West has beneficial oversleep Weary California team avoids Bar Harbor trip to rest up

BANGOR – All six of the Senior League teams playing in the World Series here gets a day off from pool play. World Series organizers offer each of those squads a bus trip to Bar Harbor, where the players can explore the Maine coast.

U.S. West representative El Rio Little League of Oxnard, Calif., didn’t go to Bar Harbor Tuesday, which was the team’s designated day off.

The California kids overslept but it turned out to be beneficial.

“We’re very tired,” said Ryan Hotchkiss, who went 3-for-5 with a triple, a double, two runs scored and four RBIs in a 10-7 win Wednesday over Canada entry Whalley Little League of Surrey, British Columbia.

“We got up at like one in the afternoon,” Hotchkiss added. “They called us but we didn’t want to get up. We were too tired. We haven’t had a lot of rest.”

Instead of the Bar Harbor trip, the Californians spent part of the day relaxing at the Holiday Inn on Odlin Road in Bangor, where the teams are staying. They watched some of the Tuesday night game but left at about 9:30 and were in bed by 11.

“That was kind of early for us,” Hotchkiss said with a smile. “We’ve been going to sleep kind of late. We just wanted to be ready for this game because we knew it was going to be big. And we did well. We scored today.”

Charleston man loves baseball

He is a fixture at the Senior League World Series.

If there’s a baseball game to be found, Charleston’s Dick McQuesten will locate it.

In the past two weeks, in addition to the Senior League World Series, he has also attended the American Legion Northeast Regionals in Middletown, Conn. where Mike D’Andrea’s Nova Seafood team from Portland triumphed and earned a berth in the AL World Series in Oregon.

“I love the game,” said McQuesten who figures he sees well over 100 games a year between high school, America Legion, college and the Senior League World Series.

“I may be driving down the road some day and see a Little League game and I’ll swing in and watch the ballgame,” chuckled McQuesten.

He said his love affair with the game began at an early age.

“I grew up in a foster home and this game was my family,” said McQuesten. “I was an all-star at 13 years old and nobody came to see me play. Charles Nute was my coach and he picked me up at home and took me to the all-star game or I never would have gotten there. When I was on a baseball field, I felt special.”

He has been married to his wife Christy for 33 years and he jokes “the closest we’ve ever come to divorce was over this game right here.”

He follows the Nova Seafood team after developing fondness for them several years ago.

“Eight or 10 years ago, I saw them play in a tournament here [Mansfield Stadium]. The second baseman took a bad hop in the mouth. He spit his teeth out on the ground. He came back from the hospital, I believe in the sixth inning, and came back in the ballgame. And I just fell in love with them. They’re hard-nosed, they compete, they play the game and that’s all you look for,” explained McQuesten.

The 54-year-old McQuesten loves Mansfield Stadium and has high praise for author Stephen King, who built the field and the new public swimming pool beyond the left field fence.

“You look at this ballpark and say how beautiful it is and the swimming pool and what Stephen King has done. But a lot of people don’t realize what he’s done in the community that you don’t hear about. He’s a great man and given so much back to the community. Everybody should thank him,” said McQuesten, a retiree who used to do biological research on bluefin tuna.

He is originally from Milford, Mass. but he moved to Maine when he was five years old, “ran away from home when I was 15 and came back to the area 20 years ago.”

He thoroughly enjoys the Senior League World Series.

“This is a great atmosphere. You get a chance to see some really good ballplayers in these tournaments,” said McQuesten. “I made friends with a kid from the Brenham, Tex. team last year, Wiley Crowson. A nice kid. I kept in contact with him. He sent me some literature and stuff. His uncle, David Crowson, played for the New York Mets and now he’s a scout for the Mets. So you meet a lot of nice people.”