NJ Has The 'Worst' Baseball Cities In The Nation: Report

NEW JERSEY — Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack, but perhaps somewhere other than Jersey City or Hackensack. The Phillies have South Jersey hyped with baseball fever. But at the same time, the Garden State has some of the nation's worst cities for America's pastime, according to analysis from WalletHub.

One silver lining: they're not quite the worst of the worst, as Jersey City and Hackensack both have higher-level teams. But Jersey City took last place, with Hackensack ranked second-to-last on WalletHub's 332-city list, which included locales with at least one professional or college baseball squad.

WalletHub examined 31 indicators of baseball fan-friendliness, including team performance levels, ticket prices and stadium accessibility.

Here's how New Jersey's cities ranked, along with which teams call those locales home:

• 112. Newark: Newark Bears (minor leagues) and several college teams.
• 122. Princeton: Princeton University Tigers.
• 161. New Brunswick: Rutgers University plays in Piscataway.
• 234. Bridgewater: Somerset Patriots (minor leagues)
• 293. Lakewood: Jersey Shore BlueClaws (minor leagues)
• 301. Long Branch: the Monmouth University Hawks compete in West Long Branch.
• 312. Trenton: Trenton Thunder (minor leagues) and several college teams.
• 331. Hackensack: the Fairleigh Dickinson University Knights play in Teaneck, but the Metropolitan Campus stretches into Hackensack, as well.
• 332. Jersey City: several college teams.

WalletHub named New York the nation's best baseball city, but the city also ranked last in terms of the accessibility of its MLB stadiums. St. Louis, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Boston round out WalletHub's top five, in that order. Philadelphia ranks 18th.

Phillies fans — including their New Jersey fans, who tend to live in South Jersey — can look forward to the upcoming World Series. The series against the Astros begins at 8:03 p.m. Friday at Houston's Minute Maid Park. So while the Yankees' historic success surely aided New York's No. 1 ranking, Philadelphia has the chance to make up ground.

Here's more Phillies coverage from Patch:

• Philadelphia Phillies Fans Frenzied Over World Series Trip
• Phillies 1993 World Series Player Sees Similarities With 2022 Team
• How Ruben Amaro Jr. Helped Build Phillies World Series Team
• Phillies 'Old School' Ball Bucks Trends Of Their Superteam Opponents
• World Series Game On Phillies Fan Bucket List: Philly Sports Chatter

See WalletHub's rankings and methodology.