Results tagged “brooklyncyclones”

The value of a switch hitter in baseball is great, but what about the value of a switch pitcher. Imagine a pitcher that can throw to hitters on either side of the dish. That's what the Staten Island Yankees have in Pat Venditte, a 22 year-old . Venditte was drafted by the Yankees in 2007 and again 2008 after he returned to Creighton University for his senior year.

Starting this morning and through Sunday, the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour is making its 2007 stop in New York City with the AVP Brooklyn Open. In it's 2nd year in NYC, the Brooklyn Open features over 150 beach volleyball players, a temporary 4,000-seat stadium, and 13 outer courts that will offer general admission seating (ticket info). Qualifying round play began today at 8 a.m.

THEATER: With his zany imagination and distinctive bass-baritone voice, Joseph Keckler (myspace) has been generating buzz throughout the gooey honeycomb of the downtown performance art cabaret scene. Tonight he sprinkles his particular blend of whimsical catnip at Dixon Place with Cat Lady, in which a man re-enacts an ordinary day with his mother, who runs a community theater with cat actors out of her home. “Past lives are recalled, songs are sung, and finally a trip to the vet's is made in this comedic and dark exploration of the relationship between art and trauma.” Part of the HOT! Festival. – John Del Signore

Did you excel at yo-yo and rock, scissor, paper as a kid? Well, this past weekend was the 1st ever New York State Yo-Yo Contest at the South Street Seaport. From what we hear, excelling in yo-yo is the way to get all the ladies (they dig the finger dexterity and creativity with the yo-yo). It's not just the kids that are throwing the yo-yo around either. Downtown Express tells us that Riad Nasr, the executive chef at Balthazar is also a yo-yo fanatic. "I have a yo-yo in my pocket on the line. In between pick-ups, I’ll throw a trick or two." Watch out for that DOH inspection, Riad.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a person struck by a police car at Canal St. and Broadway in Manhattan, an escaped prisoner at West 110th St. and 7th Ave. in Manhattan, and an amputation on Brewer Blvd. in Queens.
• A downturn in the markets will hurt more than those that work on Wall St. Mayor Bloomberg warns that a bear market will hurt the whole city as reduced tax revenues necessitate spending cuts.
• Woody Allen remembers filmmaker Ingmar Bergman in a Q&A with Time magazine.
• The Florida woman charged with abusing 11 adopted New York children managed to adopt eight of them in a four-month period in 1994, never once using her own name.
• The Gowanus Lounge looks at the feral dogs that used to reside in Red Hook, until they were rescued and spayed or neutered by an animal welfare organization.
• The Brooklyn Cyclones won the first politically-correct called baseball game in history against the home team Lowell Spinners in Massachusetts. Infielders were base persons and a vertically challenged stop. Errors weren't announced to spare the feelings of poor fielders.
• A Queens resident got in Mayor Bloomberg's face while on camera, telling him he can't take the borough for granted.
• Streetsblog clarifies the DOT's plan for bike traffic on 91st between 2nd and 3rd Aves., correcting misreporting by other media outlets that are getting the street's residents riled up -basically the DOT has no intention of painting or striping a bike lane on the street.

If you like your Astroland, there's some good news. The Post is reporting that the Coney Island amusement park will be open for another summer. Apparently, Councilman Domenic Recchia Jr. is brokering a deal to keep the park open through the 2008 season. Astroland's operators are working out details of the deal, including compensation, with Thor Equities

The two teams open with a home-at home-at home series (Brooklyn, Staten Island, Brooklyn) before getting the rest of their season started. Standing room tickets for tonight's game at Keyspan are still available. A cursory check for tickets at tomorrow's game at Richmond County Bank Ballpark showed that they were sold out.

Well, Gateway National Recreation Area is right in our neck of the woods, extending in three New York City boroughs and into northern New Jersey. It is a good place to start your quest for the perfect patch of sand and cooling waters.

Holy home run. Or is that holy Star Jones-style chutzpah? A couple has managed to land about $80,000 worth of sponsorships for their wedding at a Brooklyn Cyclones home game. Flowers are covered by 1800Flowers, cake by Grandma's Secrets in Harlem, Diageo will create a special wedding drink, and more. Caroline Fisher, a radio station sales manager marrying marketing consultant Dave Kerpen, told Ad Age, "It was an idea that both met our needs romantically in terms of getting married on the field and at a baseball stadium, which we love, and simultaneously doing what we love, which is putting together promotions and selling them." Well, we can only guess that the sponsors will call them repeatedly over their honeymoon to ask them about make-goods. The Fisher-Kerpen nuptials will be on July 8, at home plate when the game ends - and Tien Mao is probably available for a wedding cake eating contest.

Newsday reports that in Hillary Clinton's ongoing efforts to appeal to the state she represents in the Senate - and the rest of the country - she made it very clear that she was never, ever, ever a Mets fan. In fact, she said, "I cannot let stand that I have ever, ever been a Mets fan: Let's set the record straight. The Cubs and the Yankees -- those were my teams and remained my teams growing up and now in my mature years." Does Hillary have some sort of bias against mascots with huge, baseball heads? Or teams that people gravitate towards because they hate the Yankees so much? And does that mean she hates the Brooklyn Cyclones - and love the Staten Island Yankees (funny, as S.I. is the most Republican borough in NYC)? Who knew she supported the crazy spending ways of George Steinbrenner? We suppose Hillary needs to state some sort of team allegiance, but most politicians try to support both teams in their towns (not counting Rudy Giuliani).

A baseball All-Star game was played in Brooklyn Tuesday night for the first time since 1949 and while it wasn’t major leaguers playing; the Class A players of the Mets and Yankees did quite well on their own. Over 9,000 fans, the second most ever to attend a game at Keyspan Park, saw the National Legue defeat the American League 5-4.

It's unclear whether or not Tien will be repeating the feat anytime soon and whether or not Tien will join the IFOCE, but he does look forward to working on his volume pizza (lukewarm, as there are oil burn issues) eating. Perhaps at a future Happy Hour or Movable Hype, we'll have an eating contest of some sort. Any suggestions?

Growing up in New York, Gothamist was limited to only two baseball options, the Yankees and the Mets, but in recent years, baseball has bloomed in the big city. Two more options are available for baseball fans in the single A affiliates of the Yankees and the Mets - the Staten Island Yankees and the Brooklyn Cyclones.

Chris Foster, Bluesman

Over the weekend, Gothamist took a trip south and checked out the AAA Mets affiliate, the Norfolk Tides. There's nothing quite like taking in a minor league double header. Things are cheaper, you can get nice and close, and it's a fan friendly environment. It's possible that Gothamist even indulged in too much food.

Gothamist on plans to make Coney Island a year-around destination. Tien on a trip to Coney Island, Slice's Coney Island pizza picks, and Satan Laundromat's pictures of Coney Island.

Stay tuned for the NBA Draft wrap-up and check out the week in full.

King Neptune and Queen Mermaid, who rule over the parade, will be played by Moby and Theo from the Lunachicks. Last year's parade was led by Bill Evans of ABC-7 and Kate Duyn who was Miss Rheingold at the time.

This is the fourth season for the Cyclones, who are a Class A minor league affiliate of the Mets. Players on the team are excited about taking the field at home and playing in front of an expected crowd of more than 8000 people. Newsday reported that there were standing room only tickets available as of yesterday afternoon and the Cyclones' website says they hold 150-200 general admission tickets for day of sales. The Cyclones' roster, which includes a lot of players born in the 80's, also has Bronx-native, Travis Garcia, the starting 3rd basemen for the Cyclones. Garcia is still looking for his first hit of the season.

Gothamist remembers its first home run in Little League. A young Gothamist ran around the bases as the fielders continuously made errors. Hmm, maybe it was more of a single with three errors and some quality base-running than an actual home run. We can only hope that our little league team does a little better than our childhood opponent.

Brooklyn would rather have either an new hotel, sports complex (if NYC gets the 2012 Olympics) or an indoor water park. Well, who wouldn't a year round water park? Which reminds us that there's no word on the progress of the Randall's Island Aquatic Surfpark.