This league is named in recognition of the Belmont Heights Little League teams

This league is named in recognition of the Belmont Heights Little League teams. Belmont Heights is located in Tampa, Florida. My family moved to Tampa when I was 8 and I lived their from 1966 thru 1985. From the mid 70's thru the mid 80's Belmont Heights Little League was one of the premier youth team's in the USA and the world. Belmont Heights was Little League World Series Runner-Ups in 1975 (lost 4-3 to Lakewood, NJ), 1980 (lost 4-3 to Taiwan) and 1981 (lost 4-2 to Taiwan). Even though the kids on those teams had very hard childhoods (see bottom of page), they brought lots of pride and excitement to the people of Tampa and the USA.

The secret to their success? Incredible talent! Seven Belmont Heights players would go on to be 1st or 2nd round MLB draft picks:

· Vance Lovelace '81 1st rd

· Dwight Gooden '82 1st rd

· Floyd Youmans '82 2nd rd

· Gary Sheffield '86 1st rd (Gooden's nephew)

· Derek Bell '87 2nd rd

· Ty Griffin '88 1st rd

· Carl Everett '90 1st rd

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More about Belmont Heights, Sheffield and Gooden:

Belmont Heights was near the notorious Ponce de Leon projects, where shootings and stabbings were common occurrences. Sheffield and his family lived in the Gooden home, until 1976, when they moved closer to his step father's job at Port Tampa. During that time Dwight was like an older brother to Gary. They did everything together, whether Gary wanted to or not. Many was the time when Dwight hauled his butt out of bed in the morning and ordered him to grab a bat to face what—even at age 9, 10 and 11—was a hellacious fastball. If Gary refused, he could expect a fight.

The result of these early battles with Dwight was that Gary learned how to hit a fastball, and learned how to use his fists. His step-father remembers young Gary being able to belt small pebbles out of sight with a stick when they played in the family’s front yard. He also remembers bailing Gary out of trouble dozens of times after he refused to back down against a bigger kid (and then issued him a severe beating).

Short on grassy fields, the neighborhood kids played a 4-on-4 version of baseball in the street. Dwight pitched and Gary caught him. Teams from other streets would challenge their team, and huge crowds would form to watch. When the boys could find an empty diamond, the cousins were often forced to split up. That gave Gary plenty of practice hitting against Dwight.

Belmont Heights covered no more than a square mile or two, but it turned out an impressive array of baseball talent back then. In those pick-up games, Gary & Dwight played against kids with elite-level talent.