Bangor baseball opening June 1

BANGOR – The good news is spring is coming and the Northeast Baseball League’s 80-game season schedule is out. The bad news is Bangor’s independent minor league member will spend the first nine days on the road.

“We are pleased, but it’s a double-edged sword,” said Sean Bigham, Greater Bangor Baseball Inc.’s community and media relations director. “What happens if the team limps home at 1-9 …, but we are as pleased as we can be [with the schedule].”

The yet-to-be-named team will start its inaugural season in the year-old league with a four-game series beginning June 1 at Adirondack, N.Y., against the Glens Falls Lumberjacks before going to Albany, N.Y., for another four-game series.

The University of Maine’s Mahaney Diamond in Orono will be the site of the team’s first home game Monday, June 10, against the unnamed team in Warwick, R.I.

“We are going to be on the radio and it will give the people the opportunity to be familiar with the games,” said Bigham, who will be in the broadcast booth for the team’s 80 games, but did not know which station would be the team’s flagship. “I would like to see the first game of the season on TV if that can be arranged somehow, some way, but we haven’t even approached anyone on that yet.”

Weekday games will begin between 7 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., and weekend games will be afternoon affairs, Bigham said.

The list of team nicknames has been narrowed to a handful, and a winner will be chosen by Monday, Bigham said.

“We’re down to solid, short list of three or four names that we’re considering. We should have a decision by Monday, but that will be kept under wraps until the beginning of the month,” said Bigham, who declined to reveal the list of finalists.

The winner will be announced sometime after Feb. 1.

in the Bangor Daily News.