Hadlock to feature Sox look Sea Dogs to put up a ‘Green Monster’

BANGOR – Charlie Eshbach, the president and general manager of the Double A Eastern League’s Portland Sea Dogs, had a pressing matter that prevented him from speaking at John Winkin’s sports management class at Husson College and then attending a press conference in the Hall of Fame room at the school Thursday.

That pressing matter involved a problem in the Sea Dogs’ plans to erect their own Green Monster in left field to replicate the one at Boston’s Fenway Park. After a nine-year affiliation with the Florida Marlins, the Sea Dogs have signed a two-year Player Development Contract with the Boston Red Sox.

The Red Sox’s Double A affiliate had been in Trenton, N.J.

According to media relations director Chris Cameron and play-by-play man Todd Jamison, who filled in for Eshbach, contractors discovered a gas line within 20 feet of the spot allocated for the 37-foot high wall, which will also be 315 feet from home plate like Fenway.

“But I think we found a solution,” said Eshbach via phone. “It took most of the day to get it done. They can’t do it the way they wanted to do it because it’s too close to the gas line. But it’s going to come out fine and we’re happy about that.”

The affiliation change is already paying dividends.

“If we can sell 200 new season tickets [in the offseason], it’s a good year,” explained Jamison. “We have already sold 250 within the last two weeks.”

Eshbach said, “Normally at this point [in the off-season], we’re lucky to have sold one new one.”

Hadlock Field has a capacity of 6,300 and the Sea Dogs drew 5,800 per game a year ago, fourth-best in the Eastern League and fifth highest among all 30 teams in the three Double A leagues.

“We think the excitement generated from the Red Sox affiliation will give us a big boost in attendance in April and May, when we average 4,000-4,500 per game,” said Jamison.

They would like to average 6,000-plus next season.

Jamison and Cameron said the affiliation is also advantageous when it comes to fans being able to follow the progress of Sea Dog players who climb the ladder.

The Red Sox’s Triple A affiliate is in Pawtucket, R.I. as opposed to Florida’s AAA team in Calgary (Cannons), Alberta.

And it will be easier for the Red Sox’s scouting department to monitor their progress.

The Sea Dogs are the only minor league baseball team in Maine but Winkin, the vice president of sports leadership and assistant baseball coach at Husson, is involved with a group trying to bring minor league baseball back to the area using Husson’s Alfond Diamond as the home field.

The Northeast League’s Bangor Blue Ox played in Orono in 1996 and ’97.

Eshbach, the former president of the Eastern League, was asked about the viability of minor league baseball returning to the Bangor-area.

“We consider ourselves Maine’s team, not only Portland’s team, and a lot of people come down to our games from the Bangor area,” said Eshbach. “It isn’t a huge area up there but there are a lot of baseball fans and that’s a big plus for us. The problem for them would be that they would be at the very far end of the New York-Penn. [A] League travel-wise.

“But Bangor’s a good baseball town,” added Eshbach.