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By Will Bredderman
Brooklyn Daily
Who needs the Super Bowl — the New York-Penn League All-Star Game is coming to Brooklyn!
The best and brightest of the Class-A short-season league will go to bat at MCU Park in Coney Island on Aug. 19, 2014 — marking the first time since 2005 that the Cyclones’ home has hosted the match-up.
Top brass at the ‘Clones organization said the game will not only showcase the batting, pitching, and fielding skills of the young baseball players, but also the enormous transformations the People’s Playground has undergone in the last decade.
“It’s been almost 10 years since we hosted the game, and we are excited for the opportunity to show the fans, players, and executives from around the league the transformation that Coney Island has undergone,” said Mini-Mets vice president Steve Cohen.
New York-Penn officials said they picked the Pride of Coney Island’s stadium to host the game because the team has led the league in attendance every year since it came to Brooklyn in 2001.
“The Cyclones have consistently set the bar for excellence in their operations, overall fan experience, and community involvement,” said league prez Ben Hayes.
The game promises to be a Civil War of sorts, pitting South against North. The South All-Star Affiliates will feature the finest talents from the Cyclones, alongside players from their reviled rivals the Staten Island Yankees, as well as the Williamsport Crosscutters, Jamestown Jammers, Aberdeen Ironbirds, Mahoning Valley Scrappers, and the State College Spikes. The North team will include athletes from the Auburn Doubledays, Batavia Muckdogs, Connecticut Tigers, Hudson Valley Renegades, Lowell Spinners, Tri-City Valleycats, and the Vermont Lake Monsters.
The 2005 All-Star Game — the first ever in the New York Penn League — pitted National League affiliates against the American League-connected clubs, with the Cyclones and the National League edging out the Yankees and the American League in a 5–4 squeaker.
The All-Star Game will not be the only showdown at MCU. The day before the professional baseball game, the stadium will host the Civil Servant/Celebrity All-Star Challenge — a softball game featuring players from the Police, Fire, Sanitation, and Port Authority Police departments, with one team led by Brooklyn-born retired Mets hurler John Franco and the other by borough-native Rosanna Scotto of Fox 5’s Good Day New York.