Aiden Hendry with one of the Red Snappers jerseys at the Portland Sea Dog’s store at Hadlock Field on Friday. The jersey is one of the pieces of the alternate uniform merchandise for sale at the store. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer

Jack Hart stood in line, waiting to get into Hadlock Field for a game between the Portland Sea Dogs and Reading Fightin’ Phils. Hart wore the jersey and hat of the Maine Lobster Bakes, the latest alternative identity announced by the Sea Dogs, who will play as the Lobster Bakes on Aug. 23.

Hart, who lives in Boston but often makes the trip to Portland to watch the Sea Dogs, saw the logo – a lobster holding a baseball bat while sitting in a pot surrounded by potatoes and corn – when the team recently unveiled it, and immediately ordered the gear online.

“I saw them online and I said, ‘Why isn’t this their regular logo?’ It’s fantastic,” Hart said.

Minor League Baseball teams have long worn alternate uniforms. The outfits can honor connections to a community or state, as well as the team’s culture or history. They can be creative and witty, appealing to fans not just in a local market, but nationwide.

Few teams have embraced the trend as often or as well as the Sea Dogs. Since 2019, when the team unveiled its Maine Whoopie Pies uniform and logo, the Sea Dogs have also played as the Red Snappers, Bean Suppahs, and Clambakes.

Other alternative uniform nights are mandated by Minor League Baseball, such as Marvel’s Defenders of the Diamond night, which the Sea Dogs celebrated on July 20, or Star Wars-themed uniforms, or the Alces de Maine, the uniform the team has worn as part of the minor leagues’ Copa de la Diversion, a celebration of Hispanic/Latino culture. The Sea Dogs also have worn uniforms highlighting teal and black, the team’s colors when it began life as the Double-A affiliate of the Marlins in 1994, and jerseys designed by patients at Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital.

“It was cool how we all had different artwork on the back of our jerseys,” said former Sea Dogs catcher Kyle Teel, of wearing the jerseys designed by the children on July 2. “It was such a great experience to wear those jerseys. Those were for sure my favorite ones.” Teel was recently promoted to Triple-A Worcester along with shortstop Marcelo Mayer and outfielder Roman Anthony.

Magnets featuring the alternate uniforms at the Portland Sea Dog’s store at Hadlock Field on Friday. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer

Minor league alternative uniforms can help drive merchandise sales. According to Kevyn Tibbot, the Sea Dogs’ merchandise coordinator, the alternate identity gear accounts for between one-quarter and one-third of all Sea Dogs merchandise sales in the team store at Hadlock Field and on online.

“We want something that’s unique to Maine or the region. We want to showcase and show the rest of the country some of the fun things we have here in Maine, and it has to resonate well with our fans,” said Chris Cameron, the team’s vice president of communications and fan experience.

Merchandise can be lucrative. Minor League Baseball’s merchandise sales skyrocketed in the last decade, from $54 million in 2012 to $85.7 million in 2019, an increase of almost 60%.

According to Cameron and Jeff Lantz, the senior communications manager for Minor League Baseball, the Sea Dogs have been among the top 25 minor league franchises in merchandise sales every season since they debuted in 1994. Teams in the Eastern League, where the Sea Dogs compete, average more than $550,000 in merchandise sales per season.

Waiting to get into Hadlock Field, Brent Vicneire of Waterville wore a Maine Clambakes hat.

“I just love the logo. I collect minor league logos,” Vicneire said. “I get them all. Whenever the Sea Dogs come out with a new one, I get it.”

Aiden Hendry in the merchandise back room at the Portland Sea Dog’s store at Hadlock Field on Friday. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer

Each of the Sea Dogs alternate logos were designed by Ted Seavey. Formerly the team’s creative director, Seavey now runs his own graphic design firm, Seaboard Studios. In designing each logo, he said, he tried to capture the spirit and vibe of Minor League Baseball and keep it fun. The Lobster Bakes and Clambakes came to him quickly. The Red Snappers took the longest, because how do you make a hot dog a compelling logo?

“My favorite is the Lobster Bakes. The lobster is pretty classic Maine. It’s hard to beat that,” Seavey said.

Getting an alternate nickname from the idea stage into the team store and onto the players is typically a two-year process. Once the Sea Dogs front office staff comes up with a nickname and sketches a logo and color scheme, the team needs approval from Minor League Baseball before it can start a licensing and trademark review. For example, if there had been a band out there called the Bean Suppahs that used a logo of a hot dog wearing a winter hat with earflaps while swimming in baked beans, the Sea Dogs would have had to go back to the drawing board.

Sea Dogs president and general manager Geoff Iacuessa said the nicknames come out of the front office’s annual postseason meetings.

“We do a big brainstorming session as a staff, and we have a lot of fun with it,” Iacuessa said.

The Lobster Bakes merchandise for sale at the Portland Sea Dog’s store at Hadlock Field on Friday. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographe

It’s not a coincidence that to date, each of the Sea Dogs alternate nicknames has centered on food. Again, that’s not unique to the Sea Dogs. In nearby Manchester, New Hampshire, the Fisher Cats have played as the Manchester Chicken Tenders. The Hartford Yard Goats have been the Bouncing Pickles and Steamed Cheeseburgers.

“A lot of minor league alternative identities have been food. People love food. It’s an easy thing to get behind,” said Cameron. “A little tease for next year – it will be our first non-food identity.”

While Maine is known as a craft beer haven, it’s unlikely that beer will ever make its way into the Sea Dogs alternative name catalog. While the Salem Red Sox, a Single-A stop on Boston’s farm ladder, have played as the Beer Mongers in honor of the vibrant brewing scene in its part of Virginia, Iacuessa said Portland’s team is inclined to make choices for all ages.

“For us, we really want to keep it family friendly. No matter how old you are, you can proudly wear the logo and get behind it,” he said. “Obviously, craft brew is big in Maine, but it’s just something we’ve stayed away from just because of the family aspect.”

Cameron and Iacuessa said occasionally players will ask what’s a whoopie pie or a red snapper? But nobody has balked at any of the alternate nicknames or uniforms, they said.

Aiden Hendry shows one of the Bean Suppah jerseys for sale in the store room at the Portland Sea Dog’s store at Hadlock Field on Friday. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer

“The one that they just posted, Lobster Bakes, those look pretty sweet. But we’ve had so many now, it feels like we wear a new one every week,” said Roman Anthony. “It’s cool to throw those on and represent something. Here in the minor leagues, you have to wear different jerseys, it’s part of it – but it’s a fun experience.”

Mayer said his favorite alternate is the throwback teal jersey. From a fashion standpoint, he didn’t care for the Clambakes. The gray jersey with blue sleeves didn’t go well with white pants, he said. Maybe because he’s from San Diego, where the Padres wore brown for years, Mayer didn’t have a problem with the brown Whoopie Pie jerseys, although he said a few of his teammates didn’t care for it.

“I like being a Whoopie Pie more than most. A lot of people hate that jersey. I don’t really mind it. It’s unique,” he said.

Teel, the catcher, admitted the uniform isn’t something he has spent much time thinking about.

“We play so much, and you’re wearing it for one game. Usually what happens is you think you’re wearing your normal jersey and then you go in your locker and you have a jersey you’ve never seen before hanging up,” he said. “You just put it on and go play. Half the time, I don’t grab my hat because I’m catching.”

The Sea Dogs wore Lewiston Strong jerseys on July 31, for Lewiston/Auburn Community Night, to honor the victims of the mass shooting in Lewiston last October. The jersey featured the pine tree and star of Maine’s original flag on the front and “Lewiston Strong” on the back, where the players last name would typically be. The front was originally created to celebrate Maine’s bicentennial in 2020, but that season was cancelled because of the pandemic.

On June 19, the Sea Dogs held Deaf and Hard of Hearing Awareness Night. In a game against the Richmond Flying Squirrels, the team wore jerseys that spelled out Sea Dogs in red hand icons using the American Sign Language alphabet. Following the game, the team auctioned off the jerseys signed by the players, with the proceeds going to the Dirigo Experience, a camp for deaf and hard of hearing children. The Dirigo Experience was founded by Josh Seal, one of the victims in last October’s mass shooting in Lewiston.

The Portland Sea Dogs players wore this special hat on June 19 to help raise awareness about the Deaf and hard of hearing community. The hand on the cap is making the sign for “P” in American Sign Language. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

Minor League Baseball allows teams to play under five alternative nicknames per season, not including the mandated promotions like Marvel or Stars Wars. That means when the Sea Dogs unveil a new nickname next season, one of the others will be retired.

Standing in line, Hart continued to gush about the Lobster Bakes logo. He took off his hat, pointed at the logo, then pointed at the sleeves of tattoos on his arms and legs.

Then he paid the Sea Dogs’ newest look his highest compliment.

“I mean, this,” he said, pointing at the Lobster Bakes logo, “is inkable.”