Friday, the Portland Sea Dogs honored the late, great, Charlie Eshbach at Hadlock Field, or as General Manager Geoff Iacuessa called it in his opening, “The House that Charlie Built.” Eshbach, who insisted everyone call him Charlie, was the founding General Manager of the team in 1994, teaming up with owner Dan Burke to bring an elite baseball experience to Maine.
Eschbach first began his career in minor league baseball as General Manager of the Bristol (CT) Red Sox in 1974, at the age of 22. From there, Eshbach moved on to become the President of the Eastern League at just 29 years old. Charlie stayed in that role for 11 years, and notably, in the fall of 1988, brought a team of Eastern Leaguers over to the Soviet Union for a series of games. Then, in 1992, Eshbach joined Burke in bringing the Sea Dogs to life, right here in Portland. In 1996, Eshbach also notably helped found the “Strike Out Cancer in Kids” charity, which has raised over $5 million for childhood cancer treatment and research. Eshbach stepped down as General Manager in 2010 and took on the role of Team President, where he remained until 2018. He was then designated as special adviser to the team, and Charlie was still at almost every home game, greeting fans by the front gate.
At the celebration of life on Friday, Stump Merrill, former New York Yankee manager and longtime friend of Charlie, shared stories from their trip to the Soviet Union. “He was very quick to put the pieces together when we got over there because we were going to show them how to play baseball, but they had no clue. Good-looking athletes, big, strong, whatever…but they had no clue. Matter of fact, they didn’t even have a left-handed glove. The equipment they had, you couldn’t buy it in a used-car lot.”
Merrill continued, saying “we would have sessions before and after [the games], and as many of you know, vodka is a big thing in Russia, and every place we went, even early morning when we would put on a clinic, they’d open their trunk, and half the trunk would be vodka, and the other half would be the equipment we would play with. And all they wanted to do was a toast! Well, I was the coordinator of this group, and I guess I was the guy who they chose to take one for his country, because there were a lot of toasts that went on. And we’d be sitting around their apartment and doing these toasts and luckily, I was sitting next to Charlie, and Charlie was very quick to take the shot of vodka and pour it into the plant next to him, and then hand me the empty glass so they’d think I took the shot.”
Owner Bill Burke, son of Sea Dogs founder Dan Burke, shared his poignant words about Charlie, saying “My dad and Charlie did make an odd pair…but they both shared an intense love of baseball.” He continued, saying “those of us from away know that it [Maine] isn’t the easiest place to break into, but you can break in well if you’re humble, work hard, honor your word, and are kind to people. Charlie was all of those things.” He added that “I will always appreciate the respect that he showed me, listening to my advice, although mostly when he called me for advice he had a sticky problem, he’d work through it on the phone, and then I’d say ‘Charlie what do you think we should do?’ He’d tell me, and he was always right.”
Burke concluded by saying “Charlie was a man of great faith, and he lived his faith by the way he treated others. And if you’ll forgive the analogy here, if life here on Earth is the minors, I have no doubt Charlie Eshbach has been called up to the show.”
The Portland Sea Dogs announced that the front entrance to Hadlock Field would be renamed “The Charlie Eshbach Entrance”. Additionally, the club’s citizen of the year award, which honors a player who has made an impact in the community, will be renamed the “Charlie Eshbach Citizen of the Year” award.
