Red Sox affiliate to play in Portland

PORTLAND – The Portland Sea Dogs on Wednesday announced a two-year affiliation agreement with the Boston Red Sox, aligning Maine’s only minor league team with the parent club that commands the loyalties of most of the state’s baseball fans.

Under the much-anticipated deal, the Red Sox will provide players and staff to the Sea Dogs. The Double-A team, which plays in the Eastern League, will keep its name but change its colors from the teal of the Florida Marlins to the red and blue of the Red Sox.

“We expect that this will be one of the more enduring relationships in all of minor league baseball,” Mike Port, Red Sox vice president and interim general manager, told reporters from the pitcher’s mound at Hadlock Field.

The team’s lighthouse then arose from behind the center field fence, emitting its beacon and sounding the foghorn that customarily celebrates Sea Dog victories and home runs.

Sea Dogs owner Dan Burke praised the affiliation with the Marlins during his team’s first nine years and predicted that the relationship with the Red Sox will likely be even better.

“We want to do our part to destroy the Curse of the Bambino,” said Burke, a summer resident of Kennebunkport.

The shift in the Red Sox Double-A affiliation from the Trenton Thunder means that three of Boston’s minor league teams are in New England. The Triple-A affiliate, the Red Sox, remains in Pawtucket, R.I., and the Class A Spinners are in Lowell, Mass.

Trenton signed a four-year agreement with the New York Yankees on Tuesday, and the Marlins and the Carolina Mudcats of the Southern League agreed to a two-year deal.

An affiliation with the Red Sox had been the dream of many Sea Dogs fans from the team’s arrival in 1994, but rumors that it might become a reality picked up steam this year after the change in Red Sox ownership.

The new ownership group includes skiing entrepreneur Les Otten of Bethel, philanthropist Harold Alfond of Belgrade and Philip Morse of Wells, all of whom were at the announcement. Former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell, also part of the Red Sox ownership, was not present.

Pointing to Double-A as a key turning point for prospects headed for the majors, Port said the affiliation will enable Red Sox fans in Maine to get an early look at the team’s future stars.

Otten noted that the Red Sox last played in Maine in October 1919 when Babe Ruth and his teammates took part in an exhibition in Sanford.

When asked about the prospects of a Sea Dogs-Red Sox exhibition in Portland, Port said that issue was “open territory” and that he would have to look at how the new collective bargaining agreement for major league players treats pre-season exhibitions.

Charlie Eshbach, Sea Dogs president and general manager, said the affilation provides “a terrific opportunity” to blend the loyalties of Sea Dogs and Red Sox fans.

He gave no specifics on how the bond might affect attendance, but indicated that tickets to games at Hadlock might be in short supply next seaon. The Sea Dogs have been averaging just under 400,000 fans a year, putting it among the leaders in attendance in the Eastern League.

Sales of 2003 season tickets began Wednesday and individual tickets go on sale Oct. 5, Eshbach said. He said the tentative date for the home opener is April 3.

Dave Clifford of Old Orchard Beach, one of a few dozen fans who sat in the stands during the announcement, was jubilant at the change in affiliation and looked forward to watching future Red Sox greats and current stars who might be sent down for rehabilitation.

“This is great. It’s awesome,” said Clifford, who catches 15 to 20 games a season at Fenway Park and as many as he can at Hadlock. “It’s going to be like a second home for Boston.”

Even before the official announcement, a hint of the change could be detected in the names that adorn the skyboxes at Hadlock. Names of baseball greats not associated primarily with the Red Sox, like Ruth and Cobb, were removed and those such as Pesky, Lynn, Petrocelli, Doerr, Evans, Boggs and Conigliaro were put in their place.

Another change came about during the ceremony: Crews returned a refurbished statue of the Sea Dogs mascot, Slugger, to its place outside the stadium, reflecting the switch in team colors.