There are exciting things happening at the home of the Jersey Shore BlueClaws where you'll not only be able to enjoy watching some great prospects take the field but also feast your eyes on new food options and kickback in suites that are Jersey Shore themed.

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It is a much more normal start to the 2022 season which is why there's more buzz right now than we've seen since 2019.

There was no minor league season in 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic and MLB 60-game season.

There were still Covid protocols in place to start and for much of the season in 2021.

Now, it'll have all the old feels at the ballpark in 2022.

"It's been three years since we've actually opened up a normal season," BlueClaws Team President/GM Joe Ricciutti tells Townsquare Media News. "Last year, we looked out on the berms and they were all boxed out because we had to have social distancing. We went from 5,900 seats in the seating bowl itself down to 1,100 when we put in six-foot social distancing rules."

The BlueClaws, like many other teams, were glad they were able to have games and have fans again.

"Now, with all of that luckily behind us, hopefully, we get to open up in a normal sense and that just means that we worry about the stuff that we normally worry about which is rain and making sure that the beer is cold and the food is hot and everybody is coming and having a good time," Ricciutti said.

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One such place any fan will be able to enjoy new food at First Energy Park will be at the new Blue Wave Bar along the third base line on the concourse featuring cold beer and drinks as well as delicious seafood dishes and more.

"We wanted to bring in some new food that you can't get anywhere else on the concourse -- clam strip platters, and the coconut shrimp, and the fried shrimp platters, and crab cakes -- and typical ballpark food -- burgers, wings, and nachos," Ricciutti said. "We just wanted it to feel like a cool bar you go to at the Jersey Shore."

There's also new pictures on the walls on the inside of the ballpark and very, very Jersey Shore themed rooms, vibes and overall feels that'll make you feel like you're home, at the boardwalk, beach, and many of the great Jersey Shore venues and places that make summers here so great.

"This was the latest edition to the ballpark that continues the Jersey Shore theme," Ricciutti said. "When we got on board, our ownership group in 2017, we immediately began thinking of how do we freshen up the ballpark in ways that actually bring the Jersey Shore look and feel to the ballpark because we wanted to be able to give the Jersey Shore the one thing that it just didn't have -- it didn't have its own hometown baseball team and we wanted to be able to be that team for everybody, regardless of Monmouth County, Ocean County -- we wanted to be the hometown team."

Since 2017, Ricciutti adds that there have been boardwalk games added on the concourse, 9-hole mini-golf, an ice cream shop, an upgrading of the picnic areas, and even updating a couple of the suites to make them more Jersey Shore themed -- there's even a Manasquan room filled with pictures/a mural of that town, and there are plans to add the same theme of other Monmouth/Ocean County towns to the other suites.

You can learn more in the video and pictures below!

Single-Game tickets, btw, go on sale Saturday.

Jersey Shore BlueClaws 2022 Additions

BlueClaws memories over the years

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