Keystone Little League Part of Wednesday World Series Parade in Williamsport
WILLIAMSPORT – The Keystone 10-12 All-Stars will be part of the Wednesday evening Little League World Series parade through downtown Williamsport, an event expected to attract tens of thousands of fans to the home of the World Series.
Keystone finished a handful of wins short of qualifying for the Series itself, finishing among the top four at the recently completed Mid-Atlantic championships. The squad will be riding on a flat-bed truck in the W. Fourth Street parade.
As for the parade itself, the 14th annual Grand Slam Parade will be held downtown from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. The first game of the 72nd Little League World series will take place Thursday at Volunteer Stadium in South Williamsport.
The route is same as previous years – the parade will begin at 5:30 p.m. at the intersection of Susquehanna and W. Fourth streets and will head east to Market Street. The parade route ends at Mulberry Street. It is expected to reach downtown area by 6 p.m. A downtown festival will begin prior to the parade at 4 p.m.
The 16 participating Little League teams will be in the parade. This year’s grand marshal will be Ozzie Smith, former St. Louis Cardinals shortstop whose nickname is “The Wizard of Oz.” He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2002. A 15-time all-star, he accumulated 2,460 hits and 580 stolen bases during his career. Smith also will be guest of honor at the Grand Slam breakfast event at Genetti Hotel on Thursday and will throw out the ceremonial first pitch to mark the beginning of the World Series.
New York White Sabers Drum Corps out of Dansville, N.Y., will kick off the parade. Other parade participants will include floats by local companies and organizations such as UPMC Susquehanna, St. Joseph the Worker, Weis Markets, Katie Benson School of Dance, Genetti Hotel and the Williamsport Branch YMCA among other agencies. Williamsport Area and Sullivan County High school bands will perform. Local musicians Repasz Band also will perform in the parade. Antique cars, Williamsport Bureau of Fire trucks and military equipment and will be in the parade lineup.
Meanwhile PennDOT has announced a 511 PA Webpage for World Series travelers.
For the second year, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation has launched a webpage www.511pa.com/LLWS, to provide real-time travel and alternate-route information to assist motorists in traveling to the Little League World Series.
The page, hosted through the department’s 511PA.com traveler information website, is dedicated to monitoring traffic conditions on the primary travel routes to the event. Travel times and alerts are provided for: Route 15 south to Route 220 to Market Street; Route 15 north; Interstate 80 east to Route 220 north to Market Street; and I-80 west to Route 15 north, and I-180 WB to Market Street.
“With the addition of this 511PA option last year, we empowered travelers and minimized congestion, helping the public get to where they needed to go,” PennDOT Secretary Leslie S. Richards said. “We hope to help additional drivers with information provided by this system.”
The page includes the average travel time for the primary route as well as one or two alternate routes. Users can see incidents, construction, weather forecasts and alerts, traffic cameras, and traffic speeds on the map. Maps showing traffic trends on each day of the event in the previous three years are also available.
PennDOT’s Central Region Traffic Management Center (CRTMC) is also supporting the Little League World Series by posting real-time travel information on dynamic message signs and transmitting audio messages on highway advisory radio systems to assist travelers.
In addition to Little League World Series information, motorists can use www.511PA.com to check conditions on nearly 40,000 roadway miles in Pennsylvania. 511PA, which is free and available 24 hours a day, provides traffic delay warnings, weather forecasts, traffic speed information and access to more than 825 traffic cameras.
511PA is also available through a smartphone application for iPhone and Android devices, by calling 5-1-1, or by following regional Twitter alerts accessible on the 511PA website.
