Just when it looked as though things couldn’t get worse for the 7–13 Cyclones, the team headed out on a six-game road trip to the distant cities of Williamsport, Penn., and Burlington, Vt.
As Dickens began his own tale of two cities, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” so it was for the Cyclones.
It was indeed the worst of times for the Brooklyns as they started the season with an Opening Day 18–0 loss to the Staten Island Yankees. This aforementioned record-setting game of futility was followed by six more losses. A week into the season and the Cyclones were 0–7, and in last place
Ah, but despite a broken-down bus, a broken-down bus driver and a few missed turns, the road turned out to be the best of times: The Brooks have just completed a six-game road swing and won them all — giving them a seven-game winning streak as they returned to Brooklyn.
The road trip began on July 12 with a 10 am bus departure from Keyspan Park prior to a 7 pm game that night in Williamsport. Routine, right? Not so fast. Dickens knew that the routine was boring for his readers, but he wasn’t around to mess up this bus trip. He didn’t have to be.
Somewhere in the wilds of Pennsylvania, the bus got a flat tire. Changing the tire took the bus driver about as long as it takes notoriously deliberate Mets starter Steve Trachsel to pitch a half-inning. Watching the tire being changed may have been more exciting than seeing Trachsel, but it did add a half-hour onto the five-hour trip.
Further into Pennsylvania, near Allenwood, the bus driver became ill — not seriously, but too ill to drive the bus. Now, the Cyclones carry 14 pitchers, more than enough for a 30-inning ball game, but they have no such depth in bus drivers. So Williamsport sent its own bus company, and driver, to pick up the stranded Cyclones.
This took a mere three hours, so Brooklyn arrived barely an hour before the game, fine for your softball league, but somewhat disconcerting for the Brooks, since the team barely had time for its pre-game warm-up at the ballpark.
The Williamsport ballpark, Bowman Stadium, is considered the second oldest in America — old school all the way. Nice old school. It has tall fences and tall grass in the infield, which combine for few homers, lots of grounders that get nabbed, and a great, slow surface on which to bunt.
In the first game of the Williamsport series, Jacob Ruckle, barely untwisted from his eight-hour bus ride, kept the ball low, made Williamsport hit grounders and won 4–1. He’s pitching marvelously so far this season.
In the second game of the series, Brooklyn again played small ball and won 2–1. And in the series’ final game, the Cyclones used bunt after bunt to set up their 5–3 win.
After the game, the team departed around midnight for the 437-mile trip to Burlington. With another driver sent from the Academy Bus Company, this one known as, “Fast — really fast,” by Cyclones’ trainer Matt Hunter. “I just shut my eyes, slept, and hoped we’d arrive safely,” he said.
Reliever Grady Hinchman described bus riding: “We have a couple of pillows each, and they show movies, like ‘Caddyshack,’ most of which I watched. We try to sleep, and you can sleep some, but it’s cramped and it’s hard to do.”
Just as there’s strategy in baseball, so too is there strategy in bus driving. The driver decided to try a shortcut.
“Things were good for awhile,” said Hinchman of the shortcut route. “All of a sudden the road just ran out, and there were all these orange pylons ahead. There was a detour.”
“Once you hit one detour, that’s the end of a smooth trip,” said Hinchman. He was right. The bus arrived in Burlington two hours late — at 8:30 am.
The team won later that night — despite a rain delay. The Cyclones won the next night too, 5–4.
Hinchman won in relief, and the lead run by the Cyclones came in the ninth on a Jon Malo walk, a sacrifice bunt by Jason Jacobs, and an error when the Vermont first baseman lost a ball in the lights.
Brooklyn made a complete sweep of the road trip the next evening, winning 6–4, again scoring in the ninth, this time two runs, and again featuring a successful sacrifice bunt, this one by Luis Rivera to put Malo and Jeremy Hambrice in scoring position for Dustin Martin’s two RBI single.
Suddenly, the Cyclones were 13–13.
It’s not all good news, though. The team has only hit five homers this season, and the team batting average is only .212.
But recently, when the money is on the line, the club gets runners on, gets them over and gets them in.
The set-up men — Hinchman, Rip Warren, and Haines — have been solid, while closer Joe Smith is becoming lights out.
The road trip was a tale of two cities — Williamsport and Burlington — conquered by a third — Brooklyn.
OK, so it’s only a borough — but it’s a borough that’s back in the McNamara Division race.
