The Senior League World Series again provided an exceptional quality of baseball on one of the finest playing facilities in the Northeast: Mansfield Stadium.

On one hand, it is one of Bangor’s proudest moments.

You’ve got some of the best baseball players in their age group (14-16) in the world converging on Bangor, including impressive Curacao shortstop Jonathan Schoop, who is reportedly going to sign with Baltimore.

However, it is also irritating to see empty stands.

My first inclination was to propose ways to improve the attendance.

I was going to suggest that they make it more of an event than a baseball tournament.

Bring on the promotions: free giveaways, on-field contests between innings, live bands playing between games.

Or how about lowering the ticket prices?

But I realized I was unfairly comparing the Senior League World Series to the College World Series in Omaha, Neb.

We have shown that we don’t have the population base or interest to support a minor league team. The basketball Windjammers and Lumberjacks and the baseball Lumberjacks and Blue Ox came and went. And they had plenty of promotions.

Omaha has embraced the College World Series. The stands are filled or nearly filled for virtually every game.

But Omaha has 433,000 people. Bangor has 32,000.

And Omaha has had a Triple-A team for a long time. The Omaha Royals play in the Pacific Coast League.

If you remember the glory days of the University of Maine baseball program, when it went to the CWS five times in the 1980s, Mahaney Diamond used to be packed (4,000-plus) for Maine’s NCAA Northeast Regional games.

But if you had Mississippi State playing Clemson, there would be 300 in the stands.

The bottom line is the players, coaches and fans will always remember the hospitality of the people in Maine, the great facility and the dedication of the grounds crew which diligently prepared the field even in the most challenging of weather conditions.

Mainers, after suffering through a long winter and short spring, are simply reluctant to surrender precious summer days to watch baseball.

That’s understandable.

As long as the local tournament committee can pay the bills, it will remain a fixture in Bangor and provide a summer highlight.

And that’s fine with me.

Lack of discipline is costly

Coaches, don’t forget to instill discipline.

If you’ve been watching the Olympics, the U.S. men’s soccer team played much better than anticipated.

But a lack of discipline prevented the underdog Americans from advancing to the second round.

A foul in stoppage time resulted in a game-tying free kick by The Netherlands’ Gerald Sibon in their second game. The Americans would have advanced with a win.

Then, in their third and final game in round-robin play against Nigeria, the U.S. was without vital midfielders Freddy Adu and Michael Bradley because they had each earned yellow cards in their first two games.

And then defender Michael Orozco received a red card for elbowing a Nigerian in the third minute.

The U.S., with 10 men, lost to gold-medal finalist Nigeria 2-1.

Players need to realize that their actions impact their teammates, not just them.

lmahoney@bangordailynews.net

990-8231