Phenix City chosen to host national youth baseball tournament

Phenix City has signed a contract to host a major youth baseball tournament that the city’s parks and recreation director says will be a “huge economic boost” to the city.

“We are expecting about 1,500 people coming here for a week,” Todd Hughes said. “They will be staying in our hotels and eating in our restaurants.”

Hughes said a contract was signed Tuesday morning with Babe Ruth League Inc. to host the 2018 Cal Ripken Major/60 World Series.

“This is like the Little League World Series with teams coming from around the country,” Hughes said. “We just don’t have the television coverage.”

He said 10 teams, 12 and under, will participate in the event to be played Aug. 8-15 at the Idle Hour Park Sports Complex.

The 2017 event was held in Clemmons, N.C.

“We are very excited,” Hughes said. “They approached us about hosting the tournament. They had looked at several cities.”

This story was originally published November 7, 2017 at 5:26 PM with the headline "Phenix City chosen to host national youth baseball tournament."