The start of the season is still 61 days away, but to Bangor Lumberjacks team officials, it seems more like 61 minutes.

“We’ve still got a lot to do with not a lot of time to do it,” said Lumberjacks general manager Curt Jacey.

Don’t be fooled. Jacey gets paid to worry, although he does make a good point. There is a lot to do, but Bangor’s new independent minor league baseball team and the newest member of the eight-year-old Northeast League hasn’t exactly been whiling away the hours on the bench since announcing it would begin play two months ago.

The Lumberjacks have certainly been busy on the personnel front. Jacey and manager Kash Beauchamp have already signed nine players for the 2003 season – including the latest, Maine native and Lisbon High School star Jeremy Shorey – and hold the rights to another 15 “holdovers” from last season’s Adirondack roster.

Team owner Charles “Chip” Hutchins of Bangor bought the Adirondack Lumberjacks from Curt Jacey’s father and moved it to Bangor, intending to play home games at Husson College’s John Winkin Baseball Complex, but ongoing field renovations will force Bangor to play at the University of Maine’s Mahaney Diamond this summer while waiting for the field to be refurbished.

The 6-foot-4, 210-pound Shorey, 22, was signed to a contract Friday. The right-handed pitcher and first Mainer brought into the Lumberjacks’ fold is a former 21st-round draft pick of the Milwaukee Brewers (621st overall pick) in 2000. Shorey took the 2002 season off after going 3-2 with a 5.03 ERA and 30 strikeouts in 40 1/3 innings for the Ogden Raptors.

“He’s got pro experience and when he came in, he’s a good-looking athlete with a great body, big and strong,” said Beauchamp. “And being from Maine, with his experience, he’ll be a good addition.”

Transportation (Cyr Bus Lines) has been lined up, uniforms are ordered, and official caps will be on the team’s store shelves in a week, but there’s plenty of other things to do.

In addition to player procurement for the 22-man roster, Lumberjacks officials are busy with other priorities such as ticket sales, soliciting corporate sponsorship, lining up summer employees, and making improvements to Mahaney Diamond like replacing the netting, setting up concession facilities, installing temporary box seating, and replacing the sound system.

“Season ticket sales and corporate sponsorships – revenue generation – are our main focus right now, ” Jacey said. “My goal for season ticket sales is 500 and I’m probably sitting at 125 right now. Once April and May come, that number should hop up a lot. Corporate sponsorship is going very well. We’ll have that fence full of signs. My goal is to get into a second deck if we can.”

Another field improvement Jacey plans is lining the chain link fence with wood and installing vinyl ad signs on top.

Jacey and other team officials have attended Rotary luncheons, civic meetings, and other public functions for the last two months to meet local citizens, publicize the team, and line up support.

“The response we’ve gotten has been very positive,” Jacey said. “We’ve heard some complaints about not being in Bangor the first year and that it’s not going to work, but I say ‘Hey, just give me one shot to get you up there and see if I can entertain you. Then make your decision.’ I feed off negativity like that when I hear it so that doesn’t bother me.”

Another task for the Bangor front office is finding housing for the players this summer.

“That’s always a difficult thing. A lot of teams have success with host families, but we haven’t had a good response to that yet,” Jacey said.

Training camp opens April 9 and the season starts May 22.