Living la vida loca of Senior League fans

I spent a lot of time at Mansfield Stadium in Bangor two weeks ago watching some of the best 15- and 16-year-old baseball players in the world compete in the Senior League World Series.

Between innings I couldn’t help but look around in the stands and feel nostalgic for my high school days in Virginia.

The Mansfield stands teemed with teenaged girls who seemed to move in packs of at least three. How many sporting events did I attend just to make the scene? Um, sure, I went to Friday night football for the football.

(Actually, I did at first. But I got tired of being the only girl who wanted to watch the games.)

The crowds of girls at games involving the host team from Bangor didn’t surprise me. Those games drew lots of high schoolers, boys and girls, who I’m sure had it on their minds to cheer for their classmates on the baseball team as well as make the scene at what was the biggest show in town for local kids.

The scene, however, extended to some of the international teams that played in the series. The teams from Maracaibo, Venezuela and Rotterdam, the Netherlands, seemed to attract the most attention from the girls.

It’s easy to understand why the girls would be into these guys. They’re all athletic, good-looking and they’re the best in the world in their age group. Speaking as a former teenage girl, tooling around the stadium with one of those guys, even just for the week, would be cool.

So what is it about these international teams that is so attractive?

I didn’t have to ask the manager of the team from the Netherlands. Paul Roodenburg offered up his opinion, unsolicited, during a conversation after his team’s final game.

“They’re good boys,” he said. “They’re quiet and that’s why the girls like them.”

That, and their accents and tall, cool demeanor. And the Dutch guys were the best-dressed, I thought. Kind of cutting-edge Euro-chic.

Then there were the Venezuelans. I didn’t bring up the issue of girls with that team, mostly because the boys only spoke Spanish.

(Overheard at one game: “I don’t care if he can’t speak English. He’s cute!”).

Maybe the answer for the girls’ fascination lies in something the one English-speaker in the Venezuelans’ traveling party told me when I asked about the team’s high-spirited singing of its national anthem and the crowd of parents that offered up their own CD of Venezuelan music to play between innings.

“That’s our style,” said Gustavo Marcano, the son of Venezuela’s manager. “That’s how we play. We like to have fun and we like to include [the fans]. That’s how we learned how to play.”

No stoic faces on this team. The Venezuelans liked to have fun, and that kind of attitude is attractive to anyone.

Speed-dating trend builds

Another outfit has jumped on the speed-dating bandwagon in the Bangor area.

1stintroductions.com was to kick off its services Wednesday night at Barnaby’s, the restaurant-dance club at the Ramada Inn in Bangor.

The new version works the same way as 8minutedating.com and the speed-dating offered recently by Brewer radio station WBZN 107.3 FM: each person gets a certain amount of time (in the case of 1stintroduction.com it’s five minutes) to talk to the other people in the room. You make note of the people with whom you click, tell the service who you liked within 72 hours and you’re notified if you have a match.

Organizers are aiming to have 15 people per session, so that’s 15 potential dates – not too bad for two hours out of your day.

There will be an event for singles aged 35-50 on Wednesday, Sept. 8, at the Howard Johnson’s conference room in Bangor and another Wednesday, Sept. 22, at Barnaby’s for ages 25-35.

The events cost $30, which is $5 less than 8minutedating.com. Of course, you also get three minutes less of conversation. But even five minutes is more than the 107.3 seconds you get with WBZN’s version. Then again, the radio station charged $15.

For more information call (877) 945-3502 or e-mail 1stintroductions@me.acadia.net.

Jessica Bloch can be reached at 990-8193, (800) 310-8600, or jbloch@bangordailynews.net.