Cyclones 2010

[Guest Edgy DC]

Want a disheartening stadium name? How about "Municipal Credit Union Park"?



It's probably not the best economy to be be marketing stadium naming rights. Anyhow, the Village Voice has the right idea in deciding to call it Wally Backman Park.

Actually, I just think we should start a populist movement to call CitiField "Seaver Stadium" and the former Keyspan "Strawberry Fields." Just refer to them as such in writing and common conversation as if everybody understands those are the actual correct names. It'll catch on. You'll see.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I agree. If the fans were all to settle on one non-corporate name, it would, before long, become semi-official. But coordinating this would be impossible. For everyone who accepts "Seaver Stadium" the will be others who want "Piazza Park" or something else.

I'd be happy to go with a variant of Shea's originally intended name: Flushing Meadows Field.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Come on out to to Mucous Park!

[Guest Edgy DC]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I agree. If the fans were all to settle on one non-corporate name, it would, before long, become semi-official. But coordinating this would be impossible. For everyone who accepts "Seaver Stadium" the will be others who want "Piazza Park" or something else.

I'm not sure I agree. The power of the internet is something wunnerful. At a summit of bloggers, they could put it to a vote and all agree to pimp the winning name.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Would the summit of bloggers have enough influence?

I guess it's possible that they would. I'm not much of a blog guy, so I don't have a feel for how much juice they may have.

The other issue is that there's a generation of fans who either think of Tom Seaver as some old ghost who gets trotted out every once in a while, or as a broadcaster who they weren't particularly crazy about. Any grassroots name for Citi Field would have to be something non-generational. Something equally appealing to the fans of Seaver, Strawberry, Piazza, and Wright.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Yeah, I certainly don't think it has to be Seaver. Clever --- or even semi-clever like Strawberry Fields --- can be much more viral.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I nominate G-Fafif and Mets Guy in Michigan and Johnny Lunchbucket to convene the summit of bloggers. Right now!

[G-Fafif]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I nominate G-Fafif and Mets Guy in Michigan and Johnny Lunchbucket to convene the summit of bloggers. Right now!

That bit about not being a blog guy makes this a non-binding call to order.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Ohhhhhh SNAP!

[Valadius]

I propose that the current home of the Mets be renamed Doubleday Field.

[Guest Edgy DC]

A 2-1 loss to the Staten Island Yankees keeps Wally Backman's Cyclones from opening the season with a sweep. Cyclones managed only two hits but managed to come from behind (for the third straight night) and tie the game before coughing it up.

In the early going, Ryan Sandoval (2-6, 2 2B, BB) and Joseph Bonfe (2-6, 3 BB), have been the top hitters. Showing Wally Backman power so far, with two doubles the only extra-base hits, but, um six walks.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Cyclones improve to a first-place 4-1 as Cory Vaughn slams his first (and the 2010 'Clone's first) homer. Going to the opposite field, Vaughn needs only 469 more big ones to catch his father, who hit 355 in the bigs and 115 in the minors.

[Centerfield]

Valadius wrote: I propose that the current home of the Mets be renamed Doubleday Field.

This is only somewhat related, but I remember Bob Murphy refusing to acknowledge the name change from Jack Murphy Stadium to QualComm (for obvious reasons).

I don't know how long he did it, but I remember Gary Cohen doing this as well and thinking it was a cool thing to do for his former partner.

I'd be all for Bob Murphy Stadium.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I'd prefer Kiner-Murphy Stadium, or Murphy-Kiner Stadium.

Ralph is every bit as deserving as Bob.

[Zvon]

Anyone remember our design a stadium game?
2005?
Thats what this file says.
Yikes.
But come-ooooon, this is easy.
Metropolitan Park.
The Metro.

[Zvon]

Each little branched off area can be named for 4 of the best in Met history, and another for the place behind the scoreboard. Jeeze, you can probably cut up that area into three.

Done and




done again.

[Zvon]

Course my plan would involve somewhat rebuilding the place.


.....nevermind.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Good memory! Amazin that the Mets didn;t go with Edgeward's faraway bleachers idea.

http://archives.cranepoolforum.net/1800/f1_t1890.shtml

[metsmarathon]

so... when did the first designs of citi field come out...

i like to think that pinball alley might've served to influence some of the design.

[Guest Edgy DC]

So I've got you to thank for the dumb high fence in left?

[metsmarathon]

yeah, but they did it wrong. my dumb high fence was intended to cause balls to ricochet into the bleachers in left center - get the angle right, and a ball off hte wall becomes a home run (if hte ground rules were so written).

i'm also apparently responsible for the mo's zone.

and, like the mets, i appear to have left out bullpens from my original design, and would be similarly forced to shoehorn them in in a much hurried fashion, resulting in an unfavorable arrangement that would have to be torn up after only one year's use.

but i don't have any wonky fencey protuberances in centerfield. i figured the depth there would be enough.

[Zvon]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Good memory! Amazin that the Mets didn;t go with Edgeward's faraway bleachers idea. http://archives.cranepoolforum.net/1800/f1_t1890.shtml

Reading this was a special treat.
Edgy's bit stands right up there with "Who's On First".

Its really amazing the things I do remember, in life.
They never are the important things.
Well, maybe to me.....

[Guest Edgy DC]

I am completely and utterly serious about my desires. Frontier baseball, baby!

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Clones got outplayed tonight and lost 6-3 to the Connecticut Tigers.

Adoptee and NYP triple-crown candidate Darrell Ceciliani went 1-for-4 with a whiff. His hit was an infield job, and he daringly took second when the throw got away, slid in headfirst safely. He's got some esplosiveness. Slammed a hard line drive to right but right at the fielder. Later made a bad throw from the outfield for one of the Clones' 5 errors.

OF Cory Vaughn went 1-for-4, whiffed twice with guys on base, and did not look great at the plate tonight at least. He's tall and thin, unlike his chunky Dad, and has good wheels.

Irish's kid, Rylan Sandoval, led off, 0-for-4, made an error on a easy grounder at shortstop.

First baseman Jeff Flagg, who's gigantic, hit a long solo homer to left field. Outfielder Will Cherry had two hits including a solid line drive.

Cyclones did a shitty job with execution. They let the Tigers pull of a double steal (2nd, home) when C Blake Forsythe's throw to 2nd required Sandoval to leap to catch it and throw home too late. And 3B Joe Bonfe had a Golden Sombrero of errors (one bad throw to first, one bad pick of a grounder, and one dropped throw on a tag play at 3rd; all coulda/shoulda been made). Clones P Wes Wrenn got hit around some (one dude whaled a HR off the scoreboard) but the errors hurt.

The Tigers had a Taiwanese outfielder named Chao Ting Tang, who I of course hope makes the majors soon, and the starting P had a great baseball name too: Clemente Mendoza.

[HahnSolo]

"Clemente Mendoza"
Why not just name your kid Awesome Bad?

[Guest Edgy DC]

Brooklyn extends their playoff series against Jamestown to a third and decidding game with a walkoff on a 12th-inning wild pitch.

http://www.brooklyncyclones.com/news/topstories/index.html?article_id=975

[G-Fafif]

On to the NYPL championship round for your Brooklyn Cyclones. The Jamestown Jammers are now officially jelly and the Tri-City ValleyCats wait to be tamed.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I guess this counts as a feather in Wally's cap.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Yeah, he'd certainly make my shortlist to manage next year at St. Lucie or even Binghamton.



CYCLONES WIN! League championship series begins on Saturday night
By Gersh Kuntzman
The Brooklyn Paper

One of the greatest seasons in Brooklyn Cyclones� history will continue, thanks to a dominating 6�4 win over the Jamestown Jammers at MCU Park on Thursday night to clinch the best-of-three first round playoff series and send this best-in-the-league team to upstate Troy for Game 1 of the New York�Penn League championship series, the zenith of professional sports.

Like the previous two games in this semi-final series, the game was a nail-biter from start to finish, featuring a big lead that almost disappeared into the Coney gloaming until the Cyclones bullpen put the nail in the Jammer coffin.

After the game, the bubbly was flowing � though it wasn�t traditional Champagne, but Kedem sparkling grape juice, a substitute that was either in honor of the Jewish New Year, which began just before first pitch, or the fact that several Cyclones are below the drinking age.

Photo by Steve Solomonson Juan Centeno	Photo by Steve Solomonson Darrell Ceciliani
Juan Centeno's double added a key insurance run, but Darrell Ceciliani (below) did what he's done all year long, setting the table, knocking in runs and going 2-for-3.

Either way, a team that has shown so much chemistry all season hooted, danced and paraded around half-naked when closer Dan Carrela struck out the final two batters after Jamestown had loaded the bases with no outs in the ninth.

The first game of the best-of-three final series is on the road, but Cyclone manager Wally Backman likes the matchup against a team that the Cyclones beat four out of six times this season.

�We played Tri-City well, so, yeah, I like the matchup,� the skipper said after the game, grape juice, sweat and charisma dripping off him in rivulets. �The guys are ready.�

Backman has taken these Cyclones � whose regular-season winning percentage was just a few points lower than the Cyclones� inaugural team in 2001 � to inches below a summit that has eluded the franchise for nine previous seasons: an uncontested championship (the 2001 team shared the title with Williamsport after the terror attacks of 9-11 caused the postponement of the rest of the playoffs).

Backman certainly knows how to win � he was a critical member of the Mets World Series-winning team in 1986. So it was only natural that the press asked him about what he learned from that epic experience at Big Shea.

�Never quit,� he said. �That�s what I tell these guys: Never quit. And you saw it tonight and last night [when the Cyclones came from behind three times to beat the Jammers and force the climactic Game 3]. This team keeps fighting.�

The epic struggle of the previous night�s game did not look as necessary from the outset of this contest, though.

The Cyclones got on the board first with a single run in the home first, thanks to a double by Darrell Ceciliani, a bunt and a groundout.

Jamestown tied the score in the second on a homer off starter Chris Hilliard, who settled into a groove while the Cyclones scored two in the second on a two-RBI single by Ceciliani, and two in the third on Blake Forsythe�s dinger.

Later, Forsythe was humble when a reporter called him �the hero� of the game.

�It�s a team game and we�ve just been doing what we�ve been doing all season, winning as a team, and the pitching was incredible,� he said.

Yes, but no one else on the team happened to hit a two-run shot that put the game on ice, he was reminded.

�True, but someone had to get on base before it could even happen,� he added.

Hilliard was shaken in the fifth, though, when Jamestown cut the score to 5�4 with three runs on four singles and a sacrifice fly.

But the Cyclones added an insurance run in the eighth on a two-out double by the Game 2 hero, Juan Centeno.

Backman did a lot more managing in this crucial game than he had all season, using his relievers in key situations, then quickly pulling them, even if they were doing the job.

In the seventh, he brought in T.J. Chism, who got an out, but was pulled for Wes Wrenn, who closed the inning and then got two blistering strikeouts in the eighth before being pulled for Hamilton Bennett, who induced a groundout.

But Bennett�s night ended early when he loaded the bases in the ninth, giving up a legitimate single, a bloop single, and another single on a badly muffed groundball to supposedly Supermanish shortstop Wilfredo Tovar.

After Bennett induced a heart-stopping first-to-home forceout, Backman summoned closer Carrela, who got the last two outs, both on overpowering strikeouts.

It capped a night where the bullpen gave up just four hits � five, if you count the bizarrely scored �hit� on Tovar�s boot � over the last four innings.

[HahnSolo]

You know the Cyclones must be big in Brooklyn if they can get a guy named Gersh Kuntzman to come out last night.