Baseball at the Boardwalk

The lights come on when night falls at Maimonides Park
and on rides beyond left field in Coney Island.

It’s my latest m.o. On a long drive from point A to point B, find a baseball game along the way to break up the trip. Just about exactly halfway home to Pennsylvania from Hampton Bays, N.Y., is Maimonides Park, home of the Brooklyn Cyclones. Lucky for me, the Cyclones were wrapping up their week-long series with the Aberdeen Ironbirds in a game at 4 p.m.

Also lucky for me, Sundays and Thursdays are senior days with $10 tickets anywhere in the stands. Parking is reasonable too in a lot right next to the ballpark. Most days it costs $20, but if you’re going to the baseball game it’s $8. They might ask to see your tickets before they give you the ballgame rate.

Colorful lights dance up and down the Parachute Jump tower just outside the stadium.

Maimonides Park is in one of the most dramatic locations of any ballpark I’ve seen. It’s built on the spot where Coney Island’s famous Steeplechase amusement was located. Towering over the right field corner is the historic frame of the Parachute Jump ride, which is brilliantly lit when night falls. From the stands you can see the tops of carousels, bungee jump rides and various rollercoasters, even the Cyclone, which gave its name to the baseball team. It’s like watching a baseball game at a carnival. You can even see the Atlantic Ocean.

The public address system was the loudest I’ve ever heard at a ballpark. More than once I saw fans with their fingers in their ears, even during the national anthem. One time when it went silent during an at-bat, I said out loud, “Wow. I can hear myself.” The people sitting in front of me laughed.

A few innings into the game it became clear why it was so loud as a hip hop concert cranked up a little ways down the boardwalk. The duel of decibels was on. Note to self, and others: take some earplugs next Cyclones game.

A free jersey. Happy Birthday Thor.

I got up to go to the restroom and I was walking along the concourse when a foul ball came straight back into the stands and took a bounce toward me. A guy with a broom and a dustpan one-handed it and held it out for me to take. That’s not the only souvenir from my day at the ballpark. I bought a pin, of course, celebrating a Seinfeld night promotion called The Sein-clones.

I knew we might get a pack of 30 Cyclones baseball cards if we got to the game early, and we did, but I didn't know we were getting a Noah Syndergaard Mets jersey for his 29th birthday. We missed Thor’s Thursday rehab appearance by a few days. He was expected to pitch an inning on his birthday, but was scratched after a positive Covid-19 test. He’s been vaccinated. Happy Birthday, Thor. Best of luck and thanks for the shirt.

Nathan's Famous french fries and hot dog.

Do I have to say anything about the food at Maimonides Park? You’re in Coney Island. You can see Nathan’s Famous on Surf Avenue from your seat behind the Cyclones dugout. Get a hot dog and some fries, sit down and enjoy the game.

I’m embarrassed to say it took me so long to catch a Brooklyn Cyclones game considering all the time I lived and worked in and around New York City. True, the Cyclones didn’t even exist for more than half the time I was there, but that’s no excuse. I’m the guy who also never visited Grant’s tomb until at least a decade after I’d left New York and retired to the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania.

I never went to a Staten Island Yankees game either. I thought I lost my chance forever when the team shut down following Major League Baseball’s shakeup of the minor leagues last year. It looks like a baseball will return to Staten Island next year, not with a minor league team, but as part of the expanding independent Atlantic League.

One of several 9/11 memorials outside the ballpark.

No need to wait until next year for baseball in Coney Island, but you’d better hurry. There are only two home stands left for the Cyclones and there won’t be a post-season for them this year. They’re in last place in the standings.

The Cyclones batters struggled at the plate and came away with only four hits. Their pitchers had trouble finding the strike zone, walking 9 Ironbirds batters. The score could have been more lopsided than it was. The Ironbirds left 12 runners, and walkers, on base. Final: Aberdeen Ironbirds 6, Brooklyn Cyclones 1