{"id":11884,"date":"2016-11-21T20:22:10","date_gmt":"2016-11-22T01:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hoohaa.com\/?p=11884"},"modified":"2016-11-22T19:59:52","modified_gmt":"2016-11-23T00:59:52","slug":"summer-of-baseball-portland-a-good-place-to-catch-a-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hoohaa.com\/?p=11884","title":{"rendered":"Summer of Baseball: Portland a good place to catch a game"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hadlock Field is one I’ve wanted to get to for a few years now. It’s also one of those fields kind of all by itself (Maine has one affiliated professional team), so going just for a game isn’t necessarily the easiest thing to do, despite Maine being an amazing state.<\/p>\n

So, let’s break it down.<\/p>\n

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Hadlock Field, built in 1993, is a solid minor league park. Though I’m not a fan of aluminum bleacher flooring, it’s a pretty comfortable all-around park. The ambiance is solid, which seems to be a pretty good trend when it comes to Boston Red Sox affiliates. The site lines in the park are good and the seats are decently comfortable.<\/p>\n

The night we were there was cool, too, as it was a Seinfeld-themed night. Though not the biggest Seinfeld fan, John O’Hurley (who played J. Peterman) threw out the first pitch. It’s always neat to see things like that.<\/p>\n

Anyway…<\/p>\n

The park has an older flavor to it as the concourse is under the seating bowl. The concourse is decently wide but was definitely crowded. The team store is small, which shocked me, if not just because it’s a Boston affiliate. I think I hold the idea that Double-A and above would have better team stores, and despite seeing many smaller ones, it still shocks me.<\/p>\n

The food selection was solid and the hot dogs were really good. I will say I didn’t have the food selection on the minor league food fight as it was this amazingly huge ice cream sundae sort of thing … and well, my blood sugar went up just looking at what it included, let along eating it. So I just went with a regular old ice cream and it was solid. Beer selection was pretty strong, too.<\/p>\n

The stadium itself is pretty nice. A “monster” in left field is a nice tough, and I like the scoreboard. The elevated bullpen in right field was a \u00a0very cool setup, too. I think overall, it’s hard to not go here and have a good time. That being said, I have to pull off some points for the aluminum flooring because it’s really tough, at times, to pay attention to the game when there’s so much stomping on that flooring.<\/p>\n

Parking is decent and not far from the stadium. The area felt safe and after, it was easy enough to get out, which is always a positive.<\/p>\n

I’d definitely visit again, as long as it was encompassed with other aspects. For me, it’s a hard trip to pull off just for a game, but it’s definitely not a bad place to take in a game.<\/p>\n

Park Notes: \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hadlock Field<\/strong>
\nPortland, Maine<\/em>
\nHome of the Portland Seadogs\u00a0(Double-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox)
\nVisited on: July 15, 2016
\nOpponent: New Hampshire Fisher Cats\u00a0(Double-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays)<\/p>\n

Ratings (out of 10)<\/p>\n