Brooklyn Cyclones: Coney Island Enters New World Order

From the desk: THE SURF AVENUE SLUGGERS

Brooklyn's First Professional 

Baseball Game in April Since 1957?

Sith Lord Rob Manfred issued Major League Baseball's manifesto for subordinate affiliation.  

The days of Minor League Baseball, as we once knew it is hereby over.  Prepare for inauguration into the new world order of the Professional Development League.  For years, Commissioner Rob Manfred and MLB owners have been bearing down on MiLB like an encroaching asteroid upon the dinosaurs.  Today, we are them, witnesses to the tragic end of well over a century's worth of history and tradition.  Major League Baseball now governs all aspects of Minor League baseball with the expiration back in September of the Professional Baseball Agreement between MLB and MiLB.

Negotiated affiliation, two and four-year Player Development Agreements, and the September Open Period are official ways of the past.  Team affiliation is now on an invitation basis in which teams are granted PDL licenses stretching ten to twelve years in length.  Also eradicated from the landscape are memberships in historic leagues such as the Pacific Coast League, Eastern League, South-Atlantic League, Texas League, New York-Penn League, just to name a few.  In this new regionalized and compressed four-tier system, each major league organization pares down minor operations to only four teams.  Each participates in Low-A, High-A, Double-A, and Triple-A, respectively.  Rookie and short season-A leagues are no more.

Like any end to an era and the start of one anew, change is good for some and not so much for others. The Battle of the Boroughs between the Cyclones and their rival Staten Island Yankees draws to an unfortunate close.  Richmond County at present is without a team with little chance for enticing another as the Staten Island ownership still owns the lease on the Ballpark at St. George, far from an ideal situation for any incoming organization, independent or otherwise.

Alas, the Brooklyn Cyclones, Hudson Valley Renegades, and Aberdeen Ironbirds bid adieu to the New York-Penn League and hello to the newly formed HIGH-A EAST North Division where they will be joined by the Wilmington Blue Rocks, formerly of the Carolina League and the rebranded Jersey Shore Blue Claws formerly of the South-Atlantic League.

The HIGH-A EAST North Division:

• Brooklyn Cyclones (New York-Penn League)
• Hudson Valley Renegades (New York-Penn League)
• Aberdeen Ironbirds (New York-Penn League)
• Wilmington Blue Rocks (Carolina League)
• Jersey Shore Blue Claws (South-Atlantic League)

The HIGH-A EAST South Division:

• Ashville Tourists (South-Atlantic League)
• Greensboro Grasshoppers (South-Atlantic League)
• Hickory Crawdads (South-Atlantic League)
• Rome Braves (South-Atlantic League)
• Greenville Drive (Carolina League)
• Winston-Salem Dash (Carolina League)
• Bowling Green Hot Rods (Midwest League)

The Brooklyn Cyclones under the old system graduate from short-season low-A to full-season high-A.  Once schedules are posted, the Cyclones stand to become the first Brooklyn professional baseball team to take the field for a game in April since 1957, when the Dodgers last played at Ebbets Field.  I greatly anticipate the historic day to come and hope beyond hope that I may attend.