BANGOR – The teams are arriving from around the globe, all with dreams of winning a world championship.

That’s the grand prize of the 2008 Senior League World Series, which begins with opening ceremonies at Mansfield Stadium on Saturday evening.

Five days of pool play featuring six U.S. champions and four international teams commence at noon Sunday when host Bangor, the Maine District 3 champion, faces Canada.

The top two teams from each of two five-team pools advance to Friday’s semifinals. The world championship game, to be televised live by ESPNU, is scheduled for 3 p.m. on Aug. 16.

This marks the seventh year the annual tournament for Little League teams of 14- through 16-year-old players has been held in Bangor, but it won’t be quite the same for local organizers.

“It is a year of transition for us, because we miss Danny Clifford tremendously,” said tournament director Mike Brooker. “Luckily, we have a lot of people who are stepping up and filling in other areas, and I couldn’t be more appreciative of the volunteers we have. If we didn’t have them, we wouldn’t be able to do this tournament.”

Clifford, Brooker’s assistant tournament director for the last six years, died unexpectedly last fall.

“Danny was your prototypical jack-of-all-trades,” said Brooker. “Whatever needed doing, Danny did it gladly and never complained.

“And he was a pretty handy individual. If you needed a phone line or a cable line strung, he knew how to do that. If there was something wrong with a soda machine or another plumbing issue, he knew how to do that.

“He was just always so willing to help out, and the best thing about Danny was how much he cared about the kids. He was here because of the kids.”

Kids from Curacao, Lithuania, the Philippines, Canada and the U.S. East, South, Central, Southwest and West will join Bangor in the weeklong event.

Six teams – Bangor; Willemstad, Curacao (Latin America); Boynton Beach, Fla. (U.S. South); Pearl City, Hawaii (U.S. West); Makati City, Philippines (Asia-Pacific); and Vilnius, Lithuania (Europe-Middle East-Africa) – have played here before, and Whalley Little League of Surrey, British Columbia, was hoping for a return trip if it could win the Canadian title Friday evening.

They’ll be joined by first-time Bangor visitors New Philadelphia, Ohio (U.S. Central), Upper Deerfield, N.J. (U.S. East), and Bryan, Texas (U.S. Southwest), in this year’s field.

Pearl City, Hawaii, and Curacao may be two of the pre-tournament favorites. Pearl City won the Junior League World Series (ages 13-14) last summer after reaching the U.S. final of that event the previous three years. In addition, the Hawaiian champs reached the Senior League World Series final in both 2005 and 2006.

Curacao, the first SLWS champion to be crowned in Bangor in 2002, has sent teams to the Little League World Series at Williamsport, Pa., for seven straight years, meaning the Latin American squad also brings plenty of big-game experience to Mansfield Stadium.

“You’re going to see some pretty good teams here,” said Brooker.

Curacao was the first of the visiting teams to arrive in Bangor early Friday morning, with the U.S. Central, Southwest and West champs and the Lithuanian contingent arriving Friday afternoon and the Philippines squad scheduled to reach Bangor on Friday night.

The U.S. South and East champs are slated to fly into Bangor on Saturday, with the Canadian champions to bus directly from that national tournament venue in Oakville, Ontario, to Bangor, with arrival expected midday Saturday.

Four games will be played daily from Sunday through Thursday on the plush Mansfield Stadium field, which looked green and ready for action despite considerable rain in the area during the last two weeks.

“We put some iron on the field two days ago and turned on the sprinkler, and people probably thought we were crazy,” said field director Ron St. Pierre, who also is the manager of the Bangor team. “But the iron helps the field stay green, and it needs to be watered.”

Late this week logos were being painted in foul territory around the infield, and one of the final touches planned was the installation of a new weathervane atop the stadium.

Opening ceremonies, which are free to the public, kick off at 6 p.m. Saturday with a vintage baseball team from Augusta squaring off against a team of local media representatives and public officials.

The Bangor Band will perform after the game, before winners of Maine District 3 Little League’s divisions will be honored and a special moment of remembrance will be held for Clifford.

The parade of champions follows with the 10 participating teams marching onto the field to their national anthems as played by the Bangor Band.

The opening ceremonies will be capped off with a fireworks display beyond the outfield fence.

eclark@bangordailynews.net

990-8045