Portland played key role in bringing World Series trophy to New England

Those of you who know me outside of the news world know I’m a big Boston sports fan, and I can get going pretty good on what I think the Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics and Bruins need to be doing.

(Let Stephen Drew walk, do whatever it takes to sign either Jerricho Cotchery or Anquan Boldin in the offseason, bribe David Stern to freeze your lottery ticket and draft Andrew Wiggins, and just keep doing what you’re doing, respectively.)

So when Maine Digital Press President Dan Bodoff said he thought he could bring in Chris Sedenka, host of the “P.M. Jab” on Portland’s sports talk radio station 96.3 FM, for one of our weekly Ink & Pine podcasts, I was excited about the possibility of untangling myself from the hard news world and talking sports for an afternoon.

Being that this is a Portland podcast and the Red Sox World Series victory is still fresh, our focus was to discuss the key role former players for the Double A Portland Sea Dogs played in that Boston title run.

Former Portland Sea Dogs pitcher Brandon Workman takes the mound for the Boston Red Sox in the World Series. (Photo by Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports)

Guys who were taking the field even earlier this season at Hadlock ended up carrying the World Series trophy with the major league teammates last week, so the pipeline is flowing strong from the minors here in Maine.

I had particular fun talking with Chris about next year’s Sea Dogs and Red Sox teams — and given who remains unsigned by Boston, where there might be opportunities for the Sea Dogs of today to find openings down at Fenway Park by the end of next season or the season after.

So click here to listen to this week’s edition of the Ink & Pine podcast, which is our way in the BDN family of media outlets to make Portland news (or in this limited case, sports) accessible to the greatest number of people possible. As I say every week, you can use Ink & Pine to absorb in-depth talks with subject matter experts while running on the treadmill or commuting home from work.

Past episodes about Portland’s marijuana legalization ordinance and South Portland’s proposed Waterfront Protection Ordinance may be of interest for second listenings as well now that those referendum votes have come and gone. There’s a lot of good material in those podcasts about what can be expected in the aftermaths of the votes — i.e., now.

Ink & Pine can also be found on iTunes, so load up on your listening there if that’s easiest, and as always, if you want even more podcasts from Portland, check out Dan’s other programs dealing with the city’s thriving music, food and pop culture scenes.

P.S. It’s not that I dislike Stephen Drew, mind you, it’s just that I get excited about a Xander Bogaerts-Will Middlebrooks tandem on the left side of the infield. If Middlebrooks can hit even .250 but connect with some power from third base (say, 25 or 30 dingers), that’ll be a nice offensive boost without losing much defensively compared to the Drew-Bogaerts pairing.

Seth Koenig

About Seth Koenig

Seth has nearly a decade of professional journalism experience and writes about the greater Portland region.