BROOKLYN CYCLONES TV

With no TV contracts, they operate on sponsorships, concessions, and gate receipts, while player salaries are paid by their senior ball clubs. Like most team affiliates, the Cyclones are primarily in the business of developing players for the majors. Two years later, they went 48-70 and dropped to 5th place. It was Brooklyn’s first baseball title since the 1955 Dodgers. In 2019, they defeated the Lowell Spinners, the Red Sox farm team, for the league championship. Ironically, the pandemic followed the Cyclones’ most successful season and preceded their worst. Then came Covid-19, which shut down most sports in 2020. “There was a lot of community support and getting people back into the stadium felt like a real accomplishment.” “It was a real struggle and we weren’t sure we were going to be able to play here,” recalls Cohen.

Hurricane Sandy, which barreled up the Atlantic coast in November of 2012, flooded the field and destroyed much of the area. Two more out-sized events would disrupt ball play in Brooklyn. Both teams were declared co-champions for that year. The next game was scheduled in Brooklyn on 9/11, but the attacks in downtown New York City and Washington, DC canceled the match and the rest of the baseball season.

BROOKLYN CYCLONES SERIES

The Cyclones won the series opener 8-4 against the Williamsport Crosscutters on September 10, 2001. The team finished their inaugural year with a 52-24 record and went on to beat the Staten Island Yankees in the “Battle of the Boroughs” for a berth at the NY-Penn League championship. Tickets were so popular in the Cyclones’ first season that additional seats were added in the stadium to accommodate the unexpected swell of fans. Louis Cardinals affiliate in Florida before joining the Mets minor league outfit. The latter acquired the Mets and their affiliates at the end of 2020.ĭo you shop on Amazon? Support SPORTS HISTORY WEEKLY by clicking here for any of your Amazon shopping needsīrooklyn-born himself, Cohen grew up in nearby Long Island and studied Sports Management at UMass-Amherst. “The second generation wants to experience what their parents had,” says Cohen, who has no relation to the current Mets owner with the same name, Steve Cohen. At every game, the Cyclones also entertain the crowd with a hot dog race on the field between ketchup, mustard, and relish, sponsored by Nathan’s Famous. Everything in the vicinity conjures early and mid-20th century images, such as the Cyclone Roller-Coaster, which the team is named after, the original Nathan’s Famous hot dogs, and the board-walk along the ocean.Īmong the team’s mascots are ‘Sandy the Seagull’ and ‘Pee Wee’, named after Hall of Fame pitcher, Sandy Koufax, and Reese. The Cyclones play in Maimonides Park, a 7,000-seat stadium adjacent to Coney Island’s famed amusement park. Old-timers still reminisce about the 1955 World Series, the only victory the Dodgers could muster against their cross-town rivals, the Yankees. Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, and Gil Hodges are memorialized in monuments, parkways, and gardens throughout the borough.

BROOKLYN CYCLONES PROFESSIONAL

When they opened their gates a little more than two decades ago, they were the first professional sports team to return to Brooklyn since the Dodgers packed up for Los Angeles in 1958.īUY- Autographed Danny Garcia photo (former Cyclone)įew places in America evoke more baseball nostalgia than Brooklyn, New York. The Brooklyn Cyclones are the New York Mets’ A-league franchise. “I remember the line going around the block and thinking, this is bigger than what we expected.”

Steve Cohen, Vice-President of the Brooklyn Cyclones, was there when tickets first went on sale in the Spring of 2001.

Brooklyn cyclones