Senior League Baseball is Little League’s division for players ages 13 through 16. Little League created the division in 1961 to give kids an opportunity to continue playing beyond the traditional structure of Little League, which began at age 9 and ended at age 12. Unlike Little League, Senior League featured a full-size infield, with 90 feet between the bases and 60 feet, 6 inches between the pitcher’s plate and home plate. The first Senior League Baseball World Series was held that year in Williamsport, Pa.

In 1979, 13-year-olds were given their own division, Junior League. Junior League also featured a full-size infield. By this time, the Senior League division had grown to 2,850 leagues around the world while Little League boasted 6,500 leagues.

Bangor is the seventh city to host the Senior League Baseball World Series. Little League chose Bangor in fall 2001 after Kissimmee, Fla., determined it could no longer host the event. Kissimmee had been the series’ home from 1986 through 2001. When the series moved to Bangor in 2002, the field of teams expanded from eight to 10, with the addition of a berth for the host district (Maine District 3) and a berth for the Europe-Middle East-Africa region (now known as Europe-Africa). The first Bangor World Series game featured Chet Wagner Little League, of South Bend, Ind., against South Vineland L.L., of Vineland, N.J., on Aug. 11, 2002.

World Series format
The series features two pools of five teams each, representing the champion of Maine District 3, U.S. East, U.S. Southeast, U.S. Central, U.S. Southwest, U.S. West, Canada, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and Europe-Africa. Each team plays four round robin games over the course of five days. The top two teams in each pool advance to the semifinals, in which the first place teams play the second place teams. The winners advance to the championship game. Since 2007, ESPN has broadcast the championship game live from Shawn T. Mansfield Stadium.

Tiebreakers
In case of a tie for first place, the teams’ head-to-head records are compared. The team that has the most wins against the other tied teams wins first place. The remaining teams then have their head-to-head records compared to determine second place. If head-to-head fails to break the tie, the tied teams’ ratio of runs allowed per defensive innings played are compared. The team with the lowest ratio wins the tie. A partial inning is considered a full inning for the tiebreaker. Thus, 26 1/3 innings on defense would be rounded up to 27 innings.

If the time still remains, the ratio of runs allowed per defensive innings played are compared among only the tied teams. If the tie still remains, a coin toss determines the winner.

Ties for first and second place are determined in the same manner.

Alumni
Since the first Bangor World Series game on Aug. 11, 2002, 38 of the more than 1,300 players who have come to Bangor have gone on to play professionally. Of those, seven have played in the major leagues. Among them: Jair Jurrjens, Kenley Jansen, Domonic Brown, and Ruben Tejada.