Kevin's Baseball Stadium Blog: ShoreTown Ballpark

Brooklyn Cyclones (NYM) @ Jersey Shore BlueClaws (PHI)

April 21, 2024

Cyclones 5, BlueClaws 2

W: Ben Simon
L: Alex Rao

S: Joshua Cornielly
Attendance: 3,107
Time of Game: 2 hours, 47 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Lakewood, NJ
Opened: 2001
Capacity: 6,588
Level: High A
League: South Atlantic

Having decided to skip going to a MLB game in Philadelphia the day after the stop in Wilmington, I instead chose to go watch the Phillies High A affiliate, Jersey Shore, in Lakewood, New Jersey, about a 100 mile drive Northeast from Wilmington. In addition to getting my minor league tour off to a more robust start, adding Jersey Shore to this trip also gave me some flexibility to change some of my plans for later in the summer.

Jersey Shore is a bit of a misnomer for this team. ShoreTown Ballpark is a solid 10 miles from the actual shore. In fact, I did not see the Atlantic Ocean on this trip. Previously known as the Lakewood BlueClaws, I thought maybe they made the name change to latch onto the popular MTV show by that name. However, I was surprised to learn that this change just happened in 2021, which was well after Snooki and crew ceased to be relevant. I suppose it was done in an attempt to be the community team for a wider swath of that part of New Jersey.

While Lakewood is a fairly densely populated city, there is not a whole lot in the immediate vicinity of the ballpark. Once inside the stadium though, there is plenty to do. In what I assume is an attempt to recreate some of the atmosphere of the Jersey Shore boardwalk in the ballpark, the outfield is filled with carnival type games, beach chairs and even a mini-golf course. I've never been to the Jersey Shore, so I can't comment on how representative this actually is. And maybe a slightly chilly afternoon in April isn't the best time to fully judge the atmosphere they are going for here. But it does present a nice slew of entertainment options around a concourse that circles the entire ballpark. Like Wilmington, there is a single main seating level with private boxes above the concourse in the infield area.

I was hoping to get my first look of the year at a MLB Pipeline Top 100 prospect in Phillies/BlueClaws outfielder Justin Crawford, son of long time MLB outfielder Carl. Unfortunately, he was not in the lineup this day. Brooklyn's Ryan Clifford was though. The outfielder (in this game) was one of the players the Mets received from Houston in the Justin Verlander trade. Clifford showed off the tremendous plate discipline he is known for, walking in four of his five plate appearances and scoring three runs. Brooklyn's starting pitcher in this game, Brandon Sproat is also a prospect of note. He was probably on an early season pitch count as he only threw three innings and 50 pitches in which he was solid but not dominant. Spoiler alert, Clifford and Sproat have since been promoted to AA where I saw both of them play again for Binghamton recently. This game was tied at 1 going into the 5th inning, when former Notre Dame reliever Alex Rao took the mound for the BlueClaws. Unfortunately, it was a rough game for him as the first four batters he faced all reached base, on a pair of walks, a single and a hit batter. Jersey Shore catcher Jordan Dissin also had a rough day allowing a couple passed balls, both of which caused runs to score. After a three run fifth, Brooklyn cruised to a 5-2 win. While the Cyclones only recorded five hits, they also took an incredible 11 walks, which was pretty much the game in a nutshell.

That wrapped up my first trip of the season. Next up was a Memorial Day Weekend jaunt through Eastern Pennsylvania.

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