Royalty meets up with Jean Ann Harrison at Citi Field as the Pirates came to play the Mets!

Jean Ann & I at Citi Field

Thursday night May 9th the Mets opened a four game series with the Pittsburgh Pirates at Citi Field. I was informed earlier in the week that our friend Jean Ann Harrison who happens to be a business partner and friend of Jason Grilli was coming back to NYC. When I heard that, I was all excited. Unfortunately I didn't get to see Jason this time around before any of the games. Jean Ann did though. She told him I said hello.
Jean Ann is a big Met fan. She was dressed in her Met gear. She didn't want to sympathize that Jason was playing against her team. On the other hand, I wanted to see Jason have success. I've met him on a few occasions thanks to her. He's a good guy. Jason has overcome a serious knee injury to get back to the Major Leagues. He's a preserver. I don't have the heart to see him fail even if it's against my team since I like the Mets too.

Jason is now the Pirates' closer. With that being said, he normally comes into a game only when the Pirates are ahead late. On Thursday night, he was summoned from the bullpen with the score tied at two going to the bottom of the ninth inning. He proceeded to give up an infield single to second base to Marlon Byrd who lead off for the Mets. He was sacrificed to second on a bunt by Andrew Brown. With one out, Mike Baxter pinch hit for center fielder Juan Lagares and he became an instant hero for the second time this week as he delivered the game winning hit which made a loser out of Jason Grilli. As a Met fan, Jean Ann was thrilled. As for me, it was bittersweet since I didn't want to see him fail in front of me.

Friday night Jason Grilli got some revenge on Jean Ann. The Mets trailed the Pirates, 7-1 going to the ninth inning. They called on former Yankee Jose Contreras to finish the game but he wound up giving up three hits and a walk while recording just two outs. As a result, he wound up creating a save opportunity. Jason was called on to get the last out with the tying run on deck which meant it was a save situation. He got shortstop Ruben Tejada to fly out to center field. By doing so, he recorded his 14th save of the season. After the game, he wrote JeanAnn a text message and he said and I quote "that was easy." It was a small payback for the night before.

Jean Ann wound up joining us as we went to Donovan's Pub for a post game meal.

Over the weekend, she joined us again as the Pirates played the Mets.

Stay tuned as I'll go into further detail about how those games played out.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman