Sussex County Miners

Me- Sussex County Miners, not wow! The Sussex County Miners are a new independent league baseball team this year. They play at Skylands Stadium. It doesn't look like any other stadium I have ever seen. It doesn't look like a baseball stadium at all. You cannot see the field at all from outside the stadium. There are not that many food or souvenir concessions. The ones that they have are mostly on the outside of the playing area, and you cannot see the game from there. There are two or three small concession carts inside the stadium, but they do not move round they just stay where they are and they do not sell that many different things. Vendors do not come around selling anything either. It is good because they don't get in your way, but bad because you have to get up if you want anything. The seats are strange. They don't fold up like in most stadiums, they are just open all the time. The seats are slightly more uncomfortable than at other stadiums I have been to but not that much. There are no playgrounds or other forms of entertainment at the stadium aside from the game. They also don't have as much between innings entertainment as at other stadiums, and what they do have starts later in the game then at other stadiums. If you are just looking for baseball, go see the Sussex County Miners, if you want other things to, you might prefer a different team.

Mom -  The Sussex's County Miners are New Jersey's newest Independent League baseball team. They play in the Can Am League. The Can Am League or the Canadian American Association of Professional Baseball is a league made up of Canadian and American teams. The American teams are located in New York and New Jersey. There is even one team in the league, the Garden State Grays that does not have a home stadium but always plays on the road. Skylands Stadium, home of the Miners, was formerly the home of the New Jersey Cardinals, an affliate of the Major League Cardinals. It later became the home of an independent league team called the Sussex Skyhawks. The Skyhawks ceased operations after the 2010 season. From then until, this year there  was no baseball team playing in the stadium. Starting with this season, the Sussex County Miners play there.

In July, we attended a Sussex County Miners game and overnight. At the game, the Miners played the Fargo Redhawks which is kind of strange because the Redhawks don't even seem to be in the same league as the Miners and are located all the way in North Dakota. The team played well that night and won the game although they currently sit third from last in the standings in the eight team league.

While the Miners do not have a lot of between innings entertainment or areas of the stadium like playgrounds or fun zones, they do have daily promotions. The daily promotions include: Munchy Mondays, Two for Tuesdays, Kids Go Free Wednesdays, Fireworks Saturdays and Family Fun Sundays. They also used to have free movies on Friday nights. However, they have been cancelled for the rest of the season. Sleepovers at the Stadium include at least one for Boy Scouts and one for Girl Scouts. Overnights include the game and breakfast. The breakfast was the best of all three stadiums we have stayed at and included bagels and donuts. Over all, it was better than at the Lakewood Blueclaws which did not include any meals, and not as good as the Riversharks which includes dinner, snack and breakfast. The Miners have one remaining Boy Scout overnight on August 22 . There are also some other remaining home games for the season. If you are interested in finding out more about the team or the stadium or in purchasing tickets to one of the remaining home games go to http://sussexcountyminers.com/tickets/ . If you are interested in going to a game, you better hurry, the Miners last home game is on September 7 less than a month away.

And that's our view. Have you ever been to an Independent League baseball game and if so where?

Tune in tomorrow for Tips for Tuesday.