Cyclones finish season with first losing record in franchise history

September 9, 2015 Jim Dolan

Photo courtesy of Jim Dolan

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It was billed as the franchise’s 15^th anniversary year when the Cyclones welcomed back hopeful fans through the gates of MCU Park this past June just 12 weeks ago. Back then, hope was in the air for Brooklyn when the Cyclones jumped to a 14-5 start which seemed to be a sure pathway to at least the playoffs and maybe even the championship round.

Players such as pitcher Tyler Badamo, aware of the team’s recent history of missing the playoffs, wanted to turn that trend around as he stated in an early season interview. But the reality of this season’s team limitations set in as the Cyclone offense started a downhill slide in late July as a strong pitching staff got at times no or little run support that led to a fourth place 33-43 finish for last place in the McNamara Division.

Looking back at the that early start, Cyclone Manager Tom Gamboa stated that he didn’t want to be “a prophet of doom” but the early record was misleading since games were only being won by one or two runs which was not sustainable for the rest of the season. Gamboa went on to explain that the games that the Cyclones were winning had dominating pitching performances and later on in the season subsequent strong pitching performances just weren’t getting any run support.

“We just never had a consistent offense at anytime,” explained Gamboa. “The Mets didn’t put any of the guys here not to compete and we had several guys hit under .200 which is really hard to do. The highlight for the team this year was the pitching – both the starting and the bullpen. It was terrific.”

Besides taking in a few Broadway shows and visiting his son who is a professor at Dartmouth, Gamboa plans to do nothing but golf when he returns to California next week.

Concerning his return to Brooklyn for a third season as manager, Gamboa stated, “There’s a good chance that I’ll come back for one more season but that would definitely be the last.” Wrapping up the season with a twinkle, Gamboa quipped, “If I do come back, let’s hope that I get equal pitching and a better offense.”