Skylands Park is the home of the New Jersey Cardinals of the NY-Penn League. The Cardinals are the Short Season Class A affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals.
Is that a ballpark or a barn with light towers? It's kind of hard to tell as you drive by Skylands Park, way up in northwestern New Jersey. It's not really close to any population centers, just sort of plopped out in the middle of the fields and pastures. However, they built it and the people came. (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)
This is a nice little ballpark, perfect for the NY-Penn League. I don't know where the people come from, but apparently the team is doing well in it's rural location. The rustic look of the stadium is very pleasant as well as the setting, up against a nice stand of trees.
The seats, being molded plastic, are a little uncomfortable, and the sound effects are a bit annoying, but the views are excellent and the field is in very nice shape. I can't speak for the atmosphere of the crowd, because when I went the visiting Lowell Spinners scored ten runs in the top of the 1st. This tends to dampen a home crowd's enthusiasm.
The food was mostly from chain restaurants like Pizza Hut and Carvel, which is good and bad. It's good because you know what you are getting. It's bad because you know what you're getting. There's no chance of being pleasantly surprised by something unusual or exceptionally good (like Waterbury's amazing hot dogs).
This is a nice enough place to see a game, if you can get to it. There is very little chance you will "happen to be in the area", so if you want to see it, you'd better get out the maps.
