Three days after the Sea Dogs’ season ended with a 4-0 loss in the Eastern League Northern Division playoffs, first-year Portland manager Arnie Beyeler was home, re-acclimating himself to Florida weather.

“I just flew out of Portland this morning,” said the 43-year-old Utah native who now calls Ponte Vedra Beach his home. “A thunderstorm just blew through and now it’s muggy and 90 degrees.”

It wasn’t anything like that when Beyeler arrived in Maine to start Portland’s 14th season five months ago.

“Yeah, opening day with snowmen on the field was kind of fun. You don’t see that too often,” he said with a chuckle.

Beyeler’s seventh season as a minor league manager began with weather problems and ended the same way as snow forced several postponements in the first month and rain caused many in August, forcing the team to play a lot of games in a short amount of time.

“We got a lot of games backed up and didn’t have a lot of time off, which affects your pitching and your rest,” he said. “Even though we lost about 20 of our last 30 games down the stretch, we still made the playoffs.”

The 2006 EL champion Sea Dogs were eliminated by Trenton in the league semifinals last weekend, but the fact they even made the playoffs despite a 71-72 record is something Beyeler takes pride in.

“We were very inexperienced and wound up with only three or four guys who were on that championship team last year at the end of the season,” Beyeler said. “And I don’t think we played very good defense, for the most part, and it ended up costing us late. We were giving people extra outs and that’s what hurt us in the playoffs.”

There were plenty of bright spots to consider as well.

“I would have never guessed we’d lead the league in runs scored, and we also led the league in walks,” he said. “So from an offensive standpoint, that’s why we were even in games and had a chance.”

Well, that and contributions from players who have gone on to become nearly household names in New England such as Jacoby Ellsbury, Clay Buchholz, and Jon Lester, plus others not so well known outside the Eastern League such as Jed Lowrie, Dusty Brown, Brian Pritz, Jeff Natale and Charlie Zink.

“Pritz started the season as an extra outfielder and ended up leading us in hitting,” Beyeler said. “Jose Vaquedano [2-1, 3.96 ERA] had to change his arm slot [delivery] to become a sidearmer, worked his way back and had some success, and Michael Bowden [8-6, 4.28 ERA] survived a full season of Double A at age 20.”

Beyeler said he’s proud of the way guys such as Buchholz, Ellsbury and Lester not only advanced but made big contributions as they did so. As far as favorite moments, he has a couple in mind.

“The Roger Clemens deal down in Trenton was kind of exciting, getting to see him pitch,” he said. “And to win the [Futures] game in Fenway Park while coaching in front of 35,000 people at a historic park was a big thing for me, too.”

As far as his future’s concerned, Beyeler would be happy to return to Portland.

“I really enjoyed the fans up there. It’s great to see people coming out even if the weather’s bad, and it’s impressive to see people with Red Sox gear on every place we went,” he said. “It’s pretty neat. I saw that when I was with the Yankees, but not as intense.

“I heard it was a good situation and you got treated well there, and it was even more than what it was built up to be. I don’t really want to be anywhere else.”

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