2010
NEW YORK PENN LEAGUE
McNAMARA DIVISION CHAMPS
BROOKLYN CYCLONES
2001 ~ 2003 ~ 2004 ~ 2007 ~ 2010
Our Baby Bums "doo'd it" again for the fifth time; We captured a division pennant. Now the Cyclones will set out to chase, and perhaps tie the Club's record for most wins in a season. The record for most wins by the Cyclones was set by the original 2001 Cyclone team. That team fashioned a 52-24 mark on their way to a NYPL Championship. The 2010 Brooklyn Cyclones currently sport a 44-21 record.
Last night's final was a 10-0 shutout road victory over the Connecticut Tigers. Yohan Almonte (BKN) pitched the league's first complete game shut-out of the NYPL season, surrendering only 6 hits on the night. Almonte improved his season record to 8-4 and lowered his ERA to 2.00 with the effort. The Baby Bums will return to Coney Island for a Tuesday game versus Vermont. Including this Sunday afternoon's game the Cyclones have eight games remaining on the schedule before the playoffs. As the team currently with the best record in the league, the Cyclones will face the Wild Card team in the first round of playoffs.
I will be at the game Tuesday night to welcome our Boyz back, congratulate them Lil Bumz for the division pennant and root them on to another regular season victory against the
Vermont Lake Monsters.
The Cyclones have been an offensive juggernaut this season in terms of NYPL expected production levels. Brooklyn has ridden a Core of Five that Drive this team. Wally Backman has showed no hesitation using a set line-up and riding it. That is a debatable strategy when organizational development is called into to question. But the fact is, this is Brooklyn and the fan base demands just a little bit more from this team, than do perhaps our competition and their towns; to include Staten Island.. It's a little bit of a delicate balance the team and the parent club have to balance. But this team showed some very early promise and as they progressed through the schedule they showed no signs of slowing down. I'd offer when a baseball team shows early indications of something special, and nothing transpires to blur that vision, you ride the wave.
The Brooklyn Cyclones have ridden that wave since the second week of the season all the way to the famous seashores off Coney Island and a post season birth in what's proving to be one of the club's finest seasons ever.
Darrell CECILIANI has been by far this team's MVP if you're asking me. Maybe by the time I go through a little synopsis of the Five that Drive you'll debate me. That's all good.
Darrell Ceciliani is hitting .351 after 65 games played in 262 at-bats with 92 hits. He has 54 runs scored; 18 doubles; 11 triples; 34 RBI and 138 Total Bases while getting things started for the Cyclones at the top of the line-up.
In last night's game the Cyclones tied their club record for most home runs in a season set, again, by the original 2001 team. There are three primary reasons for that;
Cory Vaughn (Greg Vaughn's), Rylan Sandoval and Jeff Flagg.
*Cory Vaughn ~ .305 batting avg. ~ 63 games, 236 at-bats ~ 39 runs ~
12 HOME RUNS ~ 46 RBI
*Rylan Sandoval ~ *.330 batting avg. ~ 47 games
9 HOME RUNS ~ 29 RBI
*Jeff Flagg ~ .258 batting avg. ~ 65 games
8 HOME RUNS ~ 45 RBI
The fifth player deserved of mention as part of my self-described
"the Five that Drive" this team is infielder Joe Bonfe.
.322 batting avg. ~ 63 games ~ 33 runs ~ 13 doubles
4 home runs ~ 27 RBI
This has been a very dominant buncha Baby Bumz.
The league standings and statistic boards prove that out.
In my next Cyclone's post I'll review the pitchers who had a special season in their own right.
Wally Backman has benefited from the parent organization getting most of their amateur players signed after the draft and in uniform in time for the start of the 2010 A Class-Short Season. Wally has handled the players smartly, comported himself with professionalism, respect for the game and Brooklyn, and delivered fine baseball to the Borough of Kings.
This team is not a low-level minor league off the highway operation in my view. This team is a very BIG deal to me and a MAJOR part of my life now as it has been since day one. I watched everyday, girder by steal beam, as the home of my future Baby Bumz was being built. I was in attendance for their first game. I've experienced highs and lows with this team that rival the emotions I have for the Mets and MLB as a whole. I plan summer around my Cyclones tickets purchase every year and work everything else around that. What does that tell you?
I LOVE THIS TEAM!
My all-time ManCrush!
Picture if you will ~ Friday evenings, mid-summer, a Nathan's Hot Dog, Baseball, home town team, fireworks night, lemonade, a cool ocean breeze coming of the beach at Coney Island, neighborhood friends, old Brooklyn Dodger fans, new young Cyclones fans, a stroll on the boardwalk after a victory, taking a ride on NYC LandMarks ~ Cyclone Rollercoaster or the Wonder Wheel, then a ten minute drive home with no traffic. What's better than that?
and a few...
A relic of Coney Island's glorious past....
...and an instance where the past came alive again with Coney Island's
new LUNA PARK. Luna Park was one of the four original main parks
comprising Coney Island in it's famed heyday of 100 years ago and like the others,
burnt down multiple times, and after the last time, never restored again.
The new Luna Park replaces the AstroLand lot and is directly across the street from it's original home.
This is just but a small taste of what we lost with the closing of
ASTROLAND PARK
..A cool little train ride through Hell. Yippeee!
But after some...
...we all learn how to keep marching forward....
Just like these two guys who used to hang out in Brooklyn once..
Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson
..From Coney Island,
Let's Go Cyclones!!!
Mike.BTB
