BANGOR – Curt Smith, 19, first came to the Queen City as a 15-year-old to prove to the world that his Curacao Senior Little League team was the best in the world.

And they were in 2002.

The next year his Curacao team was back in Bangor for the 2003 Senior League World Series, but fell to Hawaii in the semifinal. That didn’t stop then University of Maine head baseball coach Paul Kostacopoulos from noticing Smith and inviting him to return to Vacationland yet again.

“One random day, he gave me a call [in Willemstad, Curacao] and asked me if I wanted to play baseball and get a degree,” Smith said Saturday just before throwing out the first pitch during opening ceremonies for the 2006 Senior League World Series at Mansfield Stadium.

After consulting with his mom, Smith decided to accept the full scholarship to the university and now is a star player for the Black Bears, wearing the No. 9 uniform. He starts his junior year at the university next month and is studying business administration.

“I would never have imagined after two years [that] I’d be throwing out the first pitch” at the Senior League World Series championships, Smith said. “It’s very exciting.”

One thing Smith said he might never get used to is Maine’s ever changing weather.

Curacao is a tropical island located just north of Venezuela, about 12 degrees north of the equator, where it’s “always summer,” a harsh contrast to Saturday night’s chilly 50-degree weather in Bangor, Smith said.

“It’s freezing cold,” he said wearing shorts, low-top sneakers and a fleece UM sweat shirt.

Smith was not the only person who noticed the weather. While players from all over the globe marched onto the field during a parade of teams, their goose bumps could be seen from the stands.

To keep warm some players jumped up and down or rubbed their arms with their hands. A few members of the team from the Philippines, who are used to significantly warmer weather, wrapped themselves in their flag to keep warm, while other teams such as the one from Venezuela prepared by wearing yellow sweat pants over their uniforms.

Local people, many wearing summer attire and sweat shirts, didn’t seem to notice the cold and were enjoying the excitement of the evening and the hot dogs, pizza and cold soda from the concessions stand.

Still, it was so cold Saturday that one spectator jokingly asked if it was going to snow.

The parking lot was full during the opening ceremonies, and overflow parking spanned the grassy area between Mansfield and the Beth Pancoe pool off Union Street.

Gov. John Baldacci, who proclaimed Aug. 12-19 Senior Little League World Series Week; popular author and local resident Stephen King, who helped fund construction of Mansfield Stadium; City Councilor Jerry Palmer and other dignitaries spoke during the opening ceremonies.

“There are some people who joke around and call this the field of screams,” King said, making reference to his many horror novels. The only screams heard nowadays are from the losing teams, he joked.

After telling the story behind the stadium’s creation, touching on the horrendous field the senior league teams once played on, King added: “This is a beautiful place to play ball. It really is a field of dreams.”

Smith, normally an infielder, threw the first honorary pitch way outside. After giving that ball to King, Smith was allowed to throw a second – a strike – which then was given to Baldacci.

People traveled from all over the state Sunday to see the first games of the series, including a group of Filipinos from Harmony who met up with others from Winterport and Ellsworth to watch the Makati City, Philippines, team take on Pearl City, Hawaii.

“I want to play for the Filipino baseball team,” Ryan Rebar, 11, of Harmony said Sunday.

Rebar, who is half-Filipino, has played for the Harmony Little League team for the past two years.

“I just want to see the team, I guess, and see how they play,” he said.

Spectators will have plenty of games to see in the 2006 Senior League World Series, with four daily games being played through Thursday and the top two teams in each pool advancing to Friday’s semifinals. The championship game is set for 2:30 p.m. Saturday with the annual all-star game beginning at 11:30 p.m. that day.