Heartening opening night crowd for Jackals at Hinchliffe after poor turnout last season

PATERSON — It was hard to ignore the many youngsters at the New Jersey Jackals’ home opener at Hinchliffe Stadium on Thursday night.

Kids were all over the stadium, scarfing down hot dogs, chasing foul balls, and cheering on the home team in its win over the New York Boulders.

In an attempt to turn around the minor league franchise’s dismal attendance last year, the team concentrated its outreach on schools and the local Little League. That seemed to pay off, as the Jackals had their largest crowd since the stadium reopened.

Story continues below photo gallery

The team says it sold 7,122 tickets and that 2,652 people came to the game. The numbers still fell far short of Mayor Andre Sayegh’s pregame predictions of more than 7,000 attendees. But the mayor and the Jackals were happy about the progress compared to last year.

Only weeks ago, Sayegh was handing out nearly 300 free tickets to last night’s game at the Old Timers Youth Baseball League opening day ceremonies at Hinchliffe. The giveaway was a gift from local philanthropist Marilyn Clark, who donated 5,000 tickets. Based on the number of children wearing their uniforms at the stadium, outreach to the Little League was one of the best strategies, according to Sayegh.

“We’re going to keep doing it,” Sayegh said about the ticket giveaway at the Little League opening day. “Our plan was to make sure Little Leaguers in Paterson had the chance to potentially go to their first ever professional baseball game.”

Among those Little Leaguers was Victoria Ortiz, a 10-year-old player for the Pirates, who perhaps uttered words never spoken before at Hinchliffe Stadium since its official reopening last year.

“The stadium is really big but it’s also kind of crowded,” said Ortiz as her teammate, Aubrey Lippman, 9, nodded in agreement.

Increasing outreach to the community

Last year, the team hired a new general manager, John Hunt, who reportedly led North Carolina's Wilmington Sharks of the Coastal Plain League to the team’s best attendance in 26 years. Jackals owner Al Dorso, who was at Hinchliffe on Thursday night, said that Hunt’s success in filling the seats at Buck Hardee Field, where the Sharks play, was a factor in the decision to hire him.

Dorso said there were some new hires in management since Hunt took over. But the biggest change in approach was increasing outreach to the community, which included a reading program in which a different Jackals ballplayer visited schools in the region and recited storybooks.

There are also collaborations with Dorso’s other minor league team, the Sussex County Miners. His son, Michael Dorso, is president of both franchises.

“If the Miners are doing something well, we bring it to the Jackals,” Dorso said. “He has a lot of support behind him.”

Hunt told Paterson Press that the Jackals’ turnout woes were not limited to last year, when the team moved to Hinchliffe Stadium and notched the Frontier League’s worst attendance. “The team has had low attendance for more than 10 years,” Hunt said. “Last year, they didn’t promote the team properly.”

Concession prices down

Ramon Lopez, a Paterson resident who came to Jackals games last year, said the sight of so many new fans at the stadium was auspicious for the team’s future. Lopez, who coaches the Pirates, came to the game with his 15-year-old son Ayden, a ballplayer. He said one of the noticeable changes was that the prices at the concession — with $5 hot dogs and $6.50 hamburgers — were cheaper than last year.

“That definitely helps,” Lopez said. “In an environment like Paterson, people will come if they know the food and drinks are cheap.”

Sayegh, who was caught in a long, snaking line for the concession stand in the sixth inning, said concession prices were one of the complaints he had heard from ticket buyers.

“We took notes and implemented what people wanted to see,” Sayegh said.

Negro Leagues museum

Another thing that was new this year to ticket holders is the Negro Leagues museum, which is open before the game. That’s where Paterson Press found Amanda Addotta, who grew up in Haledon but has since relocated to the Jersey Shore. She and two friends were wandering through exhibits and learning about such greats as Larry Doby and Satchel Page.

The museum also has a small display case dedicated to local star athletes, which included world-record holding broad jumper Eleanor Egg, who is related to Addotta. “I’m learning about my family history,” she said.

The only major gripe about the stadium came from Margaret Ghosio, a New York Boulder fan who came down on a charter bus with 40 other fans. She thought the crowded concession area needed more booths open and she thought Hinchliffe’s notoriously short right field home run wall might be giving the home team an unfair advantage.

The game remained close until the sixth inning, when the Jackals catapulted ahead, then never looked back, winning 14-6 with home runs from Ryan Ford and Hemmanuel Rosario.

“You need a regulation field,” Ghosio said.

However, Anthony Mormile, who drove up from Wildwood to see his son, Chris Mormile, the Jackals’ new right-handed pitcher, begged to differ. “They can hit a home run the same way that we do,” Mormile said.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ Jackals at Hinchliffe in Paterson see nice turnout on opening night