Brooklyn’s Boys of Summer have not started a season this poorly in more than a decade.
The Cyclones did not give fans a whole lot to cheer about in their early games, racking up a seven-game losing streak — just two games short of the team’s record of nine consecutive losses set in 2002 — that finally ended when the boys defeated the Connecticut Tigers on July 2.
But three more losses followed, putting the Clones at 3–11 for the season as of July 4, in dead last place in their McNamara Division, a position some fans said was the fault of newly installed manager Edgardo “Fonzie” Alfonzo.
“Alfonzo’s efforts aren’t shining through,” said fan Doug Allen. “They need to play better.”
But Alfonzo, a former New York Mets star who replaced Tom “Gamby” Gamboa as the team’s manager months before the season started, said that the boys’ woes stem from confidence issues.
“It’s early in the season, but I don’t think these guys have the confidence right now,” Alfonzo said. “Sometimes they feel too much pressure and it’s hard to deal with that.”
The jitters could explain the team’s less-than-stellar performance at-bat — the Cyclones hold second-to-last place in batting average, with a lousy .219, and third-to-last place in number of hits, with 98, in the New York–Penn League after 14 games. And the number of runs scored by the Clones, 50, is good enough for second-to-last place in the league.
But first baseman Jeremy Wolf said he refuses to panic, hoping the boys will improve their hitting with time.
“Our guys are hitting the ball hard everywhere, but they’re getting caught, and that’s just how baseball works sometimes,” he said. “When we have guys on second and third it’s the pitcher’s problem — not ours — and we need to be a little more aggressive.”
The Cyclones were 2–8 before the team’s July 2 doubleheader against Connecticut, the same abysmal record that the 2006 Clones earned in that team’s first 10 games.
But the 2006 squad went on to improve its luck, going 41–33 and making the playoffs, a reversal of fortune that should give the current team plenty of hope.
And breaking the seven-game losing streak by defeating Connecticut showed the boys’ winning potential with Alfonzo at the helm, according to Wolf.
“We’re a team of really good baseball players, so everything will come together,” he said. “Fonzie knows what he is doing.”
