Tag: Edgardo Alfonzo

MCU Park, home of the Brooklyn Cyclones
Posted in Baseball

Brooklyn Cyclones' coaching staff takes shape

Posted on by Paul
Edgardo-Alfonzo
Autographed Edgardo Alfonzo baseball card from my collection

Brooklyn Baseball Banter reports that Edgardo Alfonzo will return as the Brooklyn Cyclones’ bench coach in 2016, while former Mets prospect Sean Ratliff will be the team’s hitting coach.

Alfonzo, a member of the New York Mets’ playoff teams in 1999 and 2000, will be coaching in Brooklyn for a third straight year.

Ratliff, a 4th round draft pick in 2008, was forced to give up his playing career as the result of injuries sustained when he was struck in the face by a foul ball in a 2011 spring training game. He served as the hitting coach for the Rookie-level Kingspoort Mets in 2015.

MCU Park, home of the Brooklyn Cyclones
Posted in Baseball, Uncategorized

Gamboa expected to return as Brooklyn Cyclones manager

Posted on by Paul
MCU Park, home of the Brooklyn Cyclones
MCU Park, home of the Brooklyn Cyclones (Photo credit: Paul Hadsall)

Brooklyn Baseball Banter, one of the best sites for coverage of the Brooklyn Cyclones, reported this weekend that Tom Gamboa will return for a second season as the Cyclones’ skipper.

Gamboa, 66, led the Cyclones to a 42-34 record in 2014 (only missing the New York-Penn League playoffs because they lost a tiebreaker to the Connecticut Tigers.)

Tom Signore, 52, will return as the Cyclones’ pitching coach after missing much of the 2014 season due to health issues related to being struck in the head by a baseball during a practice session.

Former New York Mets fan favorite Edgardo Alfonzo, 41, will serve as the first base coach during Brooklyn Cyclones home games and road games played against the Staten Island Yankees and Hudson Valley Renegades, according to Brooklyn Baseball Banter. Alfonzo will also serve as a roving instructor in the Mets’ minor league system.

I like to get out to Coney Island to see the Cyclones at least once each summer. Last year, I had the bad luck to see some truly ugly baseball in the New York-Penn League (a 14-4 blowout where the Cyclones and Staten Island Yankees combined for 10 errors still comes to mind vividly), so I’m not really eager to make that trip a priority in 2015.

What do you think of the Cyclones’ 2015 coaching staff?

Posted in Uncategorized

Minor League Monday: 2008 St. Lucie Mets 20th Anniversary SGA set

Posted on by Paul
Edgard-Alfonzo
Edgardo Alfonzo’s baseball card from the 2008 St. Lucie Mets 20th Anniversary stadium giveaway set

In 2008, the St. Lucie Mets produced and distributed one of the most difficult-to-complete minor league baseball card sets of recent years.

To celebrate their 20th anniversary, they created a 70-card set featuring players and managers from throughout their history. They gave away one card at each home game during the 2008 season to the first 500 fans to enter the ballpark.

Needless to say, I don’t have a complete set. I didn’t even know that it existed until Sunday, when I found the Edgardo Alfonzo card at the monthly sports cards show in Rahway, New Jersey.

I’d be interested if anyone can point me in the direction of more information about the set: a full checklist, scans of other cards or where I might be able to acquire some of the other cards. Email PaulsRandomStuff@verizon.net or leave a comment below.

Edgard-Alfonzo-back
The back of Edgardo Alfonzo’s card in the 2008 St. Lucie Mets 20th Anniversary set

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Posted in Baseball, Uncategorized

Freefalling back to .500 (photos from Saturday afternoon’s Mets game)

Posted on by Paul

Fun things about Saturday afternoon’s Mets game:

  • Reminiscing about Edgardo Alfonzo and getting a cool bobblehead
  • Seeing the crowd reaction as they realized R.A. Dickey was coming in to pitch the ninth inning. There was a small amount of applause when he stepped on to the mound, a larger reaction as “The Imperial March” began to play and an even bigger round of applause when he was actually announced.

Not fun things about Saturday afternoon’s Mets game:

  • Watching Miguel Batista struggle through the first three innings, using 81 pitches while allowing four runs on five hits and three walks
  • Watching Jeremy Hefner struggle through the next two innings, using 47 pitches while allowing two runs on two hits and two walks
  • Watching Juan Uribe spoil R.A. Dickey’s relief appearance by hitting a two-run homer that killed any hope of a ninth inning Mets’ comeback
  • Realizing that Chris Capuano could still be a Met if Sandy Alderson had a bigger budget to work with this winter and was willing to have competition for starting rotation spots this spring.
  • Seeing the Mets lose (again) to fall back to the .500 mark on the season
  • Discovering that Batista is still delusional (and was still on the roster) when I got back home
  • Sunburn

Here are some photos:

Posted in Uncategorized

On this date in 1994: Binghamton beats Trenton in the first game at Waterfront Park

Posted on by Paul

Eighteen years ago today, the Binghamton Mets defeated the Trenton Thunder 5-3 in the first game played at Mercer County Waterfront Park in Trenton.

Bill Pulsipher pitched eight innings to earn the win for Binghamton, and Edgardo Alfonzo played shortstop and went 1-for-4. On the Thunder side, Tony Clark went 1-for-3 with an RBI. (During their inaugural season, Trenton was the Double-A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers.)

Binghamton third baseman Chris Saunders had the first hit in the ballpark’s history, a second inning double.

In addition to Alfonzo, Clark and Pulsipher, future major leaguers who played in that game included Ricky Otero, Alberto Castillo and Jeff Barry for the B-Mets and Trever Miller and Blas Cedeno for the Thunder.

The Trenton Thunder posted the box score and some notes from the game on their Facebook page today.

I went to one or two games in the Thunder’s inaugural season, but aside from Tony Clark I don’t really remember any of their players from 1994.

Do you have any memories of the Trenton Thunder’s early years?

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