A century later, and Brooklyn’s still swinging!
The Brooklyn Cyclones will honor their legendary forefathers, the Brooklyn Dodgers, on April 9 by putting their hot-item box seats on sale for $1.50 — the same price Brooklynites paid for a luxury spot at the first-ever game at Ebbets Field exactly 100 years earlier.
“The Cyclones are proud to be part of the long and illustrious history of baseball in Brooklyn,” said Cyclones general manager Steve Cohen. “It is because of this connection that we feel obligated to continue to tell the story of Ebbets Field and the Brooklyn Dodgers to the newest generation of Brooklyn baseball fans.”
The throwback tickets will be for the Clones’ Ebbets Field Centennial Celebration on Aug. 29, when the Pride of Coney Island will take the field against reviled rivals the Staten Island Yankees while wearing uniforms based on those their mighty predecessors wore in 1913 — uniforms the first 3,000 fans will receive as well. Megaphone-armed barkers, traditional organ music, and black-and-white advertisements will complete the retro atmosphere.
Ebbets Field sat on the block between Bedford Avenue, Sullivan Place, McKeever Place, and Montgomery Street in Flatbush and was home to Brooklyn’s beloved Bums for 44 years. Club owner Walter O’Malley relocated the team to Los Angeles in 1958 — after the city refused to build him a new stadium — and the ballpark fell to the wrecking ball two years later.
The Centennial celebration is far from the first time the minor league Cyclones have paid tribute to their Brooklyn forbearers: the “B” insignia in the Clones logo is based on the iconic initial that once adorned the caps of Dodgers players and fans, mascot Sandy the Seagull is named for three-time Cy Young Award-winning pitcher Sandy Koufax, and a statue of Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese outside MCU Park commemorates the Bums’ shattering of baseball’s color line in 1947.
The Cyclones Ebbets Field Centennial Celebration at MCU Park [1904 Surf Ave. at W. 17th Street in Coney Island, (718) 449–8497] Aug. 29, 6 pm. Reduced price box tickets on sale at www.brooklyncyclones.com on April 9 starting at 10 am.
Reach reporter Will Bredderman at wbredderman@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-4507. Follow him at twitter.com/WillBredderman.
