I've long been a fan of the Maine Guides, since the days I was one of the guys that helped feed the mosquitoes and prayed for the fog to lift from the outfield.
Enjoyed your list of the best players. I about faint when I see Doug Jones coming in to close. I keep telling myself that can't be the same Doug Jones I saw as a Maine Guide.
The cards from that era are prize possessions from the good ole days there, but I hate to think of the bad decisions that were made to build a stadium in the middle of the OOB wetlands.
BTW, they haven't torn The Ball Park down yet, and I recently took my teenage sons down there to have another (last?) look at it before they do bring it down.
Everyone should. Take pictures.
Of course, then I awake from my Maine Guides slumber....and realize that current closer is named Todd Jones...oh well.
I love this post. My old man took me to OOB a couple times to feed my growing hardball addiction when I was a little leaguer. I stuck around for a few games after the hand-off to the "Maine Phillies" era, but it wasn't the same. Damn you Todd Frohwirth!
What about Mel Hall? I'm pretty sure that he spent considerable time in Maine about 1985 or so.
Nope, Mel never played for Maine. He was a regular with the Indians those seasons, though I think he missed almost a full year with an injury. I remember when the Indians traded for Hall and Joe Carter in '84, Carter was supposed to come to Maine, but the Indians made a rare correct decision and kept him in the bigs.
Just came upon this eclectic list and had to share. I once sat thru a quadruple header at the "Ball Park" Previous three games had been cancelled due to fog. BTW, we're talking August here, not early spring when you might expect it. The 10,000,000 mosquitos were mighty hungry after three nights off. Each game was officially ended after 4 or 5 innings so they could fit all the games in. As I recall each game length was shorter and they cancelled the final game. Needless to say, after about the third inning of the first game, you could not see any of the outfielders. Not necessarily completely due to fog. Mosquitos helped too.
I just read that they are going to tear down this place after being completely unused for the past several years. They tried having concerts there after baseball left, but the mosquitos liked rock music just as much as they liked baseball. So if you want to see the park, you better hurry and bring your Cutters and perhaps a fog horn.
What?! No mention of 2B Shanie Dugas, the linchpin of those Original '84 Guides who broke from the gate something like 24 and 6?
Our favorite player was Leon Gray of Mound Bayou, MS. He played third base and we would come all the way from Pinkham Notch, NH to see him...I had his tattered Maine Guide autographed baseball card in my wallet till just a couple of years ago. One game my friend Paul threw a program and pen onto the dugout roof for Leon Gray to autograph, trouble was that is was during the game and one of the players yelled up that can't give autographs during a game. Paul had to crawl over the top of the dugout to retrieve his stuff. Lots of cheers from the crowd. We endured lots of mosquitos and fog but loved the Maine Guides.
My father has passed down his Maine Guides Baseball jacket to our son. I was wondering if there is any other memorabilia floating around. Thank you for your blog on the Maine Guides. It was nice to learn about the team.
Commenting by HaloScan
