Hadlock Field

Exterior of Hadlock Field, Aug-1994.

Hadlock Field overlooks both the Portland Exposition Center and the city’s football stadium.

• Location: Park Avenue near I-295, Portland, Me.
• Opened: 1994
• Home team: Portland Sea Dogs, Eastern League (1994-present)
• Capacity: 6,975

Rating: 4 baseballs

In 1994, with Eastern League expansion, Portland got one of the two slots, and they squeezed a baseball park in between the Exposition Center, the football field, and the railroad tracks, with I-295 visible from the field as well.

The combination worked, as the Sea Dogs have been one of the top-rated clubs in the league year after year. The club just missed drawing 400,000 fans to its 1998 campaign, after leading the league in attendance when they opened four years earlier.

Another boost to the Sea Dogs’ fortunes came in 2003, when, in a series of affiliation shifts in the Eastern League, the Sea Dogs became an affiliate of the Boston Red Sox.