Brooklyn Cyclones Mets Class A Baseball in Coney Island

Now beginning their 3rd Season at KeySpanPark, the Brooklyn Cyclones have become one of the most succesfull teams in minor league baseball.

In 2001 they broke the NY Penn league single team attendance record, drawing 289,381 fans to Coney Island.

Under manager Edgar Alfonso, they also broke records on the field that first year with a 52-24 (.684) record.

A feat that won Alfonso the NYP award for Manager of the year in 2001.

With Pitching coach Bobbie Ojeda, they also had the best pitching (2.37 Team ERA) led by Ross Peeples (9-3, 1.34 ERA), Harold Eckert, (9-1, 3.34 ERA) and SI Yankee killer Luz Portobanco (5-3 2.04 ERA).

Hitting coach Howard Johnnson duplicated Ojeda's achievements in batting with a.279 team average, also the best in the league that year.

1st baseman Jay Caliigiuri led the Cyclones in batting (.328) and fielding, (.996) that year.

OF Frank Corr tied for the HR record with 13 round tripers, while OF Angel Pagan tied for the stolen base record with 30 steals.

That led them to a showdown with their McNamara division rivals, the Staten Island Yankees who had never won a game at KeySpan and would not win one until their 9th attempt on 7/26/02.

After loosing that first game at RBC Park behind usually reliable SI Yankee killer Luz Portobanco, the Cyclones won the series 2-1 by sweeping the next 2 games at KeySpan Park.

After that it seemed there was no stopping these 2001 Cyclones.

They went on to face the team with the 2nd best record in the league for the NY Penn League finals, the Williamsport Crosscutters who they beat in Williamsport

The tragedy of 9/11 finally brought the Cyclones first season to an end and they were declared co-champions with Williamsport.

At the start of their 2nd season in 2002 with Edgar Alfonso now coaching in Port ST Lucie and Howard Johnson as the new manager, they again broke their own attendance record by attracting 317,124 fans to KeySpan Park.

This time however they would not duplicate their 2001 results on the field, despite the return of many players from the previous year like Frank Corr and John Toner.

After splitting their first 2 series, the Cyclones lost their "Battle of the Bridge" regular season series to the Staten Island Yankees who finally ended their 8 game loosing streak at KeySpan on 7/26/02 with a 7-4 win over the Cyclones and shut them out over their last 3 games.

The SI Yanks would go on to the championship while the Cyclones posted a disappointing .500 over all record while loosing 12 of their last 13 games.

There were also disciplinary problems on the team as well as outfielder Haj Turay who sported a .327 B.A and a .484 slugging average after 40 games was sent home prior to the end of the season.

Howard Johnson was replaced by Tim Teufel as the Cyclones manager for the 2003 season.

There were many bright spots on the 2002 team including the debut of Mets number one draft pick Scott Kazmir at KeySpan Park who posted a .50 ERA and 34 SO over 18 innings and a blazing fastball in the mid 90's.

Kevin Deaton had a 3.07 ERA and led the team with a 7-1 record (7 in a row) and 93 SO over 82 innings pitched.

Miguel Pinango pitched a no hitter over 8 1/3 innings and Corey Ragsdale, Joe Jiannetti and Brett Harper made for a great double play combination.

Blake Whealey led the Cyclones in 3 categories, avg, (.289) HR (10) and RBI (34) while Joe Jiannetti had a 15 game hitting streak.