Royalty returns to Marlins Park along with a special guest, my Uncle Bob!

Prince outside Marlins Park

Three years ago, my Uncle Bob moved from Petaluma, California which is 40 miles north of San Francisco to Delray Beach, Florida.

Back in January 1992, the King and I went to the West Coast on a monster basketball and hockey trip. While we were there we visited my Uncle Bob. On that trip, we took him with us to the Cow Palace where the San Jose Sharks played their first few seasons while their new arena was being built.

We went back to visit him during baseball season on numerous occasions over the years when he lived there. We got to take him to Candlestick Park in 1993 and Pac Bell Park as it was known when it first opened back in 2000 to see the Giants and he also joined us when we went to Oakland to see the Athletics in 1997.

This time we got to visit him in Florida for the first time since he moved there. I arranged to meet him at his condo in Delray Beach which was on the way from Jupiter to Miami. Since we got a fast game that afternoon, we got to his place early enough so he could show us around his residence which overlooks a lake and a golf course.

He hadn't been to the new Marlins Park yet so I told him we'll take him there. It was a honor and privilege to do so.

As for the game we saw, the Miami Marlins fell behind the Washington Nationals, 2-0 early as Jesus Flores drove in a run with a sacrifice fly and Ryan Zimmerman added a solo homer. In the bottom of the third inning, newcomer Carlos Lee hit a two run single to tie the game at two. A few batters later, now former Marlin Hanley Ramirez launched a two run homer to break the tie. By doing so, we got to see the sculpture in left center field light up as a Marlin started to fly around and water shot up in the air like it was coming out of a fountain. It was a cool sight to see. Since the ballpark has long dimensions, home runs don't fly out of there like they do at Yankee Stadium so we got to see a rare treat.

The Nationals inched closer as they scored another run in the sixth inning to make it 4-3. The Marlins wound up adding an insurance run in the seventh inning as they went on to win, 5-3 to gain a split of the four series.
After the game, we drove back towards my Uncle's place. Before we got there we stopped off at Steak N Shake and we had a shake. What a great way to wrap up this midsummer's night dream.

After enjoying the shakes we had, we spent the night at my Uncle's place.

We had breakfast Tuesday morning then we headed to the West Palm Beach airport to catch our flight home.

I want to personally thank my Uncle Bob for giving us some royal treatment while we were there.
Stay tuned as I continue by doing my week in review upon our return home to the Big Apple.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman