A Night With the Best Baseball Team in New York

About a half-hour earlier than a mid-August Brooklyn Cyclones sport, a household of three, a reporter and a middle-aged man wearing a Jedi gown walked into an elevator at Maimonides Park. As the door closed they usually started their ascent, the Jedi turned to the others and requested, “So, what planet are you all from?”

“Um, Brooklyn,” responded the matriarch of the household. The Jedi proceeded to hum “Mad About Me,” by the Mos Eisley Cantina home band, Figrin D’an and the Modal Nodes, as if to inform them he was from the planet Tatooine.

When the elevator doorways opened they usually stepped out onto the concourse, they joined tons of of different Jedi knights and Padawan learners fanning out throughout the ballpark, mingling with the mere mortals who got here outfitted with scorebooks, pencils and baseball gloves. Out past the right-field wall, within the space often called the Backyard, just a few hundred others had been pounding brews and enjoying cornhole, blissfully unaware {that a} baseball sport — the occasion that their ticket stated that they had paid to see — was about to start. The two major attracts on this specific Saturday had been Star Wars Night and the $50 all-you-can-drink deal.

The subsequent afternoon, followers who got here to see Brooklyn’s 6-0 win within the collection finale between the Cyclones and the Aberdeen IronBirds had been additionally there for bottomless mimosas on the rooftop and to play catch in left area earlier than the primary pitch.

In sum, it was simply one other summer time weekend at this ballpark on the boardwalk — residence of the Cyclones, the High-A affiliate of the Mets — the place kids run the bases after the final out is recorded and veteran season-ticket holders lead the group in chants. It can be the one spot on the town this baseball season to see a profitable native skilled staff.

This summer time, the professional staff with the most effective report in New York City performs its residence video games not within the Bronx or Queens however in Brooklyn. As the Mets and the Yankees wallowed in fourth and fifth place initially of this week, the Cyclones held a two-game lead over the Jersey Shore BlueClaws within the South Atlantic League’s northern division.

“Stevie Cohen can buy the Mets, but he can’t buy these vibes,” stated Josh Schoen, referring to Steven A. Cohen, the billionaire proprietor of Mets, and never Steven J. Cohen, the longtime vp of the Cyclones.

Schoen, 31, used to have season tickets at Yankee Stadium, although he stated he additionally roots for the Mets. He and a bunch of associates went to the sport in Brooklyn to get pleasure from “the booze and the atmosphere.”

“And they win more than the Yankees and Mets,” he added of the Cyclones.

From the place Schoen was standing within the Backyard, it was tough to observe the motion on the sector. Fans might see by solely a portion of the right-field wall, prompting Caroline Kelley to jokingly ask her boyfriend, Brian O’Reilly, if she might stand on his shoulders to see over the barrier whereas they performed cornhole.

Allie Ditkowich was celebrating her thirty third birthday on the Cyclones sport that evening.

Standing close to the see-through part of the wall, Ditkowich and her “Metsy Bestie” Ben Engle lamented the misfortunes of their favourite M.L.B. staff. Brooklyn misplaced to Aberdeen, 8–3, but it surely was nowhere close to as brutal as what occurred in Queens that day. Atlanta took each video games of a doubleheader from the Mets by a mixed rating of 27–3.

Elizabeth Beller-Dee was standing on the concourse on the right-field aspect of Maimonides Park together with her 19-month-old daughter, Leslie.

She stated she had been coming to Cyclones video games since 2001, the staff’s inaugural season: “They’re a great gateway drug to professional baseball.”

Her 4-year-old son, Henry, was not together with her. He was off elsewhere within the ballpark “getting trained to be a Padawan.”

When the sport ended, hundreds of followers migrated over to the seats down the right-field line close to Section 20 so they might line as much as run the bases. But first, the Empire Saber Guild, a fan membership that wears costumes from the Star Wars universe and performs choreographed gentle saber exhibits, took the sector to stage a battle. As it did, the children within the stands chanted, “Fight! Fight! Fight!”

After order had been restored to the galaxy, it was time for fireworks. Only after the grand finale did the sector gate lastly open for followers to run the bases.

At brunch on the rooftop the subsequent day, Maurice Geary, who lives in Barbados, stated coming to Coney Island for the Cyclones, the amusement park and Brighton Beach was his favourite factor to do in New York.

His good friend Amy Maxmen stated she hated sports activities however had rapidly discovered that Sunday’s expertise can be totally different.

“There’s a lot going on,” she stated. “There’s a lot to look at over here. There’s brunch. All you can drink. Good times.

“I’ve only been to serious baseball games and did not like them,” she added. “I like the idea of this being minor leagues. This is much better for me.”

When the sport began, the regulars had been already in place close to the first-base dugout. David Pecoraro was sporting a Cyclones bucket hat, in addition to a T-shirt with No. 7 and “Alfonzo” spelled throughout the again — for the previous Cyclones supervisor Edgar Alfonzo — and loads of zinc oxide on his face. A pedantic scorekeeper, Pecoraro has been a season-ticket holder for a couple of decade.

His favourite reminiscence, Pecoraro stated, was attending a sport together with his son, Danny, in 2019, when the Cyclones clinched the championship over the Lowell Spinners.

“The Brooklyn Cyclones experience is about having a great time on the beach and getting to see the future Mets,” he stated.

The hope is that these future Mets will convey their profitable methods with them to Queens, sooner quite than later.