History
Minor league baseball officially returned to Maine on October 4, 1992, when Portland was awarded one of two Eastern League expansion franchises (the other being the New Haven Ravens) to begin play in April 1994. The Sea Dogs signed an affiliation agreement with the Florida Marlins on May 3, 1993, beginning what would become a nine-season relationship. The city renovated Hadlock Field, transforming what was once a high-school stadium into a professional ballpark.
The team won its first game, defeating the Reading Phillies on the road 2–1, with the help of a 14th-inning home run by future major league catcher Charles Johnson. The team opened Hadlock Field on April 18, 1994, losing 7–6 to the Albany-Colonie Yankees. City manager Robert Ganley led efforts to renovate Hadlock Field and return professional baseball to Portland.
Cartoonist Guy Gilchrist designed the team's logo as well as logos for the Connecticut Defenders, Binghamton Mets, and New Britain Rock Cats. Gilchrist's comic strip Mudpie had a series of strips in which the young cat's family visit the Portland area and attend a Sea Dog game.
Read more about this topic: Portland Sea Dogs
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Every literary critic believes he will outwit history and have the last word.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“The history of all previous societies has been the history of class struggles.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“The history of the past is but one long struggle upward to equality.”
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)