Brooklyn

On Surprise Baseball

Keyspan Park, 2009

Saturday, July 18, 2009
Auburn Doubledays (Toronto Blue Jays) vs.
Brooklyn Cylones (New York Metropolitans)
Keyspan Park
New York-Penn League (A-)
Brooklyn, NY
6:00 PM


Outside the Game:
This was never intended to be a day at the game. The Cyclones Web site said that they were away, so I was just going down to Coney with a friend to go the Aquarium and Cyclone and whatnot.

We started off with the NY Aquarium. The only thing really new was a "4-D Experience" outside of the Aquarium proper, but for some reason, that did not appeal. We went through all the other exhibits inside, but took a pass on the sea lion show on this blazing hot day. (I always wanted to have a chat with whoever designed the amphitheater at the Aquarium. When did it seem like a good idea to anyone to construct a structure with a seating area completely made of heat-conductive metal, with no shade whatsoever, at a facility that is at a beach?)

Lazing walrus

After we got through the Aquarium, it was time to pay the pain tithe to the god Cyclone. Most surprisingly, it seemed like someone had thrown a new coat of paint on the old girl recently, and may have actually done some maintenance in the last five years. Oh sure, we were still battered around like a mouse caught by a cat, but the wounds went more superficial, and less spine-breaking.

My prediction? Pain.

On exiting, we discovered that the Village Voice was hosting some manner of music festival, so Coney was even more filled to the gills with hipsters than an average summer weekend. Navigating through the crowds of skinny jeans an oversized glasses, we visited the recently opened Coney Island Museum and then hit Nathan's for lunch. (It seems impossible that people still don't have the sense to go around to the lines at the back of Nathan's that are easily half the size of the ones up front.)

The original

After lunch, we were taking a walk to see the new Ringling Brothers attraction that had just opened on the other side of Keyspan Park when we discovered that there was, in fact, a game today, and we instead got in line for tickets to the game.


The Stadium & Fans:

Home plate to center field, Keyspan Park

Keyspan Park is one of the nicest minor league parks, as far as I'm concerned. Right on the beach and down the boardwalk from the main Coney Island attractions, it has the location and the ambiance. The park itself is a standard minor-league, one-tier bowl, with the press booth and luxury suites in a behind home-plate structure.

I've been there multiple times, and it really hasn't changed all that much since it opened, but it doesn't really need to.

The only disappointment was that in addition to the perennial presence of "King Ralph," the Cyclones added a "dance troupe" of party-patrol-esque women that are just barely on the happy side of the Marlin's Mermaid cheerleaders. I don't how many times this can be stated, but apparently at least once more is required: there are no cheerleaders in baseball.

King Ralph

After the main contest was a post-game fireworks show. With the ocean breeze coming in and the summer sun already beyond the horizon, it was Coney Island at its best.


At the Game with Oogie:

Pee-Wee

We got seats on the third base side, just outside of the shade, which made it a little uncomfortable until the sun eventually set.


The Game:

First pitch, Doubledays vs. Cyclones

The Doubledays scored first in the top of the fourth, and then it was nearly all Cyclones, who showed some power, sending four homers out of the yard on their way to an 11-3 romp.


The Scorecard:

Doubledays vs. Cyclones, 07/18/09. Cyclones win, 11-3.

The scorecard is part of the free giveaway program you get on the way into the stadium. The thin newsprint the Cyclones use is problematic for erasing, but otherwise is spacious enough and fine for a free program (although it is obviously based on the old Mets scorecard, without printing the actual pitching stats in the columns. Sadly, I can still write them in from memory.)

Click here to see all the photos from this trip.

2009 Stand-Alone

Brooklyn

GAME 9

Keyspan Park, 2006

Date: July 8, 2006, 6:00 PM
State College Spikes (St. Louis Cardinals) vs. 
Brooklyn Cyclones (NY Metropolitans)
Keyspan Park
Brooklyn, NY
NY Penn League, Class A, Short Season
Promotion: Dave & Carrie Bobble-head & Post-Game Wedding


The Stadium & Fans:
This is still one of my favorite parks in the country to see a game. Although a minor league park, the layout and location really sell the experience, especially in the summer when the heat and sun are dissipated by the ocean breeze coming over the outfield wall. Looking one way, you see the parachute drop and the ocean, and the other you see the amusement pier and the titular Cyclone. Awesome ballpark.

As with most minor league games, the crowd is largely made up of families and die-hard baseball fans, though the later are much more prevalent in the baseball history-laden borough of Brooklyn. There were, unfortunately, an annoying number of "there to be seen" trendies who couldn't tell you the teams playing while looking at the scoreboard.


Scorecard:

Spikes vs. Cyclones, 07/08/06. Spikes win, 3-1.

Although a free giveaway with sizable scoring boxes, the scorecard is still one of my biggest beefs with the Cyclone experience. It is a full-sized program for free, but they cut the costs by printing it on newsprint, which is the worst for trying to keep score. It tears and smudges easily, and the background printing of the logo makes erasing messier than it needs to be.


Miscellanea:
A couple bought up the game that day for their wedding. The giveaway was a bobble-head of them (which looked more Central American than Jewish), the between-inning events were all themed on weddings, and the wedding proper happened at the end of the game. It became a lot less heartwarming when I realized that they were both salespeople for Radio Disney and had used all their sales contacts to underwrite the whole affair. They have a website about it.


Travel & Other Non-Game Activities:
Man, as much as I like seeing games at Keyspan, it is quite a haul. It was actually quicker for me to drive down to the Trenton Thunder game than it is for me to get out to Coney Island.


The Game:
While Brooklyn has got some decent pitching and some rifle arms in the outfield (three assists this game), they have no offense to speak of. Brooklyn drops their third in a row, 3-1, and that one run was unearned. There was also a strikeout-passed ball combo that led to the batter reaching first on a strikeout.


Thus ends my trip. I did have Sunday to catch another game, but 9 games seemed to have a spiritual completeness to it. I have come to terms with my baseball geekery and found my spiritual Zen. I hope to spin this out into an even longer trip next year, heading further north or out west, as fates will take me.

Click here to see all the pictures from this trip.

2006 The East