Entertainment types are big on awards. The music industry has the Grammys, Hollywood has the Oscars, and teenage consumers of pop culture have their Teen Choice Awards. But it’s easy to forget all that noise when you’re sitting in the stands at MCU Park, feeling the sea breeze and watching the Clones miss a shot at the championship by a hair yet again (this was the Mini-Mets’14th consecutive above-.500 season, and 13th straight without a championship).
That is why The Brooklyn Paper has its very own set of annual honors dedicated to all things Cyclones. So sit back with some peanuts and Cracker Jacks as we christen the heroes of a nail-biter of a season.
(Insert commercial break here.)
The envelope, please.
The David Wright Iron Man Award
And the Clonie for endurance goes to third baseman Jhoan Urena, one of the youngest members of the Clones roster this season, and one of the most consistent. Urena turned all of 20 during the last week of the season but maintained a solid .300 batting average all summer long. He played in 75 games, missing only the Aug. 25 game against the hated Staten Island Yankees when he was ejected ahead of the game for staring down the Baby Bombers dugout from the field.
The “You Gotta Believe!” Award
And the Clonie goes to Casey Meisner. The tall, right-handed pitcher started the season with several no decisions before going an awful 0–3, including a heart-wrenching 18–2 loss on Seinfeld Night. But then, starting with his first win on Aug. 4, Meisner did a complete 180 and went on to collect five consecutive wins, earning double-digits strikeouts during two games.
Sometimes you just gotta believe.
The Ringer Award
And the Clonie goes to Michael Conforto. The 10th-top-paid Major League Baseball draft pick was a wise purchase for the Mets and a boon for Brooklyn’s home team. The 21-year-old Oregon State University junior came out swinging to break an eight-game losing streak in July and start his career with a 10-game hit streak. He went on to change the way the team played. Conforto’s arm helped out as well, as he made several assists from left field.
The Off to the Races Triple Crown Award
And the Clonie goes to Marcos Molina. This workhorse broke out ahead of the pack to lead, then swept the New York–Penn League in all three of the top pitching statistical categories: wins, earned-run average, and strikeouts.
Pitching was never the Cyclones problem this season and having the top pitcher in the league sure didn’t hurt.
The Steve Cohen Executive of the Year Award
He’s done it again! Cyclones vice president Steve Cohen set Michael Conforto to slugging and steered the team through yet another fun-packed season, featuring hit theme nights such as Seinfeld Night, ’90s Night, and “Star Wars” Night, not to mention landing MCU Park a minor league football team that will keep him — and MCU staffers — busy through the fall.
The Don’t Call it a Comeback Award
And the Clonie goes to, you guessed it, Clones manager Tom Gamboa, who returned to the team after a three-year hiatus, at the beginning of which he said he had no interest in going back to baseball. Sure, Gamboa led the team through its second-longest losing streak ever, but he approached it with Yoda-like serenity, saying he was more interested in the players learning than winning games (it is worth mentioning that he brought the team within a single game of a playoff berth).
And as a 40-year-plus veteran of the game, there is no doubt he imparted this year’s squad with lessons to last a lifetime.
Lessons such as: good pitching is no help when you can’t score runs; the Staten Island Yankees will always stink; and don’t get all distracted just because the front office had you warm up wearing a puffy pirate shirt.
