350 new immigrants to get tickets to Sea Dogs game

PORTLAND – If baseball is indeed the national pastime, what better way to welcome new immigrants than by introducing them to the game?

That was the thinking behind a plan by the Maine Council of Churches to give immigrants 350 tickets to Wednesday night’s Portland Sea Dogs game at Hadlock Field.

The event, called In the Big Inning, is a chance for new neighbors to meet people who have lived in Maine for years, and for them to learn about baseball, said Doug Cruger, associate director and director of development for the Council of Churches.

“Somalis and Sudanese and, actually, most other folks in the world, know very little about baseball,” Cruger said Monday. “It’s as foreign to them as cricket would be to us.”

Before the game starts, there will be a quick lesson on how to play baseball. There also will be songs by the Aserela Sudanese Choir, although it’s unclear whether they’ll sing “Take Me Out To the Ballgame.”

There will be a special meal – “it’s a picnic,” Cruger said, “but it’s not your usual hot dogs and hamburgers. There’s also going to be stir-fried veggies and baked beans.”

The mayors of Portland and Lewiston will greet everyone in the audience, as will Charlie Eshbach, president and general manager of the Sea Dogs.

The outing seeks to encourage connections among people of different faiths, to build community and to raise awareness of the Council of Churches.

In a letter, Tom Ewell, the council’s executive director, and Lorraine Martin, who helped plan the event, wrote that the point is to “work in little and large ways to dissolve the boundaries between people of different backgrounds. To begin creating community across one street or across one town is how we build a whole culture of peace.”