Four years into hosting the Senior League World Series, Mike Brooker is relatively comfortable with what needs to be done get everything ready for a week of baseball featuring some of the top 15- and 16-year-old players in the world

“Things have gone fairly smoothly overall,” said the SLWS tournament director. “We have a good handle on what we want to do and how to go about doing it.”

Sure, there are the natural Murphy’s Law concerns, particularly when it comes to making sure teams from as far away as Guam and the former Russian republic of Georgia arrive on time for Saturday night’s opening ceremony and Sunday’s first day of competition. Plane flights get canceled from time to time, creating angst not only for the teams trying to make their way to Bangor, but for those awaiting their arrival.

“As far as the day before the tournament starts goes, the most important thing is to get everybody in here on time and safe,” he said.

Work has been ongoing at Mansfield Stadium, site of the tournament, for the past two weeks, as a group of stadium workers and volunteers under the guidance of field director Ron St. Pierre has painted dugouts and benches, installed new stadium railings and tended ever so carefully to the field itself. Areas worn down by nearly 170 games already played at Mansfield this year have been resodded, and dirt areas of the field have been topped by four tons of a red field conditioner known as Turface.

By the end of the week, tourney and stadium logos were being painted on the grass surface.

“The field crew has done a tremendous job,” Brooker said. “The stadium is going to look great.”

Running the 10-team tournament is not without ongoing challenges, especially those of a financial nature. While Little League corporate headquarters in Williamsport, Pa., pays some costs, particularly air travel, Brooker estimates the local cost for staging the event at $125,000.

And with heavy competition for sponsorship dollars and a regional economic climate that leaves many businesses hard-pressed to make donations, the fund-raising component of staging the tournament has grown more difficult as the novelty of the event has waned.

“The biggest challenge is to make sure we have enough money to run the tournament,” said Brooker. “It’s much harder now. We had a surplus after the first year, dipped into it two years ago and completely exhausted it last year, and now we’re starting from scratch this year.”

As a result, the early tradition of busing the teams to Mount Desert Island during their off-day from pool play has been cut, saving approximately $5,000 a year.

And organizers are hoping for good weather, because inclement conditions not only delay the tournament schedule, they also reduce gate receipts. That was the case last year, when the first day of the tourney was dampened by rain, as was the championship game a week later, which was delayed several hours.

Brooker is hopeful baseball fans from throughout Maine will attend and get a full appreciation of the quality of baseball at the Senior League World Series.

A number of players who have competed in the SLWS since it arrived in Bangor in 2002 have gone on to college careers, among them Curt Smith of Curacao, now at the University of Maine.

Another example is one of the top talents from last year’s tournament, Dominic Brown of Dade City, Fla., who is now being projected as a high draft pick in next June’s amateur draft and has been offered football scholarships from the likes of Florida State, Nebraska and South Carolina.

“I’m convinced that once we’re six, seven or eight years into having the tournament here, you’re going to see kids who played here in the major leagues,” Brooker said.

A new twist this year will showcase many of the top players, as an all-star game has been added to the schedule on the final Saturday of the tournament featuring players from the eight teams that don’t advance to the championship game.

“It was a suggestion from one of the coaches of a team that was here last year, the U.S. Central team from Chicago,” said Brooker.

Coaches not in the final will nominate players from their teams after the banquet that follows the semifinals on Friday night. “The idea is to keep the interest up among players from teams who have been eliminated, and it gives them another chance to showcase their skills on championship day,” said Brooker. “While the kids make a lot of friends from other teams during the tournament, the all-star game will give them a chance to actually play with kids from the other states and countries.”