Brooklyn Cyclones

The Cyclones began as the St. Catharines, Ontario, St. Catharines Blue Jays (later St. Catharines Stompers) in 1986 as a team in the New York–Penn League. They were named for their parent club, the Toronto Blue Jays. In 1995, the team was sold by the city of Toronto to a group of local investors which included former Toronto catcher Ernie Whitt.

In 1999, New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani announced a deal that would bring two minor league baseball teams to the boroughs outside Manhattan. New ballparks would be constructed for the Staten Island Yankees and the Cyclones. Prior to the 2000 season, the team was bought and moved to Queens, becoming known as the Queens Kings. The club played its 2000 season at Jack Kaiser Stadium on the St. John's University campus in Jamaica, in the borough of Queens, remaining a Blue Jays affiliate for one last season.

A "name-the-team" contest was held to determine a new name for the franchise. The winning selection, Cyclones, refers to the famous Coney Island Cyclone roller coaster at nearby Astroland amusement park on Coney Island. The Mets' Double-A affiliate, the Binghamton Rumble Ponies, are also named after amusement park rides, specifically, the 6 antique carousels found in or near Binghamton, New York.

The team's new park, which was then called KeySpan Park, was completed in time for the 2001 season. Brooklyn had been without professional baseball since the Brooklyn Dodgers left Ebbets Field for Los Angeles, California in 1958. After approximately three weeks of play, additional seats had to be added to the stadium to accommodate fans.

The Cyclones managed by Edgar Alfonzo played well in their opening season with the best record in the league (52–24), where they led the NY Penn-League with a 2.35 team ERA. They defeated the Staten Island Yankees in a classic NYPL opening playoff round. The deciding game won by the Cyclones 4–1 featured trickery by Catcher Brett Kay who faked giving up on a play only to receive a laser throw from John Toner to tag out a runner at the plate. advancing to the championship series against the Williamsport Crosscutters. The Cyclones traveled to Bowman Field in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, winning the series opener on September 10, 2001 by a score of 8–4. The potential championship clincher was scheduled for September 11 in Brooklyn. However, due to the September 11 attacks, all minor league baseball playoffs were canceled. The Cyclones and Crosscutters were declared co-champions.

The 2002 season was filled with inconsistent play and questionable pitching decisions by manager Howard Johnson^[] leading to a .500 season. Scott Kazmir pitched to a 0.50 ERA in five starts and had 34 strikeouts in only 18 innings pitched.

In 2003, the Cyclones managed by Tim Teufel won the McNamara division title with brilliant pitching led by starters, soon to be major leaguers, Matt Lindstrom and Brian Bannister and by relievers Robert Paulk and Carlos Muñiz. Despite a drop in run production, the Cyclones pitching staff willed their way into the playoffs, beating the Oneonta Tigers 2 games to 1 only to lose in the NYPL Championship to the Williamsport Crosscutters 2 games to none.

The 2004 season brought the most complete Cyclones team ever. Managed by Tony Tijerina, three batters hit over .300 and five starting pitchers made their starts in rotation for the last 55 games of the season except one game. The Cyclones won the McNamara division title only to lose to the Tri-City ValleyCats in controversial fashion. With the series tied, the Cyclones were leading 3–0 in the 3rd inning when the games was held up and eventually cancelled by rain, which wiped out the score. After another rainout, Game 3 was played from the beginning where the Cyclones lost the deciding game 7–1. A new rule was placed by the NY-Penn League that any games suspended because of rain, if a team or teams have scored runs in the game, the suspended game will be picked from the inning when the game was called.

The 2005 season managed by Mookie Wilson was hampered by inconsistent relief pitching that hampered games in the later innings despite a good offense. The Cyclones finished third and missed the playoffs. On August 23, 2005, The Cyclones and KeySpan Park hosted the first-ever New York–Penn League All-Star Game, which was won by the National League–affiliated team. The winning pitcher was Bobby Parnell. Also that year, the Cyclones became a major partner of Brooklyn's High School of Sports Management, a small school located down the block from KeySpan Park on West 19th Street and Mermaid Ave.

The 2006 season managed by George Greer mirrored the team name. A 7-game losing streak to start the season was followed by a 10-game winning streak which led the streaky Cyclones to the NYPL Playoffs in a dramatic extra-inning victory against the Vermont Lake Monsters in the final game of the season. The Cyclones would lose to the SI Yanks in the NYPL opening playoff round 2 games to none. On July 20, 2006, the Cyclones and the Oneonta Tigers took part in the longest game in the history of the New York–Penn League, a 26-inning marathon that the Cyclones lost, 6–1. The game took 6 hours and 40 minutes to complete. The Cyclones scored their lone run in the first inning; Oneonta tied the game in the fourth and then did not score again until they scored five runs in the top of the 26th inning. Cyclones manager George Greer was ejected from the contest in the first inning for arguing an umpire's call on a force play at second base.

The 2007 season managed by Edgar Alfonzo had the second most successful season in team history with a 49–25 record. With a consistent offense, great pitching and the best defense in the league, the Cyclones powered their way to winning its fourth McNamara division title and sweeping the SI Yankees in two straight games in the NYPL opening playoff round. Game One produced the best road win in team history when the Cyclones beat the SI Yanks, 8–4. However, the Cyclones went on to getting swept in disappointing fashion by the Auburn Doubledays for the NYPL Championship. After giving up a leadoff home run to shortstop Matt Bouchard, future Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher Brett Cecil pitched one hit ball in 7 innings as the Doubledays won the game 4–1. On September 7, 2007, during the final regular season game (a 5–4 victory over the Lowell Spinners), the Cyclones set an all-time single-game attendance record of 10,073—2,573 more than the stadium's seating capacity in 2001. That season, the team won its fourth McNamara division title.

The 2008 season, managed again by Edgar Alfonzo, was marred by a poor start but recovered with a torrid finish at 45–30, narrowly missing the playoffs after losing the final game of the season to the Aberdeen Ironbirds 5–3 in extra innings. The team produced major leaguers and future New York Mets Ike Davis and Jenrry Mejía. But the team was marred with an inconsistent offense with less than average results with runners in scoring position.

On August 23, 2009, Cyclones pitcher Brandon Moore threw a 7-inning no-hitter in the first game of a doubleheader against the Aberdeen IronBirds, 5–0, at Ripken Stadium. Moore walked three and hit one batter, with only one IronBird reaching second base. This came seven years to the day Miguel Pinango threw a nine-inning one-hitter for the Cyclones, pitching 8+2⁄3 innings of no-hit ball.

On February 4, 2010, the team announced that the new name of their home would be called Municipal Credit Union (MCU) Park, replacing KeySpan as the naming right sponsor, which had held the naming rights from the opening of the stadium in 2001. In addition to the naming rights, MCU and the Cyclones entered into a comprehensive 11-year marketing partnership that launches the Cyclones’ 10th season in Brooklyn. The partner agreement is scheduled to last until 2020.

The 2010 season saw the Cyclones, under the leadership of Wally Backman, lead the league with a record of 52–24, but the Cyclones fell in the Championship series to Tri-City ValleyCats. The Cyclones would make the playoffs as the wild card team in 2011 and 2012, but would not make it out of the semifinals. The Cyclones failed to make the playoffs in 2013 and lost a tie-breaker in 2014 on and missed the playoffs on the last day of the season.

Since 2014, the Cyclones have dedicated one night a year as a tribute to the popular sitcom Seinfeld, featuring various show tributes such as an "Elaine Benes dancing contest", determining if a fan had either picked or scratched their nose, the Cyclones wearing "Puffy Shirt"–styled jerseys, appearances from former actors and giveaways honoring the show. This game has since become one of the Cyclones' most popular events, regularly selling out in advance and drawing fans of both baseball and Seinfeld from near and far.

The 2015 season was the first time in franchise history the Brooklyn Cyclones finished below .500. The Cyclones would go on to have losing records in 2016 and 2017, but lost the tie-breaker and once again missed out on the playoffs on the last day of the season in 2018.

The Brooklyn Cyclones returned to the New York-Penn League playoffs in 2019, thanks to a strong finish to end the season, which included a series sweep of the Staten Island Yankees in what would be the final match-up between the longtime rivals. In the semi-finals, the Cyclones faced division rival and wild card winner in the Hudson Valley Renegades. The Cyclones fell to the Renegades 5–4 in Game 1. The Cyclones took Game 2 in Brooklyn by a score of 1–0, thanks to a solo homer from Jed Lowrie, who was on a rehab assignment from the Mets. The Cyclones won Game 3 on a walkoff double from Ranfy Adon, sending them to the New York-Penn League Championship.

The Cyclones faced the Lowell Spinners in a series that was dubbed "An MiLB Rematch of 1986", as the Spinners were a Red Sox farm team. The Cyclones took Game 1 in Lowell by a score of 2–1, before dropping game 2 in Brooklyn by a score of 3–1. Game 3 saw the Cyclones take a 2–0 lead in the bottom of the 2nd, but the Spinners tied it up the next half inning. After a solo homer by Marino Campana in the Top of the 7th put Lowell up 3–2, the Cyclones staged a rally to take a 4–3 lead, en route to winning the 2019 New York-Penn League Championship. The Cyclones were managed by former Met Edgardo Alfonzo, whose brother, Edgar, managed the Brooklyn Cyclones in 2001. Other coaches on the team included Pitching Coach Josue Matos, Hitting Coach Delwyn Young and Bench Coach Endy Chavez

The Cyclones would be the final New York-Penn League champions, as the COVID-19 Pandemic cancelled the 2020 season and the ensuing MiLB realignment led to the dissolving of the New York-Penn League.

In October 2020, Steve Cohen bought the New York Mets, Syracuse Mets, St. Lucie Mets and Brooklyn Cyclones from the Wilpon family. This has led to a unique situation, as the longtime Vice President of the Brooklyn Cyclones is also named Steve Cohen, but unrelated to the new owner.

The Cyclones' main rivals prior to the 2021 restructuring of Minor League Baseball were the Staten Island Yankees, a rivalry often called the "Battle of the Boroughs", after the boroughs of Brooklyn and Staten Island, or the "Battle for the Bridge", after the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge which separated the two teams. Only 13 miles (21 km) apart, the two teams had the closest proximity in the Minor Leagues. The two teams generally sold out the games which pitted them against each other. A major contribution to this intense rivalry was the fact that both parent teams were also based in New York (the Mets in Queens, and the Yankees in the Bronx). Other regional rivals included the Hudson Valley Renegades and the Tri-City ValleyCats.

In conjunction with Major League Baseball's restructuring of Minor League Baseball in 2021, the Cyclones were organized into the 12-team High-A East. In 2022, the High-A East became known as the South Atlantic League, the name historically used by the regional circuit prior to the 2021 reorganization.