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| Prince at Youngstown State |
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| Prince at Winter Classic |
When we were in Columbus, Ohio on New Year's Eve we found out that the Winter Classic in Pittsburgh was moved from 1PM to 8PM due to mother nature. Rain was in the forecast mainly during the afternoon.
As a result, we received a call from our friend, Manny Morales, who informed us that there was a college basketball game at Cleveland State at 2PM.
Shortly thereafter our friends Mike & Alicia Irr from Pittsburgh told us that there was a college basketball game at Youngstown State at 1:05PM.
I quickly figured out the distances of both places and I decided that since we were staying in Washington, Pennsylvania that Youngstown State was the way to go.
By doing so, we got to see a rare Penguin doubleheader.
First we saw the Youngstown State Penguins play the Ramblers from Loyola of Illinois.
When we arrived at the arena, the King and I were already to pay $8.00 to get in the building. The lady said here you go it's free today. She proceeded to give us tickets and we walked in.
Based on the Penguin's performance, we got our money's worth. The Ramblers wound up blowing away the Penguins, 83-53.
After we got back to the car, I called our friends Mike & Alicia Irr in Pittsburgh who were attending the Winter Classic at Heinz Field too.
We wound up meeting them at McKees Rocks, which is located right outside of downtown Pittsburgh for dinner at Eat' N Park. We passed through Neville Island for the first time in order to get there.
Thankfully mother nature was cooperative enough that they were able to get the whole game in without any stoppages.
It was rather warm and it did manage to rain a little bit in the third period but the show still went on.
The NHL did a tremendous marketing job once again making this special event possible. Royalty was happy to be part of it for the third time in four years. We saw the first Winter Classic in Buffalo in 2008. Last year we were in Fenway Park. This year was Heinz Field. Now the question is where will the next one be. We hope it's right in our backyard. We'll have to wait and see.
As for this one, the Capitals and the Penguins put on a nice display of hockey outdoors. The NHL has find a way to get people to watch hockey by having this unique event.
It was a festive atomosphere as the tickets were divided up evenly. It appeared like the fans of each team were sitting together in every other section. In other words, one section had mostly Penguin fans and the next section was mainly Capital fans and so on around the building.
We sat among many Capital fans since our friend Peter Agnew who lives in Baltimore, has season tickets for the Capitals. Back in the summer, the Capitals gave him an opportunity to purchase tickets for this unique event. He decided to pass on going to the game. As a result, he asked us if we wanted to buy the tickets. Needless to say, we gladly said yes. Our only concern was the weather. Luckily it worked out in the end.
I want to thank Peter for taking care of us. Peter and his lovely wife Carmen are good people. We always try to get down to Baltimore and/or Washington D.C. so we can spend some quality time with them. On the other hand, they love to come up to NYC because they're big fans of the Opera. When they do, we always make time to see them.
As for the game we saw, the Capitals wound up winning 3-1 before a crowd of 68,111!
It was a bad day and night to be a Penguin.
After the game, we drove back home so we could attend the Jet game against the Bills at the New Meadowlands Stadium at 1PM.
I wound up dropping the King off at 7:15AM. I got home at 7:40AM. Since I was planning to return the car around 10AM I decided not to go to sleep.
I unpacked my stuff, took a shower and I ate breakfast before I returned the car.
After that I took the bus to the subway to the Port Authority Bus Terminal to go to the game.
The Jets decided to rest many of their key players in this one. It seemed more like a preseason game. The Jets went on to whip the Bills, 38-7!
After the game, I went back by LaGuardia Airport to pick up my car that I had left when I went to Chicago the week before.
I got home at 6:45PM. I ate dinner then shortly thereafter I went to sleep so I could catch up.
What a way to start 2011.
Thank you for reading and following along.
Yours truly,
Gary Herman
2 comments:
Not many people have experienced a Penguin doubleheader. Congratulations.I love the fact that you got your money's worth at Youngstown State. Zero. How'd you like to watch that team every night?
Manny according to a guy I was talking to at the game he said this team wasn't the same team he saw the other night. Apparently they had a bad day. It was definitely your kind of game and venue to attend. It was nice and relaxing to be there.
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