Mike Jacobs’ record-breaking debut with the New York Mets brings back memories of other members of the inaugural Brooklyn Cyclones, which shared the league championship in 2001.
Some are out of baseball, some are still in the National Association in the minors, some are on independent teams or playing in foreign countries.
Forty-eight players wore the Cyclones uniform in 2001, so we won’t attempt to cover each player. But players still in organized baseball can be traced fairly simply.
Danny Garcia, who hit .321 for the 2001 Cyclones, was the first Cyclone to reach the big leagues when he made his major league debut with the Mets on Sept. 3, 2003.
Garcia, a second baseman, also played for the Mets last season, then was released and signed with the Cleveland Indians, playing briefly in the minors before he was released again this spring. He is currently getting over an injury and is a free agent.
Justin Huber spent some time in Brooklyn as a catcher. He was traded by the Mets to the Kansas City Royals and made his major league debut this season with the Royals, playing first base.
With the major league club, Huber was three for 12 in five games. While playing for triple-A Omaha, Huber has hit .273 with seven homers (two of them on Aug. 30) and 23 RBI in 110 at-bats.
Another who has spent time in both the majors and minors this year is left-hander Lenny DiNardo, who was 1-2 with a 2.00 ERA in nine games in 2001.
Last season, DiNardo spent some time as a reliever with the Boston Red Sox where he pitched enough to earn a World Series ring.
This season, he only threw 1-2/3 innings in relief in three games for the parent team, but in triple-A Pawtucket, he has appeared in 23 games, starting 22, and he has a 6-3 record with a 3.15 ERA.
While Huber and DiNardo have been in both triple-A and the majors this year, some of the inaugural Cyclones are knocking on the big league door at the triple-A level, playing for the Mets affiliate Norfolk Tides.
Starting pitcher Jason Scobie, who was 3-0 with a 0.89 ERA in 18 relief appearances for the Cyclones, is now 14-7 with a 3.44 ERA in 26 starts for Norfolk.
Angel Pagan hit .315 with 30 stolen bases in 2001. With the Tides, Pagan is hitting .269 with 26 steals.
Since his recent promotion from Binghamton, where he hit .292 in 86 games, David Bacani, an infielder in 2001, is batting .125 in nine games.
Luz Portobanco, Brooklyn’s ace in 2001, is at the double-A level at Binghamton, where he’s struggling with a 2-11 record and a 7.11 ERA.
Blake McGinley, who was 5-0 with a 1.94 ERA with Brooklyn, has recently been sent to Binghamton from Norfolk. At Norfolk, McGinley was 4-4 with a 3.56 ERA.
Some of the stars of the inaugural Cyclones are now out of baseball. John Toner, the Lil’ Abner-looking outfielder, retired from professional ball and works for Abercrombie and Fitch, finding some time to play on its baseball team.
Brett Kay, the Cyclones catcher in 2001, bothered by an injury and not progressing through the minors as he had hoped, also stopped playing professionally, and he is reported to be happy as a baseball instructor for children.
Frank Corr, the 5-foot-9 outfielder who holds the Cyclones record for homers in a season with 13, also retired. Corr is married, with twins, and living in Florida. The popular Corr lived locally during his stay — with his aunt in Mill Basin.
The first Cyclones manager, Edgar Alfonzo, still makes occasional appearances at Keyspan Park in his current post as the Mets minor league infield coordinator, and the elder Alfonzo’s son, also named Edgar, who was a teenager visiting the Cyclones in 2001, spent time both in 2004 and this season, with Brooklyn.
The Cyclones’ original hitting coach, Howard Johnson, is now coaching at Norfolk.
Some of the original Cyclones are in independent baseball, playing in professional leagues where teams have no affiliation with Major League Baseball.
In the Atlantic League, the Lancaster (Pennsylvania) Barnstormers have Jeremy Todd playing first base and hitting .296 with 12 homers.
Ross Peeples, the left-hander who was 9-3 with a 1.34 ERA for Brooklyn, is a starter for the Barnstormers and he has a 6-9 record with a 4.90 ERA.
Infielder Joe Jianetti is playing for the Grays, a team without a city or a home field, as they are a Canadian-American League team that replaced the Bangor, Maine franchise — which dropped out just before the season. So Jianetti is constantly on the road, yet he is hitting .316.
Let’s not forget two former original Cyclones also playing in the independent Canadian American League — for the Worcester Tornadoes — pitchers David Byard and Mike Cox, both released from the New York Mets’ system this season.
Cox was 6-1 as a Cyclone and Byard was 3-1 with a club-leading nine saves that year.
Both popular and extroverted players, they are trying to get back into a major league organization.
The left-handed Cox is 4-5 with a 5.19 ERA and Byard is 3-3 with a 3.30 ERA.
And it’s no coincidence who their pitching coach is. It’s the same man who guided the original pitching staff of the Cyclones.
Yes, Bobby Ojeda is instructing the pitchers at Worcester.
Ojeda is doing his best, across a few rivers at Yogi Berra Stadium, in Little Falls, N.J., to help a couple of his former Cyclone proteges become one of the rare ones, like Jacobs, to reach the big time.
