So you’re the Portland Sea Dogs and your season-opening game has been postponed for the sixth straight time.

What do you do to fill the day?

Head to the local mall, of course.

“Right now, I’m staring a cheeseburger right in the face,” Sea Dogs manager Ron Johnson said when reached by phone in New Britain, Conn. “We got a little bus trip together just to let the guys kick around.”

Portland’s game against New Britain Tuesday night fell victim to the storm that passed through Connecticut on Monday. The Sea Dogs and Rock Cats will try to salvage one game of the three-game set today, with the scheduled 10:30 a.m. start likely pushed back.

“We got about three or four inches of snow and it’s pretty icy right now,” said New Britain media relations director Chris McKibben. “But the league wants us to do everything we can to get a game in, so we’ll just wait and see.”

With temperatures expected to be in the 20s overnight and a mixed bag forecast for today, it’s looking more and more likely Portland will open its season Thursday in Trenton.

“Right now, I’m ready to go any place where we can play a game,” said Johnson, whose team did get to work out at an indoor facility in Connecticut.

The Sea Dogs season-opening four-game series with Trenton at Hadlock Field was wiped out last week. The Thunder haven’t faired any better since leaving Portland and actually decided not to stop and stay in Norwich, Conn., where they were to play a three-game series with the Navigators. Instead of sitting around for another three days, they opted to go home to New Jersey, where things aren’t much better.

Four inches of snow fell on Waterfront Park on Monday and two inches were still on the field as of late Tuesday night.

“We’re looking at a couple of different options (to get the field ready),” said Trenton general manager Rick Brenner. “The first one would be shovels. We’ve also thought about turning the sprinklers on (to melt the snow) or getting heaters to help dry it out.”

The problem with postponements has been league-wide.

Five of the six games scheduled for Tuesday night were called. Of the 35 games scheduled since last Thursday, only 17 have been played, just four by Northern Division teams.

The rash of cancellations has created a scheduling dilemma. Minor league baseball rules state that teams can play no more than two doubleheaders in a row and three in a seven-day span.

The Sea Dogs already have two doubleheaders scheduled against Trenton on May 12-13 at Hadlock Field. That means on their next visit to New Britain (May 15-18), they can only make up one of the postponed games from this week.

One option for the league, although it would be a last resort, is to not make up some of the games.

“We have to try to balance things from the business side and the interest of player development,” said Eastern League president Joe McEacharn. “We want to limit the strain on the players and also keep the integrity of the schedule. We want everybody to play the same number of games.”

Jorge de la Rosa will get the start when Portland finally does take the field. The left-hander will go three innings, with Johnson looking to get as many guys into the early games as possible, especially pitchers.

“We have guys who have gone 10-12 days without facing any hitters,” said Johnson. “That’s tough. So once we get going, we want to get all the guys in the tub and get them acclimated.”

de la Rosa will be followed by Junior Herndon, the Sea Dogs fifth starter, with other members of the bullpen likely going an inning each until closer Anastacio Martinez can be brought in.

“It will be interesting to see what kind of command these guys have,” said Johnson. “When you have this kind of layoff, you never know.”

bfoley@sunjournal.com