WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. (AP) _ Grayce Stotz, the wife of Little League
Baseball founder Carl Stotz who also played an instrumental role in
the youth baseball organization, died Friday. She was 92.
Stotz, who had been living at a nursing home, died of natural
causes, said her daughter, Karen Stotz Myers. Her death Friday came
on the off-day for this year's Little League World Series
tournament.
``It's very fitting,'' Stotz Myers said. ``This is the only day
there's no game.''
Carl Stotz founded Little League in Williamsport in 1939 and was
the league commissioner and served on the board of directors with
his wife until 1950, when Little League incorporated. He stayed as
commissioner for another five years, then left because of
differences with board members over the direction of the
organization.
Stotz Myers said her mother, besides her involvement on the
board, filled in as manager sometimes and kept score. She also
founded the first Little League women's auxiliary group and, as a
volunteer secretary at the end of World War II, responded to many
requests about forming Little Leagues around the country, according
to the Williamsport Sun-Gazette.
Carl Stotz, who never visited the Little League World Series
complex across the Susquehanna River in South Williamsport, died in
1992. Grayce Stotz went to the complex in 2001 for a ceremony to
dedicate a statue of her husband.
Little League president Stephen Keener said the organization was
saddened by her death.
``My father got all the kudos for what he did, but my mother was
right there with him,'' Stotz Myers said.
Besides Stotz Myers, Stotz was also survived by another daughter,
Monya Lee Stotz Adkins, as well as four grandchildren and 10
great-grandchildren.
