It Ain’t Over ’til It’s Over. Now, It’s Over.

Main entrance to Yogi Berra Stadium, Jul-2002.

Interior of Yogi Berra Stadium, from the right-field berm, Jun-2004.

A gleaming office building punctuates the tree-lined setting on the north end of the Montclair State University campus. This photo is from Jul-1998.

Chronological Tour: Stop 130

• Location: Montclair State University (off Route 46), Little Falls, N.J. (map it using Google Maps)
• Opened: 1998
• Home team: New Jersey Jackals, Northeast League (1998-2004), Can-Am League (2005-19), Frontier League (2020-22); Montclair State University Red Hawks, New Jersey Athletic Conference
• Capacity: 3,784

Rating: 3 baseballs

Floyd Hall, chief executive officer of K mart and a resident of Montclair, had a stadium and an ice arena built on Montclair State University lands in Little Falls, adjacent to the academic campus in Montclair. When an opening arose in the Northeast League, Hall bought in and started the New Jersey Jackals. The stadium was finished just hours before the home opener in May 1998. Fans hungry for economical entertainment flocked to the ball park for a fun night out. (Hall sold the team to Al Dorso in the spring of 2017. Dorso also owns the Sussex County Miners.)

Attendance at the modest park tailed off after a booming start, as the novelty wore off and local competition arrived in nearby Newark. However, the Jackals have held their own. Competitive teams haven’t hurt, either, as the Jackals won the Northeast League title four times in their first seven seasons.

The Jackals’ run at Montclair State ended in August 2022. The next month, the club announced that they were relocating to a refurbished Hinchliffe Stadium in Paterson, one of only a few stadiums left in the nation that hosted Negro League baseball. Of course, the Red Hawks will continue to play here.

Getting to the Game

After about two seasons, the Jackals made a deal with the university parking manager to allow fans to park for free (building the cost into the ticket price). However, due to the expansion of dormitory housing and campus recreational facilities, parking near the stadium is limited, especially once school is back in session. Many fans now park in a relatively new garage located down the campus road.

NJ Transit rail serves the campus; Montclair State University Station at Little Falls is a short walk from the ballpark. However, trains only run on weekdays, and service is limited late at night. The closest bus on weekends leaves patrons on the south end of campus, and it is a ten-minute walk to the ball field.

Watching the Game

“Box” seats are red plastic folding seats (which over time have bleached out to a deep shade of pink), taking up the majority of the bowl; aluminum bleachers with red backs flank these, above the cross aisle. Red is a prominent color for both the Jackals and the Red Hawks. The original plans had several suites being erected above the seating bowl, but those were never built. There is an owner’s box next to the press box, and there is also a private “sky box” built out from the museum.

Unfortunately, the same lack of suites that helps make for a more homey atmosphere also makes this a very difficult park during sunny afternoons or on rainy days. The only shelter from which the game is visible is under the Yogi box or under some picnic umbrellas.

Lineups are posted on a whiteboard behind the press box, the only place on the concourse where one cannot see the game. The team also prints copies of the lineup and game notes and distributes them free of charge, in addition to selling a program.

Enjoying the Game

Like most teams, the Jackals run all sorts of between-inning promotions. One of the most enduring is their variation on the mascot race, called “Tackle the Jackal”, in which the youngster catches up to the mascot as in any race but, instead of winning a race to the plate, is encouraged to tackle Jack the Jackal somewhere past third base.

Pictured is Scott Freier, aka “Trumpet Guy”, who has played at over a thousand baseball games since the early 1990s. He used to put in regular appearances with the New Jersey Cardinals, and he has been known to travel as far as Virginia to toot his horn, but he has established a home base with the Jackals since the club was started. From his seat in Section FF above the cross aisle near the third-base dugout, Freier serenades opposing batters with the “Army Duff” when they strike out, a la the old Dodger Sym-Phony at Ebbets Field, and he plays other tunes in an effort to rally the Jackals.