For the first time in 36 years, something other than garbage will be shipped from Brooklyn to Staten Island.
On Saturday night, the ferry boat John A. Noble will carry passengers from the Steeplechase Pier in Coney Island (located directly behind Keyspan Park on Surf Avenue) to the Staten Island Ferry terminal in St. George – just a minute’s walk to the new Richmond County Bank Ballpark where the Brooklyn Cyclones will take on the Staten Island Yankees for the first time.
The 34-minute journey, which will mark the first time a ferry boat will carry passengers between Brooklyn and Staten Island since 1964 – the year the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge opened – is being provided by the city’s Department of Transportation, according to Sid Dinsay, a spokesman for the mayor’s office.
For $5 apiece (or $15 for a family of four), Brooklynites already holding tickets to the sold-out event on Staten Island can travel against the current to watch our Cyclones take on the Yanks in a battle for first place in the New York-Penn League.
The boat will depart from Coney Island at 6 pm, arriving in St. George about an hour before the game’s first pitch, at 7:35.
To get back to Brooklyn, riders can again hop on the charter ferry, which will leave Staten Island one half hour after the game ends. That trip, with the tide, will take just 28 minutes.
To make the trip from the ferry to the pier safe for riders, the city will anchor a barge next to the pier, which juts off Coney Island near West 19th Street. A tent will be provided on the barge, which will be reached from the pier via gangplanks. The ferry will then be fasted to the barge perpendicularly, with travelers boarding from the front of the boat.
The same boat will also be available to Staten Islanders (and those of us willing to travel to Manhattan to get to Coney Island).
On Sunday at 3 pm, the Noble will cast off from the Whitehall Street terminal en route to Coney Island after a stop in St. George to pick up some Staten Islanders. That boat should arrive in Coney Island about 4 pm, Dinsay said, an hour before the night’s first pitch. That boat will also head for home one half hour after the game ends.
The game at Keyspan is also sold out.
Out with the old
The Cyclones this week released infielder Tony Coyne, right-handed pitcher Chris Sherman and talkative outfielder Michael Piercy.
Piercy, a New Jersey native, last year played for the Bridgeport Bluefish of the Atlantic League.
Promising prospect Edgar Rodriguez, who hit home runs in the Cyclones inaugural game in Jamestown, NY, before hitting the first home run ever at Keyspan Park, broke his hand when he was hit by a pitch on July 3 against the Lowell Spinners. He’ll be out for the remainder of the season.
Since the beginning of the season, the Clones have also added the following players, all of whom are draft picks newly signed by the parent club, the New York Mets:
Michael Cox, LHP; Harold Eckert, RHP; Danny Garcia, 2B; Angel Pagan, CF; Tyler Beuerlein, C; Brett Kay, C.
(July 16, 2001 Issue)
