It’s a late August afternoon in Portland, Maine, and the crispness in the air makes it clear that, up here, summer is fading fast. But the sobriety of autumn hasn’t hit yet: It’s Elvis Night tonight and out front of Hadlock Field — the home stadium of the Sea Dogs, the city’s treasured Minor League Baseball team — the people, simply, are going nuts.
An Elvis impersonator backed by a ramshackle live band smashes through “Hound Dog” while the Sea Dogs’ mascot Slugger, in a bedazzled white pantsuit and big black sunglasses, busts out karate kicks. The band’s guitarist — a sixtysomething man bald except for the very back of his head, where the hair flows bountifully — flings his instrument over his back to shred a solo.
The banners behind the band advertise Horch Roofing’s “seamless gutter leak repair” services. Mustached security guards mimic the Elvis impersonator’s moves. Grinning, Elvis swings into a lovely rendering of the trademark hip shake, then shouts, “Man, they still work!” Squealing in delight, the fans mob Slugger and Elvis for selfies.
