History of Chester Valley Little League
1880s - early 1900s
The Malvern Baseball Club, or the "Men of Malvern" were playing baseball at the site of the current Monument Park as early as 1886! They won their first game, conquering Milltown 12-9. In the early 1900s there are records of fund raising to purchase new equipment for the team.
1940s
The Malvern Baseball Club built their first field in Malvern at Monument Avenue in 1947. After a period of growth, they negotiated with the Borough and were able to build an additional field at First Avenue and Warren, on a tract of land belonging to the Malvern Public School (located in the building housing today's Public Library). This field is today's First Ave. Field.
THE LITTLE LEAGUE
Under the direction of Elmer McAdoo in 1952, a group of Malvern boys joined the Upper Main Line Little League. This league was made up of "town teams" from many of the areas comprising our current District 27 today, including teams from Berwyn, Devon, Paoli, Wayne and Radnor. These young men won the league title in 1953, in their second year, and then entered into a "playoff" format with other local champions in a format that was a predecessor to today's International Little League Tournament. This is the tournament that we now see culminate in Williamsport every August. Malvern won their first game, before falling to Phoenixville. In the early 1950's, the "town teams" began to fall out of the UML Little League to form their own leagues, as the popularity of Little League Baseball exploded. Malvern followed this trend and started a league in 1955, filing for a Little League charter, which was granted a year later. Under first-year commissioner Diddi Farrar, and vice-president Dorita Darlington, a four-team league was started. The team entries that year were Malvern, Bacton Hill, Paoli, and the VFW. Elmer McAdoo, for whom the field is now named, was the initial coach. Unlike today, in those early days team coaches recruited their own players! The initial Malvern team sponsor was Bill Perry, a local realtor whose office was located near where Malvern Pizza is today. Chester Valley has maintained a strong Major League and Minor League Baseball program since then to this very day. By 1960, baseball fever was rampant, and a Babe Ruth League was begun, playing on the 90-foot diamond. This league was started by Elmer McAdoo, Joe Barber, and others under the leadership of Dorita Darlington, who was League President at that time, the first female President of the League. At the time, Babe Ruth Baseball was played by boys 13-15 years of age from the Malvern, Paoli, Berwyn and Devon areas. An 8-team league was vibrant throughout the 1970's and into the early 1980's. The league disbanded in the 1980's, mainly due to insurance issues, and the redistricting of players. The Babe Ruth League was replaced by Junior (13 & 14 year olds) and Senior League (15 & 16 year olds) Little League Baseball, which is still played today. At the same time, the players from Berwyn-Paoli and other areas played ball within their own Little League divisions. As a result, the number of teams at that level dropped from eight to three (today). The institution of Girls Softball was introduced in the mid-1970's and has been a highly successful program at CVLL since it's inception. This program also features play at the Farm, Minor, Major and Junior levels of play. Our girls have been very successful in tournament play nearly from the onset of softball at Chester Valley.Our league has grown under the leadership of so many people over the years. Standout officials include but are not limited to Hall of Famer Becky Jones, Harry Hayes, Bill McKee, Al Stiner, Bix Reeside, George Heim, John Stone, and John Klein in the 1960's and 1970's.
The torch was passed thereafter to people like Tom Shay, Karl Malessa, Tony DiAntonio, Don Caporal, Rob Montgomery, Butch Franklin, Ken Furlong, Al Levenson and others in the 1980's and 1990's. In the early part of this century, Chester Valley has been guided by Larry Buchholz, Jim Prendergast, Mike Daylida, Pete Lindstrom, Ed Tabbut, Grant Blackburn and current president Spencer Curtiss.