Life as a Brooklyn Cyclone
Being a Brooklyn Cyclone is far from the ordinary minor-league baseball experience.
There‘s the endless cacophony of sounds that emanate from Coney Island’s amusement park and the saltwater breeze that rolls off the beach and onto the diamond.
There’s the thousands of fans that pack MCU Park every night to cheer on Brooklyn’s baseball team and enjoy the many promotional events that come with a Cyclones home game.
Oh, and there’s the chance to make your home in The City that Never Sleeps.
With that in mind, as the final weekend of the regular season approaches, I caught up with some of the Cyclones to hear their stories about playing at MCU Park, living in New York City, and being a professional baseball player.
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Chandler Avant: It was on a Friday because we always have fireworks on Fridays. It was late in the game, and Coach [Edgardo Alfonzo] wanted me to bunt to move a runner over. Right when I walked up to the plate, the fireworks started going off in center field. They were exploding right as the ball was coming in. I thought it was funny that we had to play as the fireworks were going on. There’s really no dealing with it because we can’t tell them to stop shooting them off, so I just tried to focus more. I guess that’s the good and bad about playing at Coney Island. Everything’s going on around you so you’re never bored, but, on the other hand, you can get distracted easily if you don’t focus on what you’re here to do.
Ross Adolph: It was one of my off-days, so I was just enjoying myself in the dugout. A group of fans started a “29” chant, and then I think they finally looked up the roster and found out my name because they started chanting it. Everybody in the dugout was loving it. Carlos [Cortes] was really loving it because he had an off-day, too. Then, one of the guys in the group came down by the dugout, and he had a hat with all their phone numbers and some nice comments on it. The next thing I know, I feel something hit my leg, and the hat’s sitting there on the floor of the dugout. I finally grabbed the hat and hung onto it. It’s been my good-luck charm, honestly, because that’s when things started to take off for me at the plate. That was one of my more interesting days as a Cyclone for sure.
Chase Chambers: We had an early workout, and it was hot as hell. I went down with heat exhaustion, so I left to the doctor’s just to make sure I was alright. Apparently, when I left, Todd [Frazier] cracked a joke about how I had to leave because of the heat. Well, I came back to the ballpark later, and Todd found out what actually happened. He felt so bad he gave me one of his bats.
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Ryan McAuliffe: Whether we win or lose, you try to be the first one in the locker room. You try to get undressed as quick as possible, get your sandals on, and get your towel. For me, luckily, my locker is the closest one to the shower, so, as I’m walking down the tunnel, everything’s coming off. My belt’s coming off, my jersey’s coming off, my pullover, everything. I sprint into the shower, and I’m out of there before everybody’s even back in the clubhouse. I’d say within five minutes after last pitch, I’m showered, changed, and ready to eat. Some of the other guys have started to catch on because they’ve seen me rushing, so now there’s even more of a rush to be first.
Dylan Tice: I like getting in early every day so I can get in extra cage work without having to wait. My first time coming to MCU Park, I found the subway by the deli near the team hotel. Well, in New York, you’ve got the subway on both sides at the same station. One side goes one way, the other side goes the other way. So I punch it into my GPS, but I got on the wrong side and started heading towards Manhattan. After a few stops, I realized I was going the wrong way. And, down in the subway, you don’t have [cell] service, so I can’t look up directions. So after 20 or 30 minutes, I get off and head up to street level, and I had no idea where I was. I had to go back down to the subway, figure out how to use the machine to buy a new MTA card, hop back on, go the right way, make the transfer I had to make, and finally get to Coney Island. I got here a little late, but nobody noticed. Now, everybody knows.
Mac Lozer: One time, I needed to get into Ryan Selmer’s room. I went down to the lobby and asked for a key for Ryan Selmer, acting like I was Ryan Selmer. I held onto that key for a while, and I don’t think he noticed. He’s a guy who notices small changes, and there’s two funny parts about that. One, his key stopped working because they had to make a new one, and I had the working key. Two, I would go into his room to do little things, like move his toothbrush three centimeters in a different direction. He was freaking out. I rotated his TV 90 degrees so it faced the window one time. I moved a flip-flop to the other side of the bed. I ended up telling him about it. I do want to get on the record that I didn’t steal anything or do anything too out-of-hand. I’m sorry, Ryan.
Tommy Wilson: I went to three different colleges for my college career. I went to St. Mary’s my freshman year, a junior college as a sophomore, and then Cal State Fullerton. I actually played with [Cyclone reliever] Billy Oxford at St. Mary’s. When I left there, I thought I wouldn’t see any of those guys ever again. I knew Billy had been drafted last year but didn’t know where he was or anything. But, on my first day with the Cyclones, I walked into the hotel lobby, and the first person I saw was Billy Oxford. I was so rattled and confused. I hadn’t seen him in like four years. He ended up giving me the rundown on how to get to the field and everything. That was my introduction to pro baseball, seeing Billy Oxford.
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Carlos Cortes: It’s been a good experience getting to know everybody on the team, because we’re going to play together for years in the minor leagues. Building that camaraderie is huge. And getting to play in the same city that you have dreams of eventually playing in at the biggest stage, it’s a good tease of what life can be as a big-leaguer.
— Dom
Tonight’s Game: Brooklyn vs. Staten Island, 6:00 p.m.
MCU Park, Brooklyn, NY
RHP Jaison Vilera (5–1, 1.72) vs. RHP Matt Sauer (2–6, 4.23)
Tickets: BrooklynCyclones.com/tickets
Audio: BrooklynCyclones.com/audio
