Online Encyclopedia
Brooklyn Cyclones
The Brooklyn Cyclones are a minor league baseball team, affiliated to the New York Mets. The Cyclones play at KeySpan Park just off the boardwalk on Coney Island.
In 1999, New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani announced a deal that would bring two minor-league teams to the outer boroughs of the city. New stadiums would be constructed for the Staten Island Yankees and an as-yet-unnamed team to play at Coney Island. A name-the-team contest was held, and the club became known as the Cyclones, named for the famous Cyclone roller coaster at a nearby amusement park.
The team that would make the move to Brooklyn was the St. Catharines, Ontario Stompers of the New York - Penn League. The club played its 2000 season at St. John's University in Jamaica, in the borough of Queens, remaining a Toronto Blue Jays affiliate for one last season. The club was known as the "Queens Kings" that year.
By 2001, the new park was ready and all of Brooklyn was buzzing with excitement. There had been no professional baseball in the borough – indeed, no professional sports at all – since the Dodgers had left Ebbets Field in the Flatbush section for the sunny climes of California. The team proved so popular that additional seats were added to the ballpark about three weeks after opening day. They sold out in a hurry, too.
To top it all off, the Cyclones were a good team. They had the best record in the league at 52-24, and they defeated the Staten Island Yankees, 2 games to 1, in the opening playoff round. The championship series was against the Williamsport Crosscutters, and the Cyclones traveled to Bowman Field in Williamsport, Pennsylvania and won the series opener on September 9. The potential championship clincher was scheduled for September 11 in Brooklyn, but that morning the World Trade Center in Manhattan was destroyed in a terrorist attack and the league canceled the remainder of the series, leaving Brooklyn and Williamsport as co-champions.
Since then, the Cyclones have continually sold out KeySpan Park and remain a top tourist attraction. They lost the 2003 league championship to Williamsport, 2 games to 0.