See 'Dogs

We were back in Maine on Sunday to see the Portland Sea Dogs, this time taking on the Trenton Thunder. It was a mini-version of good vs. evil as the Sea Dogs are the Double-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox and the Thunder are the New York Yankees' (we hate to even type it) team.

It was a close game -- until the ninth inning when the Thunder racked up five runs. See the game recap here, if you can bear to read the ending. In case you can't, here's the Cliff Notes version: Michael Bowden, a top Sox prospect, was the starter and went into the sixth inning, striking out six. Unfortunately, one of the batters he didn't strike out was Edwar "Hold the D" Gonzalez, who hit a two-run homer in the sixth. Bowden came out at that point, and Daniel Bard came in. Bard had the high heat, but not the accuracy, walking two runners in .2 innings. After the sixth, things got a little shaky after that before the wheels came off entirely in the ninth. The final score was 8-2.

One player whose bat would have come in handy on Sunday was Aaron Bates, shown above, who didn't play and instead was coaching first base.

We were joined at Sunday's game by some fun family members who are also fans of baseball, and of the Sea Dogs, in particular. We were also joined by Slugger the Sea Dog for some wacky antics at one point. So while the game itself lacked at times, the company was terrific. And really, no matter how they play, we do love our Sea Dogs.

Speaking of the Sea Dogs, some of the members of the team recently helped recreate some classic works by artist Norman Rockwell. While Rockwell's quintessential American scenes were paintings, Mainer Liam Crotty recreated the images using photography - and Sea Dogs personnel, from the GM down to the bat boys. Check out a segment by Channel 6 in Portland here on the project.