Little Falls

On Enough, Already

Yogi Berra Stadium, 2022

Saturday, May 21, 2022
Gateway Grizzlies vs. New Jersey Jackals
Yogi Berra Stadium
Frontier League
Little Falls, NJ
6:05 PM

Outside the Game: 

Yogi, supposedly

As per the norm these days, I was over at my parents' house on Saturday helping out my mother and checking on things. The Metropolitans were on the West Coast, but almost by accident, I checked to see if the Jackals were starting up yet, and their home opener was the night before (though rained out), so I decided to revisit them that night, which would effectively be the home opener--and the first game they will have played since they won the dearly departed Can-Am League title in 2019, before the dark times, before the Empire.

I did everything I needed to at my mother's, and then took the short drive out the park to spend some time in the Yogi Berra Museum next door before the game. There had been some updates since the last time I was there, including a pitching booth. (I can still top 50, by the way.) I walked around, watched all the videos, and took some gift shop purchases out to the car before the start of the game.

The ticket line was at a dead stop because of large groups that had dozens of tickets each clogging up the two available lines, but I eventually got a ticket and went into the park 45 minutes or so before the start of the game.

The way out was a hot and muggy night. It was a quick drive back to my parents' house, and an equally quick Lyft back home to appreciate air conditioning, man's greatest invention.

The Stadium & Fans: 

Home to center, Yogi Berra Stadium

Not a ton had changed in Yogi Berra Stadium. The signage was up to reflect their new league affiliation (the independent Frontier League had absorbed all the solvent franchises of the old Can-Am League during the plague years), but not much else had altered. It was still built around the outfield-to-outfield promenade above the seating bowl, with the press box and suites (such as they are) wedged into a pillbox behind home plate in the midst of the seats. The biggest detriment to the park still holds: There is no cover, nearly anywhere. You bake in the sun until it sets, and in inclement weather, you run for the one or two covered areas on the promenade and wait it out. It would be a little more understandable in a college park, but as an independent pro park of several decades, it makes games there hard to watch if you don't want to fry. For late afternoon games, you can huddle along the top of the third base lines in the outfield in a fragile shade until the sun goes down, which is what I did.

The entertainment is still around mascot Jack the Jackal. The oldness of the sound effects (they still use an AOL chat signoff noise when opposing players strike out, for example) are actually so corny they are cool at this point. Though they did keep playing the "broken glass" sound effect after a sharp foul ball nearly injured a patron, so they need to keep a closer eye on that. The independent leagues have been immune to the MLB/MiLB extension of the netting, so you need to pay attention to the game to avoid injury.

At the Game with Oogie: 

A bleak look at the game

There was a decent enough crowd for their first game of the year. As I mentioned, I was huddled in the shade of left field with a couple other individuals, but the only other residents of the area were kids running around, or stadium workers shuttling food and beverages to the parties in those areas in left field and third base.

I ended up getting a burger and pretzel and some chicken tenders, as well as four or five Gatorades to keep from completely desiccating.

The Game: 

First pitch, Grizzlies vs. Jackals

So here's the deal. I had been to this park several times before, there was nothing riding on this game, and I needed to get back to my parent's house at a decent hour so I didn't wake up my mother dropping off the car. 

Fun fact for those of you who want to show off "Dad Powers": You can pretty easily work out the pace of a standard nine-inning game by checking the time at the start of the fourth and seventh innings. That is, for the non-math inclined, 1/3rd and 2/3rds of the way through the game. 

At the start of the fourth, take the time elapsed, multiply by three, and you have your game time. If one hour has passed at the start of the fourth, you are looking at a pretty standard three-hour game. If a half-hour has passed, you are looking at a really quick two-hour contest. 

Ditto the seventh inning, but divide it in half and add that to the original time. 

Two hours have passed at the start of the seventh? 2/2=1. 1+2=3. Three hour game. 

An hour and a half? 1.5/2=.75 .75+1.5 =2.25. Two hours and twenty-five minutes game.

Oh, and if the home team is leading, ditch 10-15 minutes from the game time. You're welcome.

My problem was that we were three hours in going into the seventh. (3/2=1.5 3+1.5=4.5) We were tracking at least a four and half hour game, ending sometime after 10:30 PM, and... there was no reason. The baseball wasn't sloppy in a fun way. The increasingly shell-shocked pitchers were taking forever for each delivery. The offense was somehow not even fun.

So I packed it in at the start of the seventh and went home. So it goes.

The Scorecard: 
I was keeping a scorecard, as always, on my BBWAA book, but as I related, I gave up at the start of seven. I didn't have it in me. There wasn't even very much interesting from a scoring perspective except recording all the batters going around the bases, and I did not envy having to sort out earned versus unearned runs with all the errors floating around. It did pain me a little to abandon it, but it was the right thing to do.

The Accommodations:
Home, sweet Jersey City

Click here to see all the photos from this trip.


Stand-Alone Trip, 2022