PORTLAND, Maine — The baseball diamond is the latest war zone in the ongoing fight between Maine and Pennsylvania over whoopie pies.
The Portland Sea Dogs will look like a totally different team with a new name and new uniforms as they take the field on Friday, June 21 against the Fightin' Phils of Reading, Penn. Wearing special brown and white uniforms, the Sea Dogs will transform into the Maine Whoopie Pies for the length of the game.
The one-time name change has become a popular stunt for minor league teams. Portland's ECHL hockey team, the Maine Mariners, played a game last March as the Wild Blueberries.
The game between the Sea Dogs and Fightin' Phils could be considered a resumption of hostilities between the two states that each team calls home.
Tensions first flared in 2011. Mainers, who consider whoopie pies a local invention, took exception to news stories that credited Pennsylvania's Amish country as their birthplace.
To safeguard Maine's claim, state Rep. Paul Davis of Sangerville submitted a bill in the Maine Legislature to make whoopie pies the official state dessert. It ran into opposition by supporters of blueberry pie. A compromise was reached which enshrined blueberry pie as the state dessert while whoopie pies became the state treat.
Chalk up a win for the Maine Legislature in round one of the whoopie wars. Round two rests on the shoulder of the Sea Dogs.
