Yogi Berra Stadium is the home of the New Jersey Jackals of the independent Northern League.
After a couple of seasons playing in nothing but renovated, second-hand, and makeshift ballparks, the Northeast League finally opened it's first new ballpark. Built on the campus of Montclair State University, Yogi Berra Stadium is perfect for this level of baseball. It is very small and intimate with good sight lines. It makes sense. If you're not expecting 5000-6000 people for a game, why build a ballpark with that many seats?
The ballpark doesn't have a whole lot of character, because it is really pretty simple. A couple of stripes of bright red seats wrap around the field with a concourse above that sells some decent food and that's about it. This is a purely functional place.
The guy with the heavy Brooklyn accent who tried to get the crowd going with his cordless microphone was totally annoying. He would march up and down and demand that people join in with his cheers, then get all pissed off when nobody did. And yet he never gave it up. Even though the score was 7-1, he's trying to lead the crowd in chants and cheers as though the tying run were on 3rd.
There were a couple of interesting things, notably the office building beyond center field where office workers stood on a veranda watching the weekday afternoon contest. I also loved the fact that park had exactly one luxury box. I've seen no luxury boxes, and lots of luxury boxes, but one hovering above the stands was a new one to me.
Next to the park is the Yogi Berra museum. It costs $4 to enter and contains a nice little collection of Yogi memorabillia. There are lots of pictures, some old catcher's equipment, and a few trophies. If you're into that sort of thing, you might want to take a walk through. I thought it was kind of meager for $4, but then, I'm not big fan of looking at someone's old cleats behind glass.
