Devlin decided to start a Little League in Rutherford, as a way to give his future players a head start in learning the game. He prevailed upon his friend Ed Morse, treasurer of the borough YMCA, to round up sponsors for a four-team league.
On June 30, sixty boys started the League’s first season, wearing the uniforms of the Kiwanis and Rotary clubs, the Junior Chamber of Commerce (Jaycees), and Pastori’s Country Home Builders. With help from coaches like Dave Chadwick, volunteers like 13-year-old scorer Paul Shepherd, and copious coverage in The Rutherford Republican, the fledgling loop was a smashing success.
The League was reconstituted in 1952, with 120 players taking part on eight teams. The original sponsors formed the National League, while the Elks and Lions clubs, the borough’s American Legion post, and Pasquin Motors, a Ford dealer, sponsored American League clubs. Elks and Lions remain sponsors to this day.
For the first two seasons, the League played on softball diamonds at Rutherford (now Tamblyn) Field and Rutherford High School. In the summer of 1952, ground was cleared for a new Little League field as part of a tract in the borough’s west end that had been dedicated Memorial Park in 1949. A veterans’ prefab house was moved to the site, and it became the League’s clubhouse.
Lyndhurst won the toss and elected to bat last. The visitors scored two unearned runs in the bottom of the first inning, but Rutherford tied the score in the third. The clubs played until darkness descended, and the score remained 2-2 after ten innings.
The next day, they resumed play and battled for six more innings without a run crossing the plate. Finally, Rutherford catcher Eugene Cole homered to straightaway center field with two out in the top of the 17th inning. When Cole tagged a Lyndhurst runner out at the plate in the bottom of the frame, Rutherford National had a 3-2 victory in what remains one of the longest games in the 68-year history of the Little League tournament.
From 1952 to 1956, each team played 18 games. The schedule expanded to 20 games in 1957, but shrank to 16 in 1960. In 1963, two more expansion teams were added, Keller Engineering in the American League and Justin Realty in the National, and the League went to a 15-game schedule.
In 1974, inter-league play was introduced. A 16th game was added to the schedule in 1977, and that format was used continuously through 2009, with the exception of 1986.
For playoff purposes, each league split into two three-team divisions from 1986 to 1993. The divisional format was abandoned in 1994 and replaced by a system in which three clubs from each league qualified for the playoffs.
The League was not spared by the nationwide decline in baseball enrollment early in the 21st century, and in 2010 each charter was reduced by one Major level team. The remaining teams, five in each league, played a 17-game schedule.
The Minor League system was revamped for 2000. That season, non-Major players aged 9-12 began play in a Triple-A league, while 7- and 8-year-olds participated in a new Double-A level. Players as young as league age 5 were now eligible for Tee Ball. The structure was revised in 2004, so that first-year players aged 5 and 6 played Tee Ball; returning 6-year-olds and all 7-year-olds played in a coach-pitch Double-A league; and 8-year-olds moved into the player-pitch Triple-A league. Beginning in 2009, pitching was reintroduced for 7-year-olds in the Double-A league.
With USA Baseball adjusting the league age determination date for 2006, the League made provisions that no player would spend more than one season in Tee Ball or two seasons in Double-A unless requested by the parent. Another adjustment was made for 2015, allowing 7-year-olds who had already played one season in Double-A to move into the Triple-A league by evaluating for that level. The League is gearing up for another adjustment in the league age determination date, to take effect in 2018.
That changed in 2011, when the League and the Recreation Department entered into a partnership under which the League became the program coordinator for Recreation softball. As a result, for the first time Recreation girls’ softball teams were chartered under Little League Softball. Players continued to register through the Recreation Department, which also recommended the coaches and allocated fields. The League’s role was to prepare the practice and game schedules, organize tryouts, and set the rules for each level in accordance with Little League regulations.
The partnership was made permanent in 2015, with the League in charge of operations while the Department maintained the playing fields. Additionally, all coaches must now adhere to the Department’s Code of Volunteer Conduct.
New Jersey District 5 hosted its first 10-year-old tournament in 1979, and Rutherford American won the inaugural edition. Since then, the American League has won the district title in 1982, 1989, 1990, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2007, 2008, 2010, and 2011, while the National League has taken home the district trophy in 1993, 1998, 2002, 2003, and 2004. Sectional and state play in the 10-year-old division began in 1994, and the 2002 Nationals went on to capture the sectional crown. A combined team of 10-year-olds won the district and section titles in 2013.
In 1996, Rutherford Little League began entering teams into the Lyndhurst Junior League tournament, an event for 8-year-olds that originated in the 1970s and was revived in 1990. Rutherford teams won that tournament in 1996, 2002, 2005, and 2011.
By 2014, the League had rearranged its baseball tournament teams to be age-specific for each group, ages 8 through 12. That year, the League won sectional titles at both the 10- and 11-year-old levels.
The League hosted the 12-year-old New Jersey state finals in 1993. Nottingham Little League of Hamilton Square (Mercer County) defended its 1992 crown by defeating Toms River (Ocean County), 5-1, in the championship game. The field also included Sparta (Sussex County) and Kenilworth (Union County). Toms River is a different league from Toms River East, whose American League won the East Region in 1995 and the Little League World Series in 1998.
Rutherford Little League hosted the 10-year-old state finals in 2010. Ramsey Little League, from northern Bergen County, won the championship, scoring five runs in the sixth inning to snap a 1-1 tie and defeat Toms River American, 6-2, in the title game. Teaneck Southern (also from Bergen County), which edged out Rutherford American in the section tournament at Livingston, and Monroe Township (Gloucester County) rounded out the field.
In addition, Rutherford has hosted the Section 2 tournament in 1991, 1995, and 2005, as well as numerous district tournament games. Rutherford also hosted the state championship game of Senior League Softball (Little League’s 15-and-under softball division) in 1990, in which Pennsville edged Little Ferry, 2-0.
Rutherford’s first foray into the Little League Softball tournament, in 2012, produced two sectional championships. The 14-year-old entry rallied past Little Ferry, 10-8, in Lodi, while the 12-year-old team defeated Bayonne, 12-2, in Hoboken. In 2013, Rutherford hosted its first softball tournaments in 23 years, including the 14-year-old state finals.