Royalty saw plenty of baseball over the weekend!

First Energy Park - Home of the Lakewood Blueclaws

After seeing history made Saturday afternoon, the King drove my Cousin Andy and I to Lakewood, New Jersey for a minor league doubleheader at First Energy Park.

Since the game in Lakewood also got rained out Friday night, they were scheduled to play two 7 inning games starting at 6:05PM instead of one nine inning game at 7:05PM.

We wound up arriving in Lakewood in the top of the second inning. We should have made it on time but we ran into traffic which made it impossible to do that. The King did a nice job getting us there despite the unplanned delay.

We lucked out that the game went into extra innings and it ended after 9 innings as the Kannapolis Intimidators beat the Lakewood Blueclaws, 8-5.

In the second game, the Blueclaws beat the Intimidators by a score of 3-1.

Besides the two games we saw, we were also treated to a musical tribute to local native Bruce Springsteen and the late great Big Man Clarence Cleamons. They played their music throughout the evening. It made for a more entertaining night.

What a day it was for my Cousin Andy. He had a birthday to remember forever. I'm glad that the King and I were apart of it.

Sunday the King and I went back to the Bronx to see the finale of the rain shortened series between the Yankees and the Tampa Bay Rays. Both teams split the two games they played.. This was the rubber match.

It turned out to be a great pitcher's duel. It lived up to billing for a change. Like in the good old days, both starters James Shields of the Rays and CC Sabathia of the Yankees both pitched a complete game.

The game flew by as both teams matched zeros until the Rays decided to throw the ball away not once but twice in the bottom of the seventh inning. The Yankees took full advantage and capitalized by scoring the only run of the game. They went on to win the game 1-0 and it took only a mere 2 hours and 11 minutes.

In addition to seeing a well played game with enjoyed some great company too. We had our pals Vincent Ascanio and Rich Warnock in the "royal" box with us. It was nice that they were able to join us. Since they're so young, they may not see such a well pitched game again in their lives.

I don't remember the last time I saw both starters finish what they started. In this day and age, it's such a rarity.

Stay tuned as I'm going to write a special post about a roadtripper that does his research to figure out ways to make our national pastime affordable for fans of all ages.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman