Monster and Lobster

Easter vacation meant that it was time for me to go somewhere and watch baseball.  My last baseball game in person was back in July at Yankee Stadium.  It was good to see some baseball in person once again.  I was supposed to get to Notre Dame for basketball and hockey in February, but weather led me to cancel those plans.  I decided to go instead for baseball during my Easter vacation, but I wanted to combine that with a trip somewhere else.  I decided to go to Maine because I had spent very little time there.  Before this trip, there were nine states where I hadn’t seen a sporting event:  Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, West Virginia, Mississippi, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Hawaii.  I’ve spent nights in Vermont and Hawaii.  I’ve driven through South Dakota and Wyoming.  I’ve been to historical sites and/or museums in West Virginia and Mississippi.  I haven’t done much in Rhode Island this century, but I went to visit Providence when my brothers were looking at colleges last century.  For New Hampshire and Maine, I pretty much just stopped in each state for a meal (before the blog for New Hampshire, but I also drove through New Hampshire with John to get to Maine in 2015).  Those were probably the two states where I’ve spent the least amount of time.  The Portland Sea Dogs were home the week of Easter so I went up there before heading to Notre Dame.

I went to see the Portland Sea Dogs at Hadlock Field.  The stadium is right next to the Portland Expo Building, home of the Maine Celtics of the NBA G League.  The Portland Expo Building opened in 1915, but Hadlock Field borrows a feature of Fenway Park, which opened in 1912.  The Sea Dogs are the double-A affiliate of the Red Sox so they have the Maine Monster in left field.  That was cool, but other than that I would say it was a below average minor league ballpark.  The concourse was underneath the stands so you can’t see the game when you’re getting something to eat or drink.  The food and beer selection was limited.  I didn’t really care about the food selection being limited.  It was my first game of the season so I wanted to have a hot dog.  So I got a Fenway Frank.  But there didn’t seem to be any unique options there when it came to food.  As for beer, there actually seemed to be a bit of a local selection.  The problem was there was no list of beers that were available that I saw anywhere.  They had cans displayed up high and from a distance you can’t tell what’s what if you’re not familiar with the cans they have displayed.  So anyway, I asked for a recommendation and the person working there named a few that she said were the most popular.  One of the ones she mentioned was Allagash White.  That comes from Portland, but I’m pretty sure I’ve had it before and didn’t like it.  So I went with another one she mentioned, the Tubular IPA from the Orono Brewing Company in Orono, Maine.  It was pretty good.  I just wish I could have had a better idea of what all the options were.

It was warm when the game started.  That didn’t last.

The game started a little after 6:00 so the sun was still out.  And it was pretty warm in the sun.  But it got cold once the sun went down.  The box score says that it was 56° and that’s probably what it was when the game started, but it was probably in the mid-40s as the game went on.  Attendance was 6,868, but it definitely cleared out as it got colder.  Also a pretty thick fog started to roll in during the fourth inning.  I can’t remember being at  another baseball game that was so foggy.  The game was the Reading Fightin Phils against the Sea Dogs.  It was not well pitched.  The Sea Dogs allowed 14 hits and 9 walks.  The Fightin Phils allowed 10 hits and 6 walks.  The Fightin Phils led 8-4 after seven innings.  With the cold weather, bad pitching, and the fact that I had to get up ridiculously early for a flight the next day, I left after seven.  I missed the Sea Dogs scoring five runs in the bottom of the eighth to win the game 9-8.

You can see the Portland Expo Building on the right.

This was probably the peak fogginess.

So that was my first baseball game of the season.  I have eight states left where I’ve never seen a sporting event.  I’ll cross at least one more off the list this summer.  But there was one other part of my time in Portland that needs to get mentioned.  Before going to the game, I went to the Highroller Lobster Company.  It was featured on Man v. Food.  Casey Webb tried several things there.  I had the lobster cheese crisp taco, which was one of the things he had.  The taco shell was made of cheese.  It was good, but the shell made of cheese was nothing special.  If I was going to be in Maine, I had to have some lobster so I’m glad I stopped there.

The lobster taco was good.  The coleslaw was not very good. 

I’ll finish with my Spring 2025 sports villain power rankings (here are the March 2024 power rankings).  It’s a little bit harder to come up with villains when my favorite basketball and baseball teams are reigning champions and my favorite college football team got to the championship game, but everybody on this list is deserving of a spot:

30.  Ime Udoka

29.  Kevin Durant

28.  Anthony Davis

27.  Kyrie Irving

Ime Udoka is the only one in the playoffs this year.  The other ones would all be higher if they were in the playoffs.  But as for the two with Celtics connections, it’s hard to consider them huge villains anymore when things have worked out so well for the Celtics without them.  Kyrie Irving tried to leave the Celtics for dead.  Instead, he went and messed up another franchise and then lost to the Celtics in the NBA Finals.

26.  Brian Kelly

Brian Kelly would be higher on the list if things haven’t worked out so well for Notre Dame without him.  It’s funny how Marcus Freeman very easily could have been at LSU.  He chose Notre Dame over LSU when both teams wanted him to be their defensive coordinator.  If Notre Dame didn’t promote Freeman when Kelly left a year later, he might have ended up as LSU’s defensive coordinator under Brian Kelly.  But we have Freeman and LSU has Kelly and Notre Dame has clearly come out ahead of LSU.

25.  Logan Webb

The Giants need to have a representative during baseball season.  It’s pretty much Logan Webb by default, but the Giants are off to a good start so somebody else might emerge this season.

24.  Caleb Williams

23.  Lincoln Riley

22.  Chad Bowden

We beat Caleb Williams in the most wonderful way possible the last time we played him.  We’ve won our last two against Lincoln Riley.  So those two don’t rank as high as they could.  Chad Bowden gets the top USC spot (sort of, we’ll get to the next group in a minute) for leaving Notre Dame for USC.  He would be higher on the list, but I’m really not worried about Notre Dame not having Chad Bowden anymore.

21.  Bill Belichick

20.  Pete Carroll

These two cheaters are coaching once again.  Never forget that Pete Carroll was using professional players at USC before that was legal. Bill Belichick will probably move up if he lasts more than a year at North Carolina because Notre Dame plays them in 2026.

19.  Paulo Banchero

18.  Franz Wagner

17.  Kentavious Caldwell-Pope

The Celtics should definitely win this series against the Magic, but they had to have some people on this list because I don’t enjoy watching them and their defensive strategy of “injure as many Celtics as possible.”  Banchero went to Duke, Wagner went to Michigan, and Caldwell-Pope injured Jayson Tatum.

16.  Jake Cronenworth

15.  Manny Machado

14.  Fernando Tatis

Cronenworth went to Michigan, Machado is as unlikeable as possible, and Tatis is a cheater.

9.  (tie) Jose Altuve, George Springer, Carlos Correa, Alex Bregman, and Yuli Gurriel

Gurriel was off the list the last time because he wasn’t in the Majors, but he’s back.  These cheaters are guaranteed Sports Villain Hall of Famers as soon as they’re done playing.

8.  Tony Petitti

Last year I ranked him and Greg Sankey together.  I despise the Big Ten and SEC with every fiber of my being for how they’re destroying college sports, but I’ve always hated the Big Ten more and Greg Sankey was trying to help Notre Dame after the Sugar Bowl got delayed (he talked about the possibility of pushing back the Orange Bowl since we lost a day of rest after the Sugar Bowl was pushed back a day) when there was no benefit for the SEC.  So he’s off the list.

7.  Rob Manfred

Major League Baseball has to find a better commissioner when he retires.  He will not be missed when that day comes.

6.  Ryan Day

The fact that he beat Notre Dame in the championship game has little to do with this ranking.  Ryan Day is here because he wanted to fight 86-year-old Lou Holtz after he beat us in 2023 and because he can’t beat Michigan.

5.  Jim Harbaugh

The Chargers have a few Notre Dame players and I can’t root for them because Jim Harbaugh cheated to win a national championship at Michigan.

4.  Nico Harrison

3.  JJ Redick

2.  Luka Doncic

LeBron James

LeBron James was number 2 last year because Jim Harbaugh had just won the national championship by cheating and the Lakers weren’t going anywhere in the playoffs.  The Lakers probably aren’t going anywhere this year either, but now that a year has passed and Jim Harbaugh isn’t at Michigan anymore, LeBron James is back to number 1.  Nico Harrison is on the list for trading Luka Doncic to the Lakers.  I get why he wanted to trade Doncic.  He was never in shape and he doesn’t play defense.  The problem is that he didn’t get anywhere close to what they should have gotten.  And he probably gave the Lakers a championship at some point in the future.  I don’t like Luka Doncic at all.  I find him incredibly dislikeable even before he was a Laker because of the lack of defense, not getting in shape, and arguing with the referees all the time, but he is a good enough offensive player that you can build a championship team around him.  And considering that he’s on the Lakers and good players just fall into their lap all the time, the Lakers probably will be able to win a championship with Luka Doncic even if he never gets into shape and even if he never becomes a good defensive player.  JJ Redick would be the most dislikeable coach in the NBA even if he didn’t coach the Lakers because he went to Duke and he slandered the great Bob Cousy.

And let’s add somebody to my Sports Villain Hall of Fame.  The current members are Barry Bonds, Tom Brady, Reggie Bush, Phil Jackson, Rafael Palmeiro, and Roger Clemens.  I’m adding Josh Reddick.  He is by far the least notable member of my Sports Villain Hall of Fame, but he gets in for two reasons.  First, the Dodgers traded for him in 2016 and he had two home runs and nine RBIs in 40 games while hitting .258/.307/.335.  And the second reason is that he was part of the cheating Astros in 2017.  If he only had one of those, he wouldn’t be a Hall of Famer, but the combination is enough to get him in.

My next baseball game is likely to be when the Dodgers come into town to play the Mets in late May. I don’t have any tickets yet because hopefully the Celtics will be playing in the Eastern Conference Finals at the same time so I would want to see what the schedule is for that before buying tickets for Dodgers-Mets. There will definitely be more traveling for baseball once we get to the summer.