Over my many years of researching baseball experiences, one baseball park has been consistently been circled as a must-see. One park that I look up on social media or their organizational website and say to myself, ‘gee, that would be a really fun place to see a game.’ One baseball park that has alluded me for a variety of reasons, mainly its difficult location to get to. And as of last Wednesday, one more park to add to my list of baseball experiences I will never forget. The Park – Maimonides Park. The spot – Coney Island, Brooklyn, NY. The home team – Brooklyn Cyclones.

As luck would have it, actually its not luck its more like opportunity – I was working in the Meadowlands section of New Jersey last week for ABF Freight. Mileage wise, from my hotel, Cyclones baseball was a mere 25 or so miles away. But the routes, well let’s just say are feast or famine when it came to traffic congestion. Go through Manhattan and head south to Coney Island, you are looking at an hour minimum. Go south on the NJ Turnpike, over two bridges, and onto the Belt Parkway – again 45 minutes to an hour of driving. Honestly, you just have to give in to it. You can’t beat the traffic, you can only get upset over it. Flipping a coin, I took the NJ Turnpike route, over the Goethals then the Verrazano Bridges, and landed about 5 miles from the park with minimal interruptions traffic wise. Not bad, roughly 40 minutes hotel to parking lot of the stadium.

What can you say about the exterior of Maimonides Park? Well, there is enough going on outside and around the park to make you wonder – should I skip the game and go on a ride instead? The historic and world famous Coney Island area of Brooklyn has amusement parks, entertainment, the beach, the boardwalk, condos and high rises, restaurants, and yes a baseball stadium plopped right into the thick of all that eye candy. On a tourist valuation scale of boring to ridiculously entertaining, I would put the Coney Island experience right up there with Times Square in Manhattan as ridiculously entertaining for the first time New York visitor. It has everything – old, new, modern, classic, historic, weird, fun – including the home baseball park for the Brooklyn Cyclones. I grabbed a ticket just outside the park and headed up the stairs and into the stadium, hoping the rain would hold off.

The lucky part of my trip is that the game was being played because of a rainout the night before. The Brooklyn Cyclones, Single A affiliate of the New York Mets, were scheduled to play the Hudson Valley Renegades (New York Yankees) on Tuesday night (week long series) in a pseudo futures games series before a torrential rain storm cut that short. So a 5pm start was just my luck and would give me just enough time to get to the game and get back to NJ for my work assignment later that evening. Actually, the two teams ended up playing a doubleheader on Wednesday and I was lucky enough to attend Game 1.

Once inside the park, I didn’t bother to sit in my assigned seat (Section 1, Row N, Seat 1). Instead, I walked around the park to get as many photos and vantage points as I could. Honestly, I could have taken 200 and not been satisfied. It is a beautiful park and has so much to see and read and explore. Just incredible. Here are a few photos I took along the way…

I tracked down a stadium attendant and asked him if the Cyclones had a special seat honoring our military heroes. He pointed me to the section in question and I snapped a few photos of the seat, the plaque, the American Flag, and the special seat’s view. I really love these parks that make these seats and their heroes such a priority.

I walked around the park for the half hour before and about 1 hour into the game. Of course, I ordered myself a couple of Coney Island hot dogs. Then, I went down the right field side of the park to check out the boardwalk ramp down to the view of the beach. You can see the bullpen area (Cyclones Pitchers and Catchers) on the other side of the concession stand area. Walking up the ramp, still on the first base side, they had a really cool pitching tent with batter and catcher set up. And the “how do you measure up against Pete Alonso” poster for kids (or adults) to stand against. Continuing through the stadium, passed the “You Are Not Forgotten” memorial seat, I strolled down into the left field to check out the actual Cyclone ride a few blocks away from the stadium. And watch a few roller coaster riders having fun on a Wednesday night. The baseball game, the stadium noise, the fans cheering was just part of the massive entertainment extravaganza known as Coney Island, Brooklyn. I am so glad I took the drive, took a deep breathe in the massive traffic congestion, and experienced Coney Island. It was an awesome Brooklyn Cyclones baseball experience.