When Mike Brooker looks at Bangor from his perspective as tournament director of the Senior League Baseball World Series, he envisions an impact similar to how Little League has gripped another Northeast city.

“Williamsport, Pennsylvania, is Bangor,” said Brooker. “Williamsport is an old mill town of 30,000 people like Bangor that Carl Stoltz happened to be living in [in 1939] when he started Little League, and now they draw a half-million people there every year.

“Now we don’t live within 200 miles of that kind of population base, but there’s no reason we can’t bring 100,000 people to the area.”

The Senior League World Series hasn’t quite approached those numbers during its first two years in Bangor, but the city is in a position to remain the host for the foreseeable future, Brooker said.

“As it is, this tournament will be in this town as long as it’s economically feasible and the people in Williamsport are happy,” he said.”

The biggest challenge facing tournament organizers has been fund raising, in part because of the region’s sluggish economy and also because of competition for sponsorship dollars with such events as the National Folk Festival, which ends its three-year run in Bangor on Aug. 27-29.

The tournament finished its first year in Bangor with a surplus, Brooker said, but last year had to dip into that surplus to cover expenses.

“This year we’ll have to dip quite a bit deeper into that surplus, and by next year we’ll probably be starting from even again,” Brooker said.

“This tournament costs $115,000 to put on, and we don’t have a sugar daddy paying the bills, the money has to be raised each year. A lot of businesses are operating on a tight budget, and they don’t have the money for a sponsorship situation like this. What we try to convince them that this is not only a sponsorship, but it’s also an advertising opportunity. Our tournament program is something that goes all across the country, even across the world.”

While the financial aspect of staging the tournament has proven frustrating at times, the idea of bringing a world-level tournament to Bangor remains a labor of love for its director.

“It’s still very exciting,” Brooker said. “I’m on the Internet all the time, looking up who’s winning the regionals and where the teams are coming from.

As for staging the tournament, Brooker relies on about 100 volunteers, including a core group of 20 to 25 who will spend most or all of the week at the stadium.

“As far as putting on the tournament we’ve got a pretty good handle on it,” Brooker said. “We know what not to do and what we like to do.”

Arrival day approaches

Teams participating in the Senior League World Series soon will begin arriving in Bangor. Latin America champion Maracaibo, Venezuela, and Asia-Pacific representative Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands are scheduled to arrive around midnight tonight – the CNMI arrival capping off a 36-hour trip from its base on the island of Saipan in the North Pacific Ocean.

EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) qualifier Rotterdam, Netherlands, and U.S. West titlist Oxnard, Calif., are slated to arrive around 1 a.m. Saturday, with the remaining teams reaching Bangor later in the day in anticipation of the opening ceremonies scheduled at 11:30 a.m. Sunday at Mansfield Stadium.

All the teams will be staying at the Holiday Inn on Odlin Road in Bangor, Brooker said. Teams will eat breakfast at the motel and lunch at the ballpark, and most of the teams will eat dinner at Miller’s Restaurant on Main Street.

Each of the 10 teams will have one off-day during pool play, with two teams off each day from Sunday through Thursday. The teams are scheduled to spend their off-day visiting Bar Harbor, an activity that has become a staple of the Senior League World Series experience in Bangor.

Where in the world is CNMI?

The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, home of the Asia-Pacific qualifier to the Senior League World Series is a chain of 14 volcanic islands. Agrihan, Alamagan, Anatahan, Asuncion, Farallon De Medinilla, Farallon De Pajaros (Uracas), Guguan, Maug (three islands), Pagan, Rota, Saipan, Sarigan and Tinian stretch over 375 miles north to south with a total land area of 181 square miles, according to The World Factbook Web site.

CNMI is located in the North Pacific Ocean, about three-quarters of the way from Hawaii to the Philippines.

Saipan, Rota and Tinian are the three major inhabited islands, but most of CNMI’s estimated 78,000 residents live on Saipan. Saipan is about 12.5 miles long and 5.5 miles wide and has a total land area of 46.5 square miles, about the size of San Francisco.

English, Chamorro and Carolinian are the commonwealth’s most common languages, but 86 percent of the population speaks a language other than English home. The majority of the population is Roman Catholic.

The commonwealth is under U.S. administration as part of the U.N. Trust Territory of the Pacific. Residents of the Northern Mariana Islands decided in the 1970s not to seek independence but instead to forge closer links with the United States. Negotiations for territorial status began in 1972, and a covenant to establish a commonwealth in political union with the United States was approved in 1975. A new government and constitution went into effect in 1978.

Incidentally, CMNI qualified a team not only for the Senior League World Series, but also for this year’s Little League and Junior League World Series.

Fla., Calif. teams join field

Dade City, Fla., and Oxnard, Calif., are the latest teams to qualify for the Senior League World Series.

The Dade City Little League edged Dale City, Va., 3-2 at Toccoa, Ga., on Wednesday evening to win the U.S. South championship.

Dade City dominated the eight-team regional, finishing with a 5-0 record and outscoring its opponents by a combined 57-8. The new U.S. South champ has won 14 straight games since entering post-season play.

The El Rio Little League of Oxnard, Calif., earned its way into the World Series field Tuesday evening, defeating Pearl City, Hawaii, 7-6, to win the U.S. West championship at San Juan Capistrano, Calif.

Oxnard went 3-0 in the four-team regional, which also included teams from Roseville, Calif., and Las Vegas, Nev.

Two other American regionals – the East and Central – and the Canadian championship are scheduled to be completed Thursday.