Name a three-letter word representing “failure” in Eastern Maine sports circles. That word would be “P-R-O.”

Four professional sports teams, two basketball teams and two baseball teams, have tried to make a go of it in the Bangor area.

All of them failed.

We had Windjammers and Lumberjacks in the Continental Basketball Association and the Blue Ox and Lumberjacks – Paul Bunyan would have been proud of us – in independent league baseball.

They failed because there wasn’t the population base to guarantee attendance figures required to keep those teams afloat.

In the case of baseball, people are reluctant to give up a precious summer evening to sit in a baseball stadium for two to three hours on a regular basis. They would rather be at camp, fishing, doing yard work or attending their kids’ games.

Basketball fans would rather sit at home and watch one of several college basketball games on TV. Or the Celtics.

Scratch the Celtics.

But John Winkin, Mike Coutts, Mike Bordick and Peter Baldacci are planning to bring a New England Collegiate Baseball League team to the Winkin Baseball Complex on the Husson College campus in Bangor beginning in the summer of 2008.

And that will work.

There are currently 12 teams in all six New England states and the league is open to any full-time college player. They become eligible after their freshman seasons.

They would play a 42-game schedule, 21 home games, and there are 20-man rosters.

There are two major reasons this should work.

Winkin wants it to have a local flavor so you can expect several University of Maine and Husson College players to be on the roster along with local players who are playing college ball elsewhere (i.e. the University of Southern Maine’s Collin Henry of Penobscot).

Baseball fans in the area will be familiar with the players. Several of them will probably be from the state.

The pro teams either didn’t have local players or just one or two.

Another enticement for Maine and Husson players to stay and play would be the opportunity for them to take summer classes to perhaps ease their academic workloads during the school year.

Second, Winkin, Bordick, Coutts and Baldacci are successful overachievers with local ties who won’t allow this franchise to fail.

They will secure the $100,000-$125,000 per year it will take to operate an NECBL franchise along with the league’s annual dues of $3,000.

They are all well-connected.

Husson College baseball coach and former Maine coach Winkin has more than 1,000 career wins; Winterport’s Bordick, a former Maine All-American shortstop, signed a free agent contract and bucked tremendous odds to compile a distinguished 14-year major league career, setting two MLB fielding records; Coutts captained two Maine College World Series teams and was an assistant under Winkin at Maine for 11 years before leaving to start a very successful Frozen Ropes (indoor baseball-softball facility) franchise and Baldacci is the Penobscot County commissioner and a well-known lawyer.

Coutts, who coached in the prestigious Cape Cod and Alaska Baseball Leagues for the nation’s top college players, would coach the team.

It will be nice to have high-level baseball back.

Just don’t name them “Lumberjacks.” It’s bad luck.

Larry Mahoney can be reached at 990-8231, 1-800-310-8600 or by email at lmahoney@bangordailynews.net.