Statement from ESPN – August 13, 2007

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The following statement is from ESPN, Little League’s television partner:

ESPN sincerely apologizes to Little League Baseball and its extended family of players, parents, volunteers and fans.

We regret the airing of a beer commercial during the Little League Baseball Southeast Region Championship Game on Thursday, August 9. The game ran long and into the time period of the Baseball Tonight show scheduled to begin at 10 p.m. ET. The beer commercial was scheduled to air within Baseball Tonight and was mistakenly aired during the Little League Baseball game. ESPN's agreement with Little League Baseball prohibits the airing of certain categories of commercials, in recognition of the age of the participants and the young audience drawn to the event. We have implemented procedures to prevent this from happening again.

However, it should also be noted that not all commercials that air on ESPN are controlled by ESPN. Many commercials are generated by local
cable, telephone, or satellite providers. ESPN has notified these providers to refrain from airing inappropriate content during Little League Baseball games, but we are not in direct control of their efforts.

Again, we sincerely apologize and we promise to be vigilant in our efforts to prevent inappropriate content from airing within Little League Baseball programming.