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On Baseball and Brooklyn
Seth Kolloen
Just walking around my Brooklyn neighborhood will remind you how intertwined Brooklyn has been in baseball's history. On Henry Street is a house that was once shared by the Brooklyn Atlantics -- on of baseball's top teams in the 1860s and 1870s. Apparently, they all lived together -- how's that for team chemistry? In 1870, the Atlantics famously ended the Cincinnati Red Stockings' 92-game winning streak.
Around the corner on Montague Street is where the offices of the Brooklyn Dodgers stood -- and where Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson met for the first time. Their historic conversation was the pivotal moment in ending racial discrimination in baseball. And down the hill, in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge, are the old offices of the Brooklyn Eagle -- a daily paper edited by Walt Whitman, whose odes to early baseball helped popularize the sport.
Yet this is the first summer in 44 years that professional baseball will be played in Brooklyn. Sure, it's A-ball. Maybe the competition -- the Mahoning Valley Scrappers and Utica Blue Sox -- won't remind anyone of those 1870 Red Stockings. But, then, the starving man doesn't ask for Maine lobster. Baseball's back in Brooklyn and that's simply terrific.
The New York-Penn League Brooklyn Cyclones, a New York Mets affiliate, play at new Keyspan Park on Brooklyn's famous Coney Island. Just like the Astroland amusement park, the batting cage, and the clam and oyster vendors, Keyspan Park sits between Surf Avenue and the Coney Island ocean boardwalk -- the heart of Coney Island.
You can take the B, D, N or F trains -- it's about an hour trip from Manhattan. Exit the subway, walk down the big ramp, through the turnstiles, and you exit onto Surf Avenue. On a weeknight, you'll see groups of teenagers wrapped in towels lingering around the subway stop as the sun goes down on their day at the beach. Also gaggles of kids wielding those little plastic sand shovels.
On Surf Avenue, kitty corner from the subway exit, is Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs -- it has been there since 1916. Nathan's sponsors the world famous Coney Island 4th of July hot dog eating contest. Like this year's American League batting race, it's dominated by a smallish Japanese competitor -- in this case, 105 lb. Kazutoyo Arai -- who last year somehow ate 25 hot dogs in 12 minutes.
Pick up a hot dog or two at Nathan's and walk down Surf Avenue -- it's about 200 yards to the main entrance of Keyspan Park. Walk through the turnstiles and up the stairs and you stand on the ballpark's main concourse. Inside, the park looks like any short-season A ballpark. "It's small," was the sentiment overheard often on opening night.
There is one seating deck, with about 20 rows, which stretches from foul line to foul line. There is also small section of outfield bleachers -- for day of game sale only.
The outfield fence is covered in advertisements -- and show the strange contrasts that keep New York City interesting. The venerable New York Times has an ad on the left-centerfield wall, very simple and understated. Nearby is an ad for the national institution that is Sal's Transmissions on Stillwell Ave. "1-800-SAL-TRANS," the ad fairly screams.
There's also a curious ad that states simply: "RIVIERA: One Wedding At A Time." If only Al Martin had held that wise credo dear.
New York City is the finance capital of the world, but you wouldn't know it from Keyspan Park. OK, you would. I'm willing to guess its one of the few A-ball stadiums with a bi-level luxury box area. The boxes rise behind the home-plate grandstand; there's also a press box there.
The concourse (where all the concessions are) is open to the field, like at Pac Bell Park or Safeco Field. You can walk around the perimeter and still see the game. And, as you stand behind home with a Nathan's hot dog in one hand, sipping an egg cream, look out over the rightfield fence. A flyball over the fence might hit the famous Coney Island boardwalk. Directly past the boardwalk is the beach. And then, stretching out as far as the eye can see, the Atlantic Ocean.
And what does one pay for an evening of baseball on a warm summer night, looking out over the Atlantic Ocean, as an sea breeze cools the brow? Six bucks for seats down the foul lines, eight for seats in the infield, and ten for the first few rows. The Cyclones are a bargain -- especially by New York standards.
Recently, the Knicks announced that a courtside seat for the 2001-02 season will cost $1600. PER GAME. The best seat in the house at a Cyclones game is $10. You could sit front row at each Cyclones home game for more than four seasons for the price of two hours courtside at the Garden.
You can't even get in to Shea Stadium for 10 bucks. Shea Stadium -- where the seats mostly point away from home plate, where the only pre-game dining spot within walking distance is the hot dog stand in the parking lot, and where the most compelling visual beyond the outfield fence is a giant U-HAUL rental center.
So, in 2001, a new baseball landmark grows in Brooklyn. It will never surpass Ebbets Field in the minds of Brooklynites, but it is still a beautiful place to spend a summer.
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