While still revamping their broadcast radio network – one of the largest in minor league baseball the last few years – the Portland Sea Dogs have expanded their broadcast team.

Todd Jamison will be back for his fifth season of Sea Dogs play-by-play, but for the first time he will have a full-time broadcast partner. Ashland, Mass., native and veteran minor league announcer Mike Antonellis has been hired to team up with Jamison for the entire 2005 season.

“I’m looking forward to it,” Jamison said. “I think it adds a lot to have two guys who love baseball but have a lot of experience and knowledge in it.

“This gives me a chance to build a friendship on the air, and I think it will become one of the best minor league broadcasting duos in the country.”

The pair will share play-by-play and color broadcast duties for all 142 regular-season games and any postseason games.

This will be Antonellis’ ninth minor league broadcasting season. He spent last season doing play-by-play for the Erie SeaWolves, a fellow Eastern League team. Before that, he spent two seasons with Kane County of the Midwest League. He started his career with the Prince William Cannons and spent four years with them before moving to Syracuse (International League) and the Utica Blue Sox.

“I’ve known Mike for a few years,” Jamison said. “He started in Prince William when I started with Portland in 1997 and we’ve stayed in fairly regular contact ever since. He’s excited because he gets to come home and I’m excited to do games with a guy I know well.”

Antonellis begins his seasonal (part-time) position with Portland March 16. He will also work in the team’s ticket office.

The Sea Dogs’ radio network consists of seven stations, but Jamison, who also serves as Portland’s marketing and radio affiliation director, is looking to add more.

“As far as the number of stations, we were first in Double-A and second in all of minor league baseball,” Jamison said. “Right now we’re in discussions with a few others and we’d like to get up to double digits by the season’s start.”

Jamison, who hails from Newburyport, Mass., had an eventful offseason. He married Jenny Whetstone of Westbrook on Oct. 30, what could have been the same date as Game 6 of the World Series.

“Yeah, it’s funny,” he said. “When we were trying to pick a date, she said ‘How about Oct. 30?’ and I said, ‘You know that’s the last week of the Series?’ and she said, ‘Well, the Red Sox are never going to be in the World Series. We know that.'”

Leafs turn to plan B

Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment, a division of the Toronto Maple Leafs NHL team, has gone to plan B in the wake of the final death knell for the NHL’s 2004-05 season last week.

Leafs TV has arranged to broadcast two late regular-season and four postseason Hockey East games. Leafs TV has partnered up with New England Sports Network, which is televising Hockey East games in the New England market.

The first broadcast was last Friday’s New Hampshire-Boston College game and the second is tonight’s game at Chestnut Hill, Mass., between Maine and BC. The 7 p.m. game will air live on NESN and on a tape-delayed basis on Leafs TV at 11 p.m. Tonight’s game is the first of four (the others are both Hockey East tournament semifinals and the championship games) tape-delayed broadcasts on Leafs TV. The other live broadcast will be a “wild card” or game to be picked from the Hockey East quarterfinals played March 10-13.

Leafs TV was launched in September 2001 and is available through most TV service providers in the Toronto market and Maple Leafs broadcast region. The inclusion of Hockey East games on Leafs TV gives the 23-year-old, nine-team conference increased international and regional exposure.

Bowdoin sports on the Web

Bowdoin College sports fans and alumni will be able to listen to the women’s hockey and basketball games on the Internet this weekend. Both of Saturday’s NESCAC Tournament semifinal games (Bowdoin-Hamilton at 1 p.m. and Williams-Middlebury at 4 p.m.) and Sunday’s championship (1 p.m.) will be broadcast free of charge by Teamline Broadcasting Service. Saturday’s 6 p.m. NCAA women’s basketball tournament game between Bowdoin and Alvernia will also be carried live. For complete details, go to the following link: www.bowdoin.edu/athletics/teamline.shtml

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