PONY Baseball
PONY Baseball
PONY Baseball/Softball, Inc., began with the organization of the Pony League in Washington, PA in the summer of 1951. This was a transition league for 13-year-old and 14-year-old players designed to take graduates of Little League baseball from that diamond to the regulation size diamond. Growth of Pony League, primarily by word of mouth, was rapid, and by the end of the second season, 1952, the original six teams in Washington were joined by 505 others in 106 leagues around the country. A national tournament was conducted, and the first Pony League World Series was held that year.
Bronco League, for 11-year-old and 12-year-old players, was organized in 1961 to permit players of this age to play the complete game of baseball. With Colt League using the regulation diamond with 90-foot base paths, Pony League uses a diamond with 80 base paths as a transition between the regulation diamond and the 70-foot diamond used in Bronco League.
In 1970, the Mustang League was developed in Fort Worth, TX using a diamond with 60-foot base paths to provide an organizational structure for leagues for beginning players, 9-and 10-year-olds. For communities using players of 7 and 8 years of age, rules and emblems were developed for Pinto League, a very elementary form of baseball.
Shetland League, an instructional program for 5- and 6-year-olds, was formally adopted by PONY for the 1990 season with rules based on the experiences of a number of league organizations that had conducted play in this age group for several years.
PONY is taken from the first letters of each word in the slogan, “Protect Our Nation’s Youth.” More than 500,000 players participate in the PONY organization annually.
Newcastle Baseball
PONY Baseball League was a known baseball league in the Seattle/Bellevue metropolitan area with West Seattle PONY formed in 1957, Cascade Vista Athletic Club (CVAC) was formed in 1963, and Maple Valley PONY was formed in 1971.
Newcastle Baseball Club's first season was in 1994 under the branding of Hazelwood Athletic Club (1994 season only). In 1995, it adopted the Newcastle Baseball Club League non-profit’s youth sports business name as the city of Newcastle, WA was incorporated in 1994.