"That'll Be The Day...": A Story of the 10th Little League World Series

Little League Baseball began in 1939 in Williamsport, PA. In 1953, it arrived in Roswell, NM. Soon there were three Roswell leagues – Optimist, Lions Hondo, and Walker Air Force Base. There were four teams in each league with names such as Short Changers, Stray Bolts, and Little Wheels, as well as sponsors such as Malco Oil Company, LULAC, and the 509th Bomb Wing. In addition to regular season play, all-stars were selected by each league for tournament play leading to the World Series in Williamsport. In the 1956 District Tournament in Carlsbad, the Walker Air Force Base All-Stars lost to the Optimist All-Stars who then lost to the Lions Hondo All-Stars who advanced to the state tournament in Los Alamos. The entire town was fenced off, not just the outfield, due to ongoing national security concerns. Two months earlier a hydrogen bomb, built at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, had been dropped over Bikini Atoll. Team members had to show passes to get into town. Blowing away the competition, the team continued on to the sectional tournament in Lubbock, where Buddy Holly was beginning work on his only #1 Hit, “That’ll be the Day.” A win in the Hub City propelled Roswell to the regional tournament in San Antonio, where the team was treated to a taste of barracks life at Fort Sam Houston between games. Prevailing at San Antonio got Roswell Lions Hondo a ride on a Santa Fe Chief to the 10th Little League World Series in Williamsport, PA, where they were the underdogs. Four of the eight teams had been there before, including the 1954 and 1955 series runners-up. Of the other four teams, Roswell was the only one from west of the Mississippi. A Pennsylvania newspaper carried the headline, “Roswell, Where?” It was assumed that Roswell’s chances of winning could be summed up with “That’ll be the day.” Yet, the boys of the Lions Hondo had watched two years earlier in 1954 as Joe Bauman, first baseman for the minor league Roswell Rockets, set a professional baseball record of 72 homeruns. If he could put Roswell on the map, why couldn’t they? Read more