The National Baseball Congress will have its 90th World Series in Wichita, beginning Thursday.
The event will feature 16 summer collegiate and independent baseball teams from around the country, including Kansas teams that have played in the tournament in the past. The games will be played at Eck Stadium at Wichita State University.
Family members of baseball legend Satchel Paige will attend opening night events. Paige’s appearance and victory with the Bismarck Churchills in the first National Baseball Congress Semi-Pro Invitational in Wichita in 1935, more than a decade before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball, was a main catalyst for the success of the NBC World Series.
The Hutchinson Monarchs will play TPA Texas in the first game at 6 p.m. Thursday. That will be followed by a game with Tulsa Sandlot and the Seattle Cheney Studs.
The tournament will again feature Baseball Round the Clock, and fans will be able to watch 11 games over the course of 33 hours, starting at noon Saturday and running through the 6 p.m. game Sunday.
