The Rockaway Wave
Originally published August 31, 2023
“Hey guys, I’m Brendan Hardy your clubhouse correspondent, and I’m back with some hard-hitting questions.”
That’s what you’ll hear if you follow The Brooklyn Cyclones on social media. Hardy, one of the longest-tenured members of the Cyclones, sits down with his teammates for interviews. In them, they discuss everything from baseball to pop culture and even pick-up lines.
“Just being able to talk to the guys, and actually show the public that hey, we’re people too,” Hardy said. “It’s like, our uniform is part of our occupation, it’s just us living out our dream. But as far as just us being people, that’s the best part, to bring out that personable side of everybody.”
Hardy shouted out Isabella Crispino, who worked for the Cyclones last season as a creative services associate, as the one who helped get the ball rolling on the idea back in 2022. She asked him what he would be doing if he wasn’t playing, to which he said sports broadcasting.
That is, he used to sit down with his teammates for interviews as Brooklyn’s clubhouse correspondent. On August 19, after spending the majority of the last two seasons with the Cyclones, Hardy was promoted to Double-A Binghamton.
Richie Benes, Brooklyn’s hitting coach who has also been with the Cyclones for the last two seasons, glowed when talking about Hardy the night before his promotion.
“B? B-Hardy? Forget about it. He’s a big piece. He’s one of the arteries to the heart of this clubhouse,” Benes said. “Always has energy, always trying to get better. We were having a conversation about hitting earlier today in the game. His energy is unmatched. It’s great to have him here. To see him move forward at some point, it’d be bittersweet, because he’s good to be around.”
That’s the sentiment you get from anyone who talks about him.
Cyclones manager Chris Newell said a lot of the same things as Benes, calling Hardy fun to be around, a great life in the clubhouse and a great teammate.
“He’s a character, he keeps things loose, but hey, don’t get me wrong, he’s super intense,” Newell said. “He came in and let me have it one night because I didn’t give him the ball because I gave the ball to somebody else, and I love that fire. He and I have a great relationship, and he
comes from a wonderful family. His mom and dad raised a helluva man, and he’s a perfect guy to have in your clubhouse.”
His mom, Jan Hardy, and his Dad, Bill Hardy, remember that fire in Brendan from a very young age.
Jan said when he was young, he would keep telling her to throw harder and to move back when playing catch in the front yard. Bill remembers a moment in the 9-year-old regional playoffs when he was his coach. Brendan, he said, didn’t like to make an out. In one game he, and after getting thrown out at first he slammed his helmet into the ground, something that probably gets an umpire to throw you out of the game — but the umpire didn’t have to. By the time the helmet hit the ground, Bill did it himself.
They’re also big fans of Hard Hitting Questions with Brendan Hardy.
“I like how confident he is in actually bringing out the best in another player,” Jan Hardy said. “… Just be playful, yet intuitive and insightful.”
Hardy played high school baseball at Harrison Central High School in Gulfport, Mississippi, and spent his senior year playing for Neil Frederic, who took over the program during his final season.
Frederic, like so many of Hardy’s coaches, loved talking about him and even said he can get emotional when doing so.
“Every time you see him, every time he pulls up in his Mustang, or whatever he drives, up to our fieldhouse, or any time you see any picture of him, you always see him with a smile on his face,” Frederic said. “He always looks you in the eye, he shakes your hand, he’s one of those kids that is … somewhat of a coach’s dream. They’re athletic, they’re a team guy, and they’re full of enthusiasm and they have fun. The kids flock to guys like that.”
Frederic said Hardy will still come back in the offseasons and work with the program, and make an impact in the community.
“I have parents that have middle school kids that have worked with him in the past in his spare time … that they want to hop on a plane, and they want to go watch him, just because [he’s given them] a couple of lessons,” Frederic said. “But it ain’t about the instruction that they gave to them, really it comes down to his personality and the genuine love that he has for those kids in our program.”
Following his senior year, Hardy was a 31st-round pick in the 2018 MLB Draft, the 920th overall player selected.
Despite being five years ago, Hardy remembers it like it was yesterday.
He said he remembered the Mets called him early in the morning and told him they’d have the money for him, but they needed to draft some college guys first. That started a wait that lasted about nine hours from the time he got the first call from the Mets, so long he said he just had to set his phone away and not look at it.
Then, his phone starts blowing up.
“It’s a whole bunch of old teammates saying congratulations and everything,” Hardy said. “I run into the living room and I’m like Dad, everybody’s telling me congrats, but we haven’t gotten a call or anything. Just as he was like, I haven’t gotten a call, the phone rings.”
Then, they tried to call Jan, who was at work. There was one issue though — she wasn’t answering.
“I wasn’t keeping up with the draft, because I was thinking he was not gonna get drafted,” Jan Hardy said. “He was gonna go to school, and that was gonna be it, so I wasn’t keeping up with it, I was just pressing on. And then, I finally call them on my way home, and they’re like hey, this happened, Brendan got drafted.”
Hardy’s journey through the Mets system has been far from an easy one. After being drafted, he spent his first two seasons pitching in Rookie ball and then Rookie Advanced, the latter of which doesn’t even exist anymore. He then lost the 2020 season to COVID, like so many minor leaguers did.
Finally back on the mound in 2021, Hardy had a rough go of it. He dealt with multiple injuries, namely to his patellar tendon and ulnar nerve, which each cost him a couple of weeks. Then on the mound, he struggled. In 24 appearances between rookie ball and Low-A, Hardy gave up 35 earned runs in 25.1 innings — a 12.43 ERA.
Adjustments needed to be made, so he went to work in the offseason. He switched where he was training and started working with David Parkinson, who is currently a pitcher in the Phillies organization. Parkinson, Hardy said, saved his career.
Hardy said he changed up his mechanics, figured himself out as a player and a pitcher, and started leaning into what he did well instead of trying to be something he wasn’t.
Jan said they were skeptical about moving to go work with Parkinson that offseason, but trusted his judgment. When they saw the clips that he would send them though, they started believing, because he was actually improving.
“When I went up, and I saw for myself, I saw the improvement, I saw the 95, 96, 97 mile an hour fastball, I was like, wow,” Bill Hardy said. “It was like, as my wife said, it was just one of those that we watched him grow to the point where he is now.”
Hardy’s 2022 season was a complete turnaround. In 29 innings over 23 appearances between Low-A and High-A, he gave up just nine earned runs — a 2.79 ERA. However, the injury bug struck again, and his season ended up being cut short due to an inflamed rotator cuff.
That lingered into 2023 spring training and cost him the first month of this season, but after he returned in late May, he started showing the coaching staff why he deserved to be put into higher and higher leverage situations.
“Perseverance and faith,” Hardy said, after letting out a long exhale. “The Mets had faith in me to rehab and come back, and they invested in me, so the least I can do is just do my best to keep myself on the field and just leave the rest up to God.”
Over 15 games and 22.1 innings with the Cyclones in 2023, Hardy gave up just four earned runs — a 1.61 ERA, and a far cry from just two years earlier.
“Having success in this game and being at your very best matters to him,” Newell said. “It’s not just a hobby for him, it’s a way of life. He’s put his eggs in this basket, he bypassed college because this is a dream of his and this is important to him. And you know what, he’s been knocked down a few times and he gets back up every single time.”
Right now, he’s working on a cutter which he said has been going well, along with adding some sweep to his slider. The Cyclones also started extending him to some more multi-inning outings towards the end of his run in Brooklyn, something Newell was really impressed with. His final two outings for Brooklyn went three and two innings, the first resulting in a save and both being hitless.
“Journey has been up and down,” Hardy said. “But all in all, it is all worth it, and I can only thank God for it.”
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