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| Scott Bultman, Steve Fekete, Tike Narry, Vincent Ascanio, Me King & Bryan Gilligan |
Wednesday night after work I arranged to meet up with Scott Bultman, another ballpark chaser who now lives in the Twin Cities. He flew in from Minneapolis to LaGuardia Airport earlier in the day and Steve Fekete who was staying in New Jersey. They wound up meeting me by my office in Midtown Manhattan at 5:30PM. We greeted each other and we proceeded to walk over to the subway so we could go to Citi Field. Quite amazingly, the plan didn't go as expected. Due to a stalled train at Queensboro Plaza, we had to take an alternate route which wound up costing us 10 minutes. As a result, instead of going to Taste of Dolly's for dinner, we decided to go to Subway instead. It should be noted that's Steve's restaurant of choice no matter what part of the country he's in. In that regard, things worked out well. Scott is also a fan of Subway on a lesser scale he said. The same can be said for me. Luckily I was ready for the alternate plan as I dug out some Subway coupons which came in handy as we all benefited as we were able to save some money. It was part of the royal treatment they expected and deserved. In addition, we got to meet up with my pal Vincent Ascanio who was on the same train as us. He joined us for dinner. After we ate, we all got back on the 7 train at Junction Blvd. and we took it one more express stop to Citi Field.
We got off the train and we proceeded to head into the ballpark. We did so in royal fashion as we saw my pal, Sam Citron who greeted us at the gate. Sam was so happy to see me. I introduced him to Scott & Steve. As for Vincent, he's a regular so Sam knows him well.
We proceeded to go up to our seats after I contacted another roadtripper who was at the game with his wife and son. I'm referring to the Narry family that is Tike, Dawn and their seven year old son Patrick who came in from the Bay area. They have San Francisco Giants season tickets. They wound up getting great seats way downstairs. They did so because they were all seeing Citi Field for the first time. More importantly they all were seeing their last current ballpark together. Tike told me he would come upstairs to where we were sitting in section 516 after a few innings. Since it was just before 7PM, we got on the elevator and we went up to see the rest of the royal court who were present & accounted for. We had the King, Bryan Gilligan, Pat Gorman & David Sack on hand on a cold windy night. We also got a quick hello from another person we know as JeanAnn Harrison came up to see us. She was also seeing Citi Field for the first time. She happens to like multiple teams. Two of them are the Mets & the Padres. With that being said, regardless of the outcome she couldn't lose. It was nice to see her again.
A few innings later Tike and his son Patrick came up to join us for part of the game. We all congratulated them on their personal milestone. It was great to be part of their special occasion. We all enjoyed each other's company. We all hope to meet again at a ballpark somewhere in the country in the future.
As for the game we saw, the Mets got seven shutout innings from their starter Matt Harvey who left the game with an 8-0 lead thanks to two run homers by Lucas Duda, John Buck and Ike Davis. The Met bullpen did their best to make it interesting in the late innings as they gave up four runs but they managed to prevent the Padres from coming all the way back as the Mets won, 8-4.
Thursday while I was at work I asked the King to take care of my Cousin Andy who was off from work. My Cousin asked me if the Mets or Yankees were playing. I told him they both were. The Mets had an afternoon game and the Yankees had a night game. Since I was working during the day, I arranged for him to meet up with the King. I told him I would see him at Yankee Stadium for their game after work.
In addition, Scott Bultman and Steve Fekete also did the doubleheader. This time it was Scott's turn to get closer to a personal milestone as he was seeing new Yankee Stadium for the first time. It was his 29th current ballpark leaving him with just Arizona which he plans to get to sometime in May so he can finish seeing all the current stadiums. I was happy to join him for the game.
As for the games that day, the Mets dropped their first game of the season, 2-1. As for the Yankees, they beat the Red Sox, 4-2 to earn their first win of the season after they got beat the first two games. Andy Pettitte allowed just one run over eight innings to earn his 246th lifetime win.
Friday night after work I wound up meeting Scott Bultman by surprise because he originally planned to go to Madison Square Garden to see the Knicks who were hosting the Bucks. He contacted me during the day and he said he changed his plans. As a result, we arranged to meet up at my office again at 5:30PM. Scott spend the day sightseeing. We wound up taking the train to Citi Field without a problem this time. We stopped off at Taste of Dolly's and we each had a few slices of pizza.
We found out on our way to Citi Field that Steve Fekete who was suppose to go back home to Anaheim, California decided to stay in NYC another day because his flight got delayed. As a result, he wound up going back to Citi Field too as the Miami Marlins were in town to play the Mets.
After Scott & I finished eating, we took the Q48 bus that was coming. It dropped us off right across the street from Citi Field. We got off and we walked over to the Rotunda area where we saw Sam Citron again. We proceeded to go in & we went upstairs where we met up with the King and the rest of the royal court which consisted of Bryan Gilligan, Vincent Ascanio, Frank Anichiarico, Pat Gorman and Michael Abrams aka the Yankee emperor who has seen 909 consecutive Yankee home games.
As for the game we saw, the Marlins built a 6-0 lead as the Mets bullpen imploded after starter Jeremy Hefner only allowed a run over the first six innings. The Mets made a comeback as they cut the lead in half, 6-3 after seven innings. After a scoreless eighth inning, the Marlins tacked on a run in the ninth. The Mets responded with two more as they threatened but they fell short as they lost, 7-5.
After the game, we went to Donovan's Pub in Woodside for a post game meal. Scott decided not to join us since he had an early flight back home to the Mini Apple Saturday morning. Steve decided to join the King, Bryan Gilligan, Frank Anichiarico and I. We got to have a nice meal together despite the Met loss it turned out to be a fun night out.
Stay tuned as I finish recapping the weekend as our visiting roadtrippers departed NYC.
Thank you for reading and following along.
Yours truly,
Gary Herman
1 comment:
It was a fun week Gary. Can't wait to return the favor and help make your Chicago and Milwaukee trips epic.
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