Maimonides Park

Maimonides Park is a baseball stadium at 1904 Surf Avenue on Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York, situated immediately beside the Riegelmann Boardwalk and the Atlantic Ocean. The ballpark occupies part of the former site of Steeplechase Park, the famous Coney Island amusement park that operated from 1897 until 1964, with the surviving Parachute Jump rising immediately beyond the outfield. Construction began in August 2000 as part of a programme to return professional baseball to Brooklyn more than four decades after the Brooklyn Dodgers played their final season at Ebbets Field in 1957. Designed by Jack L. Gordon Architects and constructed by Turner Construction, the stadium opened on 25 June 2001 as KeySpan Park, with an original capacity of approximately 6,500. It became the home of the Brooklyn Cyclones, the New York Mets’ minor-league affiliate, whose name was itself inspired by the nearby Coney Island Cyclone roller coaster. The stadium was renamed MCU Park in 2010 following a naming-rights agreement with Municipal Credit Union and received its present name, Maimonides Park, before the 2021 season. Its current capacity is approximately 7,000, with additional standing-room space. The unusual setting gives spectators views of the Parachute Jump, Wonder Wheel, amusement rides and Atlantic Ocean beyond the playing field, while the scoreboard and other design elements deliberately incorporate Coney Island’s amusement-park character. Hurricane Sandy caused extensive flooding and damage in October 2012, affecting the clubhouses, offices and team store and forcing the original natural-grass playing surface to be replaced with artificial turf before the 2013 season. Outside the stadium stands a statue depicting Brooklyn Dodgers teammates Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese, while the adjacent Brooklyn Wall of Remembrance commemorates firefighters, police officers and other emergency personnel killed in the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001.

Maimonides Park has appeared in CSI: NY (2004–2013), The Other Guys (2010), Bored to Death (2009–2011) and Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014). The productions have used quite different parts of the stadium: CSI: NY uses the surrounding parking area as a murder scene, The Other Guys transforms a tunnel beneath the stands into part of Yankee Stadium, and Bored to Death turns the entire ballpark into the fictional home of the Brooklyn Wonders for an elaborate kidnapping sequence. Kingsman: The Secret Service uses the stadium more briefly but unmistakably during the worldwide outbreak of violence triggered by Richmond Valentine’s mobile-phone signal. The Brooklyn Cyclones have confirmed all four productions as having filmed at the ballpark, which was still known as KeySpan Park or MCU Park when the respective scenes were shot.

In CSI: NY (2004–2013), the stadium appears in the third-season episode «Past Imperfect» (2007), which opens with the discovery of a murdered woman in the parking area at what was then KeySpan Park. The victim, Emma Pierce, is found near a dumpster wearing a black party dress, wrapped in a moving blanket with packing tape covering her face and a padlock around her neck. Detectives Mac Taylor, Stella Bonasera and Don Flack arrive to examine the scene, and the condition of Emma’s body eventually points Mac towards convicted serial killer Clay Dobson, whose earlier murder conviction has recently been overturned. The investigation immediately becomes more complicated when another man, Scott Colson, pushes through the police perimeter while the team is working beside the stadium. Apparently disoriented, he tells Mac that he wants to report a murder and then claims that he himself is the victim before collapsing. His poisoning develops into a second investigation involving organised crime, while Emma’s murder leads Mac back towards Dobson. The stadium itself does not represent a baseball venue central to the story, but the parking area and recognisable Coney Island surroundings provide the setting for the episode’s opening crime scene. The Brooklyn Cyclones later specifically listed CSI: NY among the television productions filmed at the ballpark.

In The Other Guys (2010), Maimonides Park, then known as MCU Park, is used for one of the film’s funniest pieces of backstory involving NYPD detective Terry Hoitz, played by Mark Wahlberg. During a counselling session for police officers who have fired their weapons in the line of duty, Terry reluctantly explains the incident that destroyed his promising career. In flashback, he is assigned to tunnel security during what the film describes as Game Seven of the World Series in the Bronx. Spotting a shadowy figure moving through the restricted area, Terry orders him to stop and eventually draws his weapon when the man continues running towards him. Terry fires and shoots him in the leg, only to discover that his supposed threat is New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, playing himself. Jeter, who has been wearing headphones and therefore failed to hear Terry’s warnings, angrily identifies himself while the horrified detective realises what he has done. The Yankees subsequently lose the championship, and Terry is blamed throughout the police department for costing New York the World Series. Instead of receiving the homicide promotion for which he had been considered, he is transferred to less prestigious duties and acquires the mocking nickname «the Yankee Clipper». Although the sequence is supposed to occur at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, it was filmed in the tunnel running from the home dugout at MCU Park towards the Brooklyn Cyclones’ locker room. The Cyclones themselves have specifically identified this tunnel as the location where Wahlberg’s character shoots Jeter.

In Bored to Death (2009–2011), Maimonides Park plays a substantial role in the series finale, «Nothing I Can’t Handle by Running Away» (2011), where it becomes Brooklyn Wonders Stadium, home of the fictional Brooklyn Wonders baseball team. Jonathan Ames, played by Jason Schwartzman, has recently discovered that the eccentric Harrison Bergeron, played by Stacy Keach, is his biological father. Despite initially wanting nothing to do with him, Jonathan visits Bergeron’s hat shop on Coney Island and learns that his father is attempting to leave town because of gambling debts. Bergeron owes $10,000 to a group of men involved in illegal betting, who arrive at the shop and force him to accompany them to the baseball stadium. Jonathan follows and attempts to intervene with a pistol Bergeron has given him, only to discover that the weapon is unreliable and be captured as well. Inside the otherwise empty stadium, the gang threatens to bury father and son beneath centre field. Bergeron convinces them that he can obtain the money but must collect it alone, leaving Jonathan behind as collateral with a 90-minute deadline. As time runs out, Jonathan telephones Bergeron while his captors threaten to kill him, prompting George Christopher, played by Ted Danson, to contact their friend Ray Hueston, played by Zach Galifianakis. Ray arrives at the stadium accompanied by a group of enthusiastic fans dressed as his comic-book superhero Super Ray. George takes control of the stadium’s public-address system and demands Jonathan’s release while Ray and his costumed followers spread across the stands and field in an improvised rescue operation. The kidnappers respond by opening fire, sending the Super Rays scattering across the ballpark while Jonathan attempts to escape. The chaotic rescue eventually succeeds, with Jonathan reunited with George and Ray and acknowledging that they are the people he can genuinely depend upon even after the disappointing discovery of his biological father. The Brooklyn Cyclones have specifically confirmed that their stadium was transformed into Brooklyn Wonders Stadium for the finale, making this one of the most extensive fictional uses of Maimonides Park on screen.

In Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014), directed by Matthew Vaughn, Maimonides Park appears briefly during the film’s climactic worldwide outbreak of violence. Technology billionaire Richmond Valentine, played by Samuel L. Jackson, has distributed free SIM cards to millions of people as part of a secret plan to reduce the world’s population. When activated through his satellite network, the cards transmit a neurological signal that removes inhibitions and causes anyone exposed to it to become uncontrollably aggressive. Valentine first tests the system on a small scale before activating it globally during the film’s final act. As Eggsy, played by Taron Egerton, races through Valentine’s mountain bunker attempting to shut the system down, the film cuts between outbreaks of chaos around the world. One of these locations is the Brooklyn Cyclones’ stadium on Coney Island, where spectators suddenly begin attacking one another in the stands as the signal takes effect. The sequence also cuts to violence on a nearby beach and other international locations, expanding what has previously been a confined spy story into a global catastrophe. The stadium’s appearance is short, but the seating bowl and its distinctive Coney Island surroundings are clearly visible. Matthew Vaughn later discussed the large-scale stadium and beach material when explaining how the production choreographed the mass fighting scenes, while the Brooklyn Cyclones themselves confirm that Kingsman: The Secret Service filmed at the ballpark.

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