1998 Little League World Series

The 1998 Little League World Series was the 52nd Little League World Series. It featured teams from Cypress, CA, Jenison, MI, Toms River, NJ, Greenville, NC, Dhahran, Kashima, Ibaraki, Langley, BC and Guadalupe, Nuevo León. Toms River set a LLWS record with 38 walks for the tournament, with star Todd Frazier tying the individual record with 8 walks and the single-game record with four walks. Tetsuya Furukawa of Kashima hit 5 homers, tying for third-most, and a record for a non-Taiwanese player. Langley's Jeff Duda fanned 17 in a 3-2 loss to Kashima in the international championship game; Duda broke Sean Burroughs' record for Ks in a LLWS game.

The finale saw 11 homers, a record, and the losing squad scored 9 runs (also a record). Toms River beat Kashima, 12-9. Going deep were SS/P Frazier (4 for 4, 3 R), P/1B Casey Gaynor (3 for 3, 2 R, 3 RBI), 1B/2B Scott Fisher (2-run homer) and backup LF Chris Cardone (two homers). For Japan, 2B Furukawa went 4 for 4 with 3 home runs, P/LF/1B Tatsuya Sugata went 3 for 4 with two homers (but allowed 3 runs in 2/3 of an IP as the starter) and PH Masahiro Kuribayaski hit one home run. Takeshi Kato took the loss in relief. Cardone hit the winning 2-run homer in the 6th; prior to his two-homer day, the backup had one career home run and had been 1 for 10 in the Series. Japan was playing in their first finale since 1976 and the US won the title for the first time in five years.

Sources: 2012 LLWS Media Guide, 1999 Baseball Almanac

Participants[edit]

United States Teams			International Teams
Region	City	League	Region	City	League
Central	Jenison, MI	Georgetown National Little League	Canada	Langley, BC	Langley Little League
East	Toms River, NJ	Toms River East American Little League	Europe	Dhahran	Arabian American Little League
South	Greenville, NC	Tar Heel Little League	Far East	Kashima, Ibaraki	Kashima Little League
West	Cypress, CA	Cypress National Little League	Latin America	Guadalupe, Nuevo León	Liga Pequena Guadalupe Linda Vista Little League