Sign of spring: Red Sox on TV

Sure, it’s tournament week – one of the early signs heralding the end of winter and the approach of spring – but you need something else to make up for the cold weather and the daily sights of snowbanks, still-slushy streets, and icicles hanging from every roof.

How about baseball? Namely Boston Red Sox baseball and specifically Red Sox spring training games live from Florida.

New England Sports Network begins its 22nd season of Red Sox Grapefruit League coverage on Thursday, March 3 at 7 p.m., when Boston takes on the Minnesota Twins in Fort Myers, Fla.

NESN will air 16 live spring training game broadcasts in March and will start regular season coverage with Boston’s season-opener at New York.

This year, three spring training telecasts will be aired in high-definition (HD). The first of these broadcasts will be Boston’s “home” game against the New York Yankees on Monday, March 7 at 7 p.m.

As he has for the last 17 seasons, former Red Sox second baseman Jerry Remy will provide color analysis on Red Sox telecasts. Don Orsillo returns for his fifth season as NESN’s play-by-play voice for the defending World Series champions (a phrase that’s still not sounding old or getting overused).

Former Red Sox players Jim Rice, Dennis Eckersley and Sam Horn will also return as guest studio analysts with regular host and former Portland Pirates radio voice Tom Caron. Also, former WVII (Channel 7, Bangor) sports director Eric Frede will be back as Red Sox field reporter and host of “Red Sox Rewind.”

NESN will also continue to provide closed-captioning for all its Red Sox broadcasts.

Bangor all-sports radio station WZON (620 AM) will also be airing selected Red Sox spring training games.

Posting up Polar Bears on the Net

The Bowdoin College women’s basketball and men’s ice hockey teams will be live on the Internet this weekend, thanks to Bowdoin’s Free Teamline service.

Bowdoin’s NESCAC semifinal game at Amherst College will be broadcast live at 2 p.m. via the Bowdoin athletics department Web site (www.bowdoin.edu/athletics/teamline.shtml). If Bowdoin advances into the championship game, that will be streamed live on a different site (d3hoops.com) at 1 p.m. Sunday.

The men’s hockey team’s home game against Amherst in the NESCAC quarterfinals Saturday at 4 p.m. will also be streamed live on the Bowdoin Teamline service.

Andrew Neff can be reached at 990-8205, 1-800-310-8600 or at aneff@bangordailynews.net.