Royalty recognizes personal milestones home and away over Memorial Day weekend!

Saturday during the day I got to clean up around the house before I went out to Citi Field to see the completion of the game that was suspended Friday night against the Atlanta Braves with the score tied at five after eight innings. That was followed by the regularly scheduled game on John Franco Bobblehead Doll night.

I wound up meeting my Cousin Andy and my pal Rich Wolber by the Apple outside the ballpark at 5:45PM. I had tickets for them. Once we exchanged pleasantries, we went in through my buddy, Sam Citron. I introduced him to my Cousin. As always, it was a pleasure to see him.

We then went upstairs to section 516 as the royal court was already in session. We had a nice gathering which included Manny Morales, Frank Anichiarico, Pat Gorman, David Sack & Martin Caamano.

As for the completion of the suspended game, Bobby Parnell threw the first pitch of the top of the ninth inning at 6:10PM. He wiggled out his way of trouble by getting a double play to get it to the bottom of the ninth still tied. The Mets failed to score so on to extra innings they went. In the tenth inning, Brandon Lyon came on to pitch for the Mets. He wound up giving up the winning runs as second baseman Dan Uggla delivered what proved to be the game winning hit, a single. B.J. Upton added a sacrifice bunt that turned into a fielder's choice as Brandon Lyon couldn't make a play on the ball which allowed another run to score to make it a 7-5 game in favor of the Braves. The Mets failed to score in the bottom of the tenth inning as the Braves emerged victorious. The game ended at 6:52PM which was almost 24 hours after it started on Friday night.

The regularly scheduled game was suppose to start at 7:15PM but it wound up being pushed back to 7:28PM because of the suspended game.

As for that game we saw, the Braves' starter Mike Minor did it all. He shutout the Mets for seven and a third innings. He struck out twelve and he hit also hit his first major league home run to get the Braves on the scoreboard in a scoreless game in the fifth inning. His two run homer was part of a five run fifth inning that did in Mets starter Dillon Gee and the Mets. The Braves cruised to a 6-0 win as they took the first two games of the series.

Scott Bultman at Chase Field 

It should be noted while we were watching our games at Citi Field, fellow ballpark chaser and avid reader of my blog, Scott Bultman was in the midst of achieving a personal milestone of his own. He was at Chase Field, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks which was the last ballpark he needed to see all the current ones. He now has 37 total ballparks overall. We met him at Yankee Stadium the first week of April that gave him number 29. On this night, he accomplished his mission. He wasn't alone either. Our pal & fellow ballpark chaser, Steve Fekete aka the Padre Punk was there too to see his Padres play. He also got to celebrate the occasion with Scott. The Padres won the game, 10-4. With that being said, Steve got a lot more than he bargained for.

Me at Coca Cola Park for 8K

Sunday morning the King and I took the subway to Yankee Stadium where we met up with David Sack and Vincent Ascanio. We were all there to meet up with our pal Bryan Gilligan who was meeting us there to drive us all to Allentown, Pennsylvania. We went back to Coca Cola Park to see the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, the Philadelphia Phillies Triple A affiliate host the Norfolk Tides, the Baltimore Orioles farm club that afternoon. It was a historic day for me personally because that game was the 8,000th live sporting event I've seen in my lifetime. As for the game we saw, the IronPigs held off the Tides, 5-4.

After the game, Bryan drove us back to Citi Field for another historic occasion as we saw the Mets wrap up their weekend series with the Braves on Sunday night baseball.

King & his father

This day was the 50th anniversary of the King's first baseball game he saw at Old Yankee Stadium with his father on May 26, 1963. The Yankees played a traditional doubleheader that day on Memorial Day against the Washington Senators. The Yankees won the first game, 7-1 as Elston Howard and Mickey Mantle hit home runs and Jim Bouton threw a complete game. In the second game, the Senators beat the Yankees, 7-6 despite a home run by Roger Maris.


On this night, the King reunited with his father who came out with his brother Charlie Casiano to acknowledge this special day. We also had some more company as we were joined by Frank Anichiarico, Bryan Gilligan, Ralph & Vincent Ascanio, Al Linderman, Phil Butleman, David Sack & Michael Carson in the royal court in section 516. In addition, shortly after the game started we had a surprise appearance from our pal Andrew Van Cleve who drove over from Harrison, NJ where he saw the Red Bulls play the Columbus Crew in a 2-2 draw. It turned out to be a memorable and joyous evening at the ballpark for all of us.

As for the game we saw, the Mets got a great outing from their starter Shaun Marcum who threw seven strong innings striking out twelve. He did leave the game losing 2-1 thanks to Dan Uggla who hit a two run homer off him in the seventh inning. The Mets rallied to score three runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to get a much needed come from behind victory. John Buck delivered a run scoring single to tie the game and Ike Davis hit a two run single to win it as the Mets went on to beat the Braves, 4-2 to salvage a game in the series.

Thank you for reading and following.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman