The King doing his signature strikeout call at Citi Field!

The King in Action

It was on May 1, 1980 when the Mets were playing the Philadelphia Phillies at Shea Stadium a signature call was created.

The King aka Michael Casiano, my good friend and travel partner, started a chant when an opposing batter struck out against a Met pitcher.

On this particular night, the Phillies lead off batter was Pete Rose.

The King has a reputation of being opinionated; people we know like to say.

Here's an example of that.

For whatever reason, he has always hated Pete Rose who was known as "Charlie Hustle" during his playing days in the '70's and into the '80's.

The King would always refer to his hustle as phony.

With that being said, Rose struck out to start the game against Mets starting pitcher Pete Falcone.
Rose wound up being the first of the first six batters who faced Falcone to strike out.

After those six strikeouts in a row, the King has continued to yell out in a long drawn out voice "he struccccccck him out".

In addition, he extends his right hand out when he does the call as you can see in the picture I took of him last night at Citi Field.

Please note there's another variation he does as well.

If and when a Met pitcher strikes out 3 consecutive batters in the same inning, he bellows he struck him, he struck out the side, he struck them alllllll out then he follows it with a classic long he struck him out.

When an opposing pitcher strikes out he doesn't give an extended version of the call out of respect because most pitchers can't hit that well. When someone asks why that was so short, he responds it's only the pitcher.

As a result, 30 plus years later now at Citi Field the call has carried over.

Mind you, not everybody who sits around him enjoys the yelling and screaming that he does for a minute or two.

Please be aware that it's just an act that many people have come to expect when they attend a game and they sit near or by him.

In fact, on many occasions people have taken his picture and/or have done a video of him in action.

I love when we are fortunate to have people with families at the game who bring their young kids for the first time.

The kids are always amused by his antics.

In addition, the adults usually love the show too.

Some nights he's been known to captivate a whole section into joining him in his call.

It's some much fun when the right crowd shows up around us.

Over the years, if he's missing briefly due to a softball game people always ask where he is.

I respond don't worry he'll be here soon.

I try to do an imitation sometimes but I have to admit it's an embarrassment.

There's nothing better than the original doing it.

Furthermore, we always like to sit behind home plate in the upper deck in whatever ballpark we're in.

The King does do road shows as well on the major and/or minor league levels.

When he does, he does the call for the home team which keeps the natives happy as long they don't mind the act.

People we know may be in the ballpark without us knowing it until an opposing batter strikes out then all of a sudden, they come over to visit.

It's amazing how many times that has happened over the years.

The funny thing about the call is the King is not an attention getter.

In his own subtle way, he has built up quite a fan club.

I'll be writing another post to give you an example of that.

In case you don't know the King & I reside in the promenade section 516 row 3 seats 7 & 8.

If and when you happen to be at Citi Field and he don't mind some additional in house entertainment please feel free to come by.

Hopefully if people around us don't show up we will arrange to give you an upgrade so you can see the game as well as his act from a great vantage point.

If you do mind that's fine I respect your wishes but you can still come by and say hello to us.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed the detailed description I gave of how this signature call got started.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman