In December 1985, the New York Mets threatened to use their territorial rights to block
state senator Tom Bartosiewicz's plan to find a AAA level minor league team willing to move to Brooklyn. At that
point, betting against Brooklyn ever seeing professional baseball again would have seemed a smart
play.
In 2001, though, it was the Mets that finally brought pro ball back to Brooklyn, in the lesser
form of the short season
A level Cyclones. This happened via a convoluted deal between the Mets and Blue Jays. In 2000 a team
of Blue Jays minor leaguers played for a team owned by the Mets at St John's University in Queens.
This team was called the Queens Kings. The franchise then moved to new Keyspan Park at Coney Island
in 2001, was freshly stocked with Mets minor leaguers, and became the Brooklyn Cyclones.
The team name
was the result of a fan contest, in which several thousand entries (including one from this half of
BrooklynBallParks.com) all suggested the same name. The eventual winner of
the contest, and for that purpose, official namer of the team, was John Diffley of Port Jefferson, NY.
The Cyclone in the name refers to the famous nearby roller coaster at Astroland amusement park, which
dates back to 1927.
The Cyclones were entered in the NY-Penn League, and acquired an instant arch rival, in the form
of the brand new Staten Island Yankees. This was no surprise- the two teams and their stadiums were
announced at the same time in 1999. It seems highly unlikely that either the Mets or Yankees would have
allowed the other to put a new team in the city alone.
Cyclones caps- designed to remind us of an earlier team
The 2001 Brooklyn Cyclones won their first ever game, 2 to 1 at
Jamestown, and went from strength to strength. The team finished the
season 52-24, 30-8 at their Keyspan Park home. Led by pitcher Ross Peeples (9 wins, 1.34 ERA),
the Cyclones won the
McNamara division, defeated the Yankees in the playoffs, and finished up being declared
co-champions with Willamsport when the final playoff series was abandoned after the
terrorist attacks of September 11.
Since then, the team has been erratic. Continuity from season to
season is almost non-existent, as is the case with single-A teams
everywhere. The Cyclone Club won the McNamara Division again in 2003 and
2004, but has not taken another league championship.
Crowd favorites - Ambiorix Concepcion, Ross Peeples, Derran Watts
In that time, the Cyclones have had a number of crowd favorites. At his best in 2001, Ross Peeples
appeared unhittable. Scott Kazmir made a cup-of-coffee
appearance in 2002 as a flamethrowing pitcher on his way to bigger things. The Cyclones crowd took
his subsequent trade to the Devil Rays very badly. Ambiorix Concepcion won fans as much for his
fun to chant name as for leading the team in home runs and stolen bases in 2004. In the same year, Derran
Watts managed to be involved in most of the bizarre plays that happened- from a bunted walk off home
run to hitting a sign and winning a suit. Pitcher Bobby Parnell was a safe bet in 2005, leading the
league with a fine ERA of 1.73, and he started the All Star Game at Keyspan Park. Ike Davis, who
hardly set the world on fire with the 2008 Cyclones, hit better and better as he rose through the ranks and
may yet prove to be the franchise's best product as he settles into the full time first base job with the
Mets in 2010.
The 2009 Cyclones started 16-2, and fans dreamed of a league title, but it wasn't to be. The
team landed a wild card spot at 45-30, and was swept out of the playoffs by Mahoning Valley. The undisputed
highlight of the year was Brandon Moore's no hitter - the first in Cyclones history - in a 5-0 win over
Aberdeen in Maryland.
2010 marks the tenth season of the Cyclones, an occasion marked by a season long celebration. The team
remains the biggest draw, by far, in the New York-Penn League. Mets favorite Wally Backman is managing the
squad, and hopes are once again high for Brooklyn's professional baseball club.
