Series Notebook

BANGOR – As Mike Brooker awoke at 4:30 a.m. Tuesday only to hear heavy rainfall outside, it was not a pleasant, soothing sound, but the annoying sound of a schedule being jeopardized.

When the Senior League Baseball World Series tournament director arrived at Mansfield Stadium a couple of hours later, the rain had abated, but a glimpse at the weather radar map showed a big green blob stretching from Augusta west to New Hampshire – and seemingly headed northeast.

Directly toward Mansfield, perhaps.

“I did have some concerns about the storm coming from the south,” Brooker admitted.

Despite that threat, the stadium grounds crew led by Ron St. Pierre and Jimmy Owens began preparing the field about 7:30, removing water from the top of the infield tarpaulin with brooms and sump pumps in an effort to make it lighter and easier to roll up, assuming the rain did not return.

“It takes 20 people to pull the tarp off, and once we decided to pull it off around 10 o’clock we had our staff and volunteers there, and we also grabbed a few fans who were already here and willing to help. Eugene Offerman, who played for the Curacao team last year and will be living in the area this fall, helped out. Even a couple of broadcasters from Curacao were out there helping to pull the tarp.

“When that tarp’s heavy it’s much easier to pull it with 25 people than with 10 or 12.”

The excess water from the tarp was dumped in shallow center field, and within an hour even that area was dry because of the underground drainage system in place in the outfield.

By 11:30, the field was ready for the opening pitch of the game between Willemstad, Curacao, and Urbandale, Iowa.

“You can’t control the weather, unfortunately,” Brooker said, “but we do the best we can.”

Home sweet Home

Home must seem like a distant memory for many of the players and coaches competing in this week’s Senior League World Series.

Two of the most road-weary teams involved in this 10-team tourney hooked up in a Tuesday afternoon contest between the Canadian and European champions.

The all-star team members from Calgary, Alberta haven’t slept in their own beds in more than three weeks, but that’s nothing compared to their opponents, who journeyed all the way from Moscow, Russia. They haven’t been home in a month.

“We have been in Germany on a bus for 10 days and coming here took 15 hours,” said team manager Mikhail Fornev. “We need visas to come here and when we come here, it’s eight hours’ time difference.”

The jet lag seemed to bother the Russians in the first game Sunday as they were no-hit and shut out, but they came back strong with a day off and two days stateside as they beat Canada 4-1 Tuesday and outhit them 9-3.

“We’ve been away for 21, 22 games [Wednesday],” said Calgary coach Al Price. “It’s a long haul, but there’s no reason not to have high energy for the games, especially coming off the big win last [Monday] night.”

“Maybe they had their bad day today like we had the other day,” said Fornev, who added that it costs an average of $800 per team member to come to Bangor and play.

He said the travel cost kept some of Moscow’s best players from making the trip.

Banged-up backstop

Moscow backup catcher Alex Belyev, who almost didn’t get the required time in Tuesday’s win against Canada, might wish he didn’t after the way the game ended.

Belyev blocked the plate and handled a good throw home by first baseman Artem Chtcherbakov with two outs in the bottom of the seventh and the bases loaded with a Canadian runner sprinting down the line and attempting to score.

Belyev held his ground, handled the throw, made the tag, and held onto the ball despite a rough collision that caused him a knee injury.

After trainers looked at his knee, he had it on ice and was advised to keep icing it overnight, and see a doctor in the morning if the swelling on the knee became worse.

Guam, N.J. to play Thursday

The Pool B contest between Asia-Pacific champion Guam and U.S. East champion South Vineland, N.J., originally scheduled for Monday evening but postponed until Tuesday morning, now will be played at 9 a.m. Thursday to kick off a five-game final day of pool play.

“Because of the rain overnight, I made the determination when I got here [Tuesday morning] that I didn’t think we’d be able to play at 9 o’clock,” said Brooker.

The decision to postpone the game Tuesday also was based on giving World Series participants the best chance to enjoy all elements of their visit to Maine.

“Because it was Asia-Pacific’s [Guam] scheduled day off, I didn’t want to hold them up because it was their day to go on a bus trip [to Mount Desert Island], and I wanted them to be able to go on that trip,” he said.

The game was shifted to Thursday morning instead of Wednesday because of anticipated good weather that day, as well as because Wednesday is South Vineland’s scheduled day to visit MDI.

“When we play the game on Thursday morning, both teams will be on equal footing,” Brooker said. “Both teams will have a doubleheader that day, and the weather forecast is much better.”

Guam will play South Vineland at 9 a.m. and then face U.S. Central champion Urbandale, Iowa, at 2 p.m. After playing Guam on Thursday morning, South Vineland will play its final Pool B game against Latin America champion Willemstad, Curacao at 8 p.m. Thursday.

“The coaches are very good, they understand the problems,” Brooker said. “The New Jersey coach said they haven’t played in a tournament yet that hasn’t been affected by rain. In fact, their championship game was spread out over two days because of the rain.

“And Guam’s a Pacific island, so they’re used to having to deal with rain all the time, too.”