Asia-Pacific, U.S. West draw first-round byes
Bracket A features all four international regions
For the first time in Bangor Senior League Baseball World Series history, all four international teams have been lumped together. This after a blind draw conducted Monday afternoon at Shawn T. Mansfield Stadium to determine bracket assignments and initial pairings.
Bracket A will feature Asia-Pacific, Europe-Africa, Latin America, and Canada, with U.S. Central joining the mix. Bracket B will feature U.S. Southeast, U.S. East, Maine District 3, U.S. Southwest, and U.S. West.
Asia-Pacific and U.S. West drew this year’s first-round byes.
The draw began to raise some brows of the news media after Bracket A slowly began to fill with regions with perennial losing records in World Series play in the last 14 years. Last year saw Bracket B filled with all four regions sporting historical losing records, plus Maine District 3, which also had a losing record.
The odds of that happening were 125-to-1. Put another way, that grouping of teams should occur only once every 125 years.
Last year’s draw featured baseballs wrapped in tissue paper placed in a raffle drum. On Monday, baseballs were put in a ball bucket that was turned end over end and shaken.
“We were told by a statistics professor that rolling the balls in a drum didn’t really mix them up well enough,” tournament director Mike Brooker said. “All that did was roll them around in a drum.”
Before the draw began, Brooker removed U.S. Southeast and Maine District 3 from the bucket because they received last year’s first-round byes. Asia-Pacific drew the bye for Bracket A. U.S. West then drew the bye for Bracket B.
Although all four international teams are in Bracket A, that won’t necessarily mean the championship game will feature a U.S. team against an international team. That’s because Games 9 and 10 will feature a team from each major bracket crossing over. The loser of Game 6, in Bracket A, will move to Bracket B and play the winner of Game 7. The loser of Game 5, in Bracket A, will move to Bracket B and play the winner of Game 8. Two more crossovers will occur, in Games 15 and 16.
Brooker said the World Series made the change because of concerns that teams didn’t play a variety of opponents in last year’s series, the first to feature the modified double-elimination format.
“Old Town only had opportunities to play Central and Asia-Pacific,” he said. “By having a crossover game, we hope that each team will have the opportunity to play at least three or four different opponents.”
The cross-over games will also allow for a better chance that the two best teams in a series will meet in the championship game instead of in the semifinals.
The series will begin on Saturday, July 30 with opening ceremonies. Games will begin at 11 a.m. on Sunday, July 31, with the opener featuring Europe-Africa and U.S. Central. The second game of the day will feature U.S. Southeast and U.S. East at 2 p.m. Maine District 3 will play U.S. Southwest at 5 p.m. Latin America and Canada will play in the nightcap.
After getting opening day off via its bye, Asia-Pacific will begin World Series play at 10 a.m., Monday, Aug. 1 against the winner of Europe-Africa and U.S. Central. U.S. West will begin its World Series play at 1 p.m. that day against the winner of U.S. Southeast and U.S. East.
The semifinals will be on Aug. 4, with the championship game set for 2:07 p.m. on Aug. 6. Aug. 5 will be a rain date. If no games need to be made up that day, an all-star game between the two major brackets will be played.