there's a little bit of a benefit to Pasadena and that I think we'll have people that are going to come from out of town and they're going to eat in the local restaurants and they're going to hopefully stay in the local hotels. And so there's an economic impact as well, both to the community and to the organization PALL. Every dollar we make from selling nachos or a hot dog or a Pepsi or whatever is another dollar that helps us continue to run what we hope is a really impactful and positive youth sports league."

On preparing young athletes for competitive environments, Jervey explained, "By the time you're 13 years old and you are an all-star, if you've been lucky enough or if you're skilled enough to be able to make that team and then to be able to get into a Tournament like this, you're already pretty well, you have a fairly solid foundation and understanding about what competitive sports are all about and that there are excellent ways for you to balance wanting to win with wanting to work together. It's just great life lessons that get taught in Little League."

The Tournament relies heavily on volunteers. Jervey stated, "Volunteers play a really, really wide role both in planning and execution. We have obviously league administration, like me and our Tournament director are closely working with volunteers across the district and the district administration just on figuring out what it's going to take." He estimated that 20 to 30 people are involved in preparation, with 10 to 12 volunteers needed for each game.

Looking to the future, Jervey shared PALL's plans: "We're doing more and more community engagement work. We're really excited to continue to work closely with the local high schools, in junior high schools here so that we're creating good baseball players and good people and good citizens to be ultimately hopefully on the high school baseball teams of tomorrow. We are continuing to develop skill development programs with Marshall and with Pasadena High School because really we're a feeder for those programs."

Games will be played at Victory Park, 2575 Paloma St., Pasadena, CA 91107, next to Pasadena High School.