BANGOR – Joe Connor pulled into Mansfield Stadium early Sunday evening ready for a break from driving, eager to watch another baseball game, this time at the Senior League World Series … and on the prowl for more vegetable oil for his bright green Mercedes Benz.

Connor has been on the road for about 51/2 months, on an odyssey that will take him from Arizona and back, all the while watching at least one baseball game a day.

Connor, a 34-year-old San Diego resident who grew up a Red Sox fan in Hartford, Conn., is a freelance sportswriter who decided to undertake the Bionic Gloves Veggie Power Ballpark Tour to call attention to the nation’s dependence on oil. Oh, and it’s also an excuse for Connor to visit as many parks as he can, watch baseball at a variety of levels, and honor his father, a baseball fan who died in 1999.

The 1984 Mercedes Benz, which is fueled by used cooking oil from restaurants, was parked in a corner of the stadium while Connor took in a game between Bloomfield, N.J., and Brussels, Belgium, with his friend Joe Pickering of Bangor.

“From a very selfish standpoint, I just wanted to do it and didn’t want to have to pay for it,” said Connor, who has traveled all over the world covering baseball. “From a very unselfish standpoint, I wanted to do something socially responsible, which was let people know, hey, there are alternatives to paying these high gas prices.”

The Mercedes gets about 25 miles per gallon on both diesel and waste oil.

Connor’s interest in international baseball made stopping at the Senior League World Series a good choice, he said, with teams from the Philippines, Belgium, Venezuela, and Canada all in Bangor this week.

Connor has seen a huge variety of baseball games since he started March 1 with a spring training game in Tucson, Ariz. In between Connor has been to major league and minor league games, the World Baseball Classic tournament and MLB All-Star Game in Pittsburgh, as well as big-time college baseball, high school, and Little League games.

Connor plans to end the trip Oct. 1 in Phoenix with a major league game between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the San Diego Padres.

Connor hasn’t kept count of all the games but by the end of the trip he’ll have seen at least 260.

“[The number] isn’t what’s important,” he said. “It’s more about the experience.”

Another part of the experience? Chasing sources of vegetable oil.

When Connor hits a town and needs fuel for the Benz, he heads to a local restaurant. He usually tries to find an Asian restaurant or sports bar and grill because those types of places usually fry in the soy or canola oil he needs. The waste of those oils are thinner than that of other oils.

After determining whether he can use the waste oil, Connor will ask the restaurant manager.

“Usually what I’ve found is the local places will give it to you,” he said. “The chain might not. They might be a publicly held company, looking over their shoulder, worried about what would happen.”

Once Connor has his oil, he filters it and runs it into one of two tanks. In a pinch, the Mercedes can also be run on diesel fuel. Connor will use diesel if he’s running late and doesn’t have time to find and filter waste vegetable oil.

That happened Sunday. He left family in Massachusetts, stopped in Portland for a Sea Dogs game, spent a few minutes at the state capital in Augusta, and then drove on to Bangor.

Connor planned to spend Monday looking for vegetable oil around town before he leaves for an Eastern League game in Norwich, Conn.

“Hopefully I’ll have time to go to one of these restaurants and get some oil,” he said. “If not, I’ll run it on diesel. … It’s been like a real-life science experiment.”

Connor said he’s had a lot of positive feedback about his cause. He’s not sure, however, if interest from the public will translate into action.

“But what is important is that people are aware that we as a country have to change our energy policy, not just for our cars but to heat our homes,” he said.

If drawing attention to our dependence on oil is the good part of traveling the country in a vegetable oil-powered Mercedes, the downsides include the effort it takes to get the oil. And, well, smelling like cooked french fries.

Connor got his trip started thanks to $25,000 from sponsors such as Louisville Slugger, Bionic Gloves and Grease Car Vegetable Fuel Systems.

He tries to stay with friends or family whenever possible. Connor was planning to bunk with Pickering Sunday night, which was the first face-to-face meeting for the two men. They’ve known each other for a few years through Pickering’s Web site, on which he sells CDs of baseball songs.

Connor, who interviewed players and coaches after Sunday’s Senior League World Series game, said he’s been approached to write a book about his journey. He was also contacted about doing a similar trip in Canada, this time traveling to hockey rinks on another type of fuel.

But first Connor has to get himself and the Mercedes back to the West Coast, with planned stops in more than 15 states en route.

“The trip has gone by so fast,” Connor said. “People say, aren’t you tired? But it’s like an adrenaline rush.”