The 7 Reasons Portland, Maine’s Hadlock Field May Be the Best in the Country

Odds are if you grew up in or around Portland, Maine, you've thought this for years. Probably even decades. Even if you're a transplant from away that's been in the Portland area for at least a year or two and made it to at least one Portland Sea Dogs game, there's a chance you already think this, too.

But as a guy who has spent most of his life from away, growing up on the New Hampshire/Massachusetts line of the Merrimack Valley area, my second-ever trip to a Sea Dogs game last night already has me convinced of one thing:

Hadlock Field in Portland may be the best place to see a ballgame in the country. Hands down.

Growing up in the Merrimack Valley area, I obviously grew up a Red Sox fan. And growing up a Red Sox fan, I feel like by nature, you also grow up a fan of the minor league teams of the Sox, since they were mostly all within a couple of hours of Fenway Park. When the Lowell Spinners were a Single A affiliate of the Red Sox and would play games on the UMass Lowell campus, my family would make it to at least one game per summer over the years.

And with Lowell way closer than Portland, it was much easier to go to LaLacheur Park to watch the Spinners than Hadlock Field to watch the Sea Dogs. But now that I'm officially a Mainer, heading to Hadlock is way easier. And after sitting through 9 innings last night at Hadlock, it hit me -- the Sea Dogs' home field may be the best in the country.