1992 Little League World Series
| 1992 Little League World Series | |
|---|---|
| Dates | August 25– August 29 |
| Teams participating | 8 |
| Champion |
  Long Beach Little LeagueLong Beach, California |
| Runner-up |
 Zamboanga City Little LeagueZamboanga City, Philippines |
The 1992 Little League World Series took place between August 24 and August 29 in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The team representing the Zamboanga City Little League, the Filipino representative in the Far East Region, won the International Championship while Long Beach, California, the United States West Region representative, won the U.S. Championship.
In the Championship Game, Zamboanga City defeated Long Beach 15-4 to become the first Asian team outside of Taiwan, South Korea, or Japan to be champion. However, upon further review it was discovered that the Filipino team violated age and residency rules and Little League stripped them of their title. Long Beach was awarded a 6-0 victory by forfeit as per Little League rules and became only the fourth American team in twenty years to be Little League World Champions.
The Championship Game did not feature a team from Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) for the first time since 1985. This tied the record of six consecutive finals set by Taiwan from 1977-1982. As of 2015 this record has not been seriously approached by one Country/State.
Between 1967, when Japan's West Tokyo won, and 1992, the Little League World Series was won 19 of a possible 25 times by the Far East champion. Competing against the national champions of traditionally stronger baseball nations like Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, Filipino teams had been unable to qualify for the LLWS. In 1992, however, the Far East was represented by Zamboanga City, which had won the national Filipino title.
The 1992 tournament debuted the round-robin format; no longer would a team play against a predetermined opponent in the first round, with the winners facing each other in the semifinal, with the winner advancing to the Saturday championship.
The new format had each team play the other three teams in their bracket, and then having the top two teams play each other in the semifinal, with the winners advancing to the championship.
Zamboanga City defeated Kaiserslauten, Germany, then Valleyfield, Quebec, then lost to Epyguerrerro, Dominican Republic, in the 3 preliminary games. This was enough to get them into the international final, a rematch with Epyguerrerro, which they won, 5-1. The world series championship game, on August 29, against Long Beach, California, was a blowout, with Zamboanga City winning 15-4 after a 7 run first inning. The team was hailed as heroes in the Philippines, President Ramos giving the team a gift of 1 million pesos to contribute to the livelihood of their families. Long Beach head coach Jeff Burroughs remarked that semi-final pitcher Roberto Placious had the poise of a high school or college pitcher.
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