Jersey Shore BlueClaws
We experience one of the more unique ballparks in Minor League Baseball at ShoreTown Ballpark, home of the Jersey Shore BlueClaws. We check out the mini golf and boardwalk games, join the radio broadcast, and throw out the first pitch!
Dad and I rolled up to the suburban ShoreTown Ballpark in Lakewood, home of the Jersey Shore BlueClaws, the High-A Minor League affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies. The BlueClaws would be facing a team we had just seen a few nights before, the Brooklyn Cyclones.
There are an awful lot of ballparks with names that once honored local luminaries or regional characteristics and have since been replaced by the brands of banks, energy utilities, and medical facilities. But the BlueClaws have gone in the opposite direction: ShoreTown Ballpark — simple, descriptive, regionally relevant — opened in 2001 as GPU Energy Stadium and became FirstEnergy Stadium in 2002. But it changed to ShoreTown Ballpark in 2022 to complete a series of franchise transformations.
After the 2000 season, the Class-A Cape Fear Crocs relocated here from Fayetteville, North Carolina, to become the Lakewood BlueClaws. In 2021, with the help of minor league branding powerhouse Brandiose, the franchise updated its identity and became the Jersey Shore BlueClaws, sporting a visual style that evokes fun in the sun. The team backs it up with a boardwalk atmosphere complete with carnival games and a nine-hole mini golf course beyond the outfield wall.
ShoreTown Ballpark has 6,588 seats plus spots at picnic tables and along grass berms. The BlueClaws averaged an impressive 4,793 fans per game in 2023, second in the South Atlantic League and seventh out of the 30 clubs at the High-A level. Notable alumni since the franchise move to Lakewood include Phillies greats Cole Hamels, Ryan Howard, and Shane Victorino.
Dad and I made our customary stop in the team store to inspect the various combinations of crabs, sunglasses, and sunny hues on display.
The club does a nice job of extending these beachy themes throughout the ballpark.
We cut our tour of the facilities short, because I had been invited to throw out the first pitch. Dad and I walked down a flight of stairs and into the hallway leading to the home dugout. Soon after, BlueClaws mascot Buster arrived on the back of a pickup truck, ready for the pregame festivities.
Dad and I are a package deal. Whenever I throw out a first pitch at a ballgame, he likes to crouch a bit behind the catcher as the umpire, always calling a decisive strike three, no matter where the pitch is located. This time, I threw the ball a bit inside, but relief pitcher Konnor Ash — who would take the mound himself in the sixth inning — framed the pitch nicely playing catcher, and Dad rung up our imaginary batter with gusto.
Members of Jersey Shore Chorale performed a lovely national anthem. You can listen to the full performance here.
It was time to play ball. Jersey Shore starter Gabriel Cotto, a seventh-round draft pick from Puerto Rico, walked two Brooklyn batters in the top of the first. But the left-hander used a crafty pickoff move to catch Jett Williams — the Mets first-round pick in the 2022 draft — trying to steal third base. A groundout closed out the inning with no harm done.
The Cyclones started 22-year-old right-hander Robert Colina. He got into trouble right away, giving up singles to Jersey Shore third baseman Nick Ward and left fielder Marcus Lee Sang to start the game. The next batter, Gabriel Rincones, the #7 prospect in the Phillies organization, hit a double down the left-field line that scored both runners. Rincones Jr., a third-round pick in 2022, had started the season with the Single-A Clearwater Threshers, hitting .264 in 48 games before his promotion to Jersey Shore.
Robert Colina
Gabriel Rincones Jr.
The home team led it early, 2-0.
Dad and I spent the second inning in the radio booth with Greg Giombarrese, Jersey Shore Director of Communications and play-by-play broadcaster. We chatted about the trip between pitches, covering our time on the Jersey Shore and the nature of our father-son marathon baseball road trips. Giombarrese had taken an interest in our trip long before we arrived and was an excellent on-air host.
Our thoughts turned quickly to food. I asked two of Giombarrese’s interns about the best options at the ballpark. Without hesitation, they pointed me to Mr. Miyagi, down the first-base line. Mr. Miyagi’s teriyaki bowls come with chicken, pork, shrimp, or rib eye. We went with the chicken, and it was one of the tastiest items we ate at any ballpark on the trip.
Colina had recovered from his shaky first-inning start. Despite giving up singles in each of the next four innings, he prevented Jersey Shore from pushing another run across, finishing his night with seven strikeouts and no walks in five innings.
The BlueClaws still held a 2-0 lead in the top of the fifth when the wheels started to come off for Cotto. The Cyclones led off with a walk and a single before Williams doubled to bring home the team’s first run. Brooklyn center fielder Alex Ramírez singled to plate two more. The Cyclones had taken a 3-2 lead.
I walked down the right-field line and found three large eyeballs waiting for their moment of glory. At every BlueClaws game, two races take place — one between three eyeballs (the blue eye won on this night), and one between the ingredients of a Manhattan Bagel: pork roll, egg, and cheese.
I found more fun in the right-field corner: the mini golf course, costing just $4 and honoring a BlueClaws alumnus at each hole.
When Colina left the game, Brooklyn got sloppy and paid for it. Jersey Shore’s first two batters in the bottom of the sixth reached base on errors, and reliever Dylan Hall followed with a wild pitch and three singles. Another throwing error completed the meltdown, and Hall was lifted from the game, having recorded just two outs and giving up four unearned runs. Jersey Shore had retaken the lead, 6-3.
Hall’s career with the Mets was going steadily in the wrong direction. He had started his season with the Triple-A Syracuse Mets but was demoted to the Double-A Binghamton Rumble Ponies in June, then to the High-A Cyclones in July. The Mets would release him at the end of the season, despite finishing with a 3.10 ERA in 36 games.
As the sun set over the third-base side, it was a good time to visit the concourse in center field to see the ballpark’s collection of classic boardwalk games. Kids tried their luck at goblet toss, balloon darts, cat rack, and hoop toss with stuffed toys and other prizes at stake. The colored lights and carnival fun are a unique touch that really round out the Jersey Shore brand.
Konnor Ash — who had helped make me look good on my first pitch — shut down the Cyclones in relief, notching five strikeouts in just two innings. He would finish his time in Lakewood with a nifty 2.35 ERA in 16 appearances, collecting 37 strikeouts in 23 innings.
I took Dad up to the second level to watch the end of the game from a balcony. On our way, we passed the Blue Wave Bar, serving food and drinks and available to all fans.
Neither team mounted much of a threat in the final three frames. Jersey Shore held on to its lead and won it 6-3.
It had been a busy night for us: throwing out the first pitch, joining the radio broadcast, and exploring this unique ballpark during a satisfying win for the home team. But after 10 straight days of baseball, our journey had just hit the halfway point.
