Royalty w/o 1/27 in review

In between the two Stadium Series games I saw at Yankee Stadium at the end of January, I saw the Nets play the Toronto Raptors at the Barclays Center. Our pal Vincent Ascanio came up with a much more appropriate name for it. He calls it the Darklays Center. The reason being if & when you go there that you feel like you're in dungeon. It's so dark throughout the building. There's no lighting at all around the ceiling that covers the upper level. They barely have lights in the first few rows of the upper level too. They shine the lights they have on the basketball court itself to make those who happen to be there feel like they're at a theater. They call it  theater lighting. People like the King & I who like to keep score of the game come prepared with our little flashlights so we can see what we're trying to write down as the game is being played.

On that note, Monday January 27th I wound up seeing the game with my buddy Sean MacDonald who likes seeing the Canadian teams play since he's originally from Ottawa himself. 

As for the game we saw, it was a real seesaw battle from start to finish. The Raptors wound up out lasting the Nets, 104-103 which put a smile on Sean's face. 

Tuesday night after work I went to the Transformed Madison Square Garden to see the Knicks play the Boston Celtics with the King who attended this game as well. 

As for the game we saw, it wasn't much of a game as the Knicks raced out to a big lead & they never looked back as they beat the Celtics, 114-88.

Thursday night I returned to the Garden. This time the Knicks took on the Cleveland Cavaliers. Just like Tuesday night, the Knicks proved to be much for the opposition as they whipped up on the Cavaliers, 117-86.

Friday night after work I met up with the King at the Darklays Center if you will. This time the Nets hosted the Oklahoma City Thunder. Unlike Monday night, this game reminded me of the two I saw at the Garden. The only difference was the home team in this case, the Nets got their butts kicked. The Thunder tossed them a beating, 120-95 to end the month of January.

Saturday marked the start of February. It started different then I initially thought it would thanks to my pal Eddie Pelle who asked me if I wanted to go somewhere for the day. I told him I would love to. Eddie was off from work & he wanted to getaway. His only concern was the weather. He told me we had a few college basketball games either to our North or to our South. As the week went on, he said that the weather was supposed to be better to our North. With that being said, He went ahead & he rented a car. He picked me up bright & early & away we went. We decided to go to Upstate New York for the day.

 

Lacrosse at Andy Kerr Stadium

We drove to Hamilton, NY which is the home of Colgate University. Since we got there extra early, we were able to check out a Lacrosse scrimmage that was taking place at Andy Kerr Stadium between the Albany Great Danes & the Colgate Raiders. That was located within a short walk of the Reid Athletic Center where Cotterell Court, the home of the Colgate Raiders basketball team is located. They were hosting the Bucknell Bison that afternoon in a Patriot League match up.

 

Cotterell Court

As for the game we saw, the Bucknell Bison raced past the Raiders after a slow start as they defeated them, 79-68.

After the game, Eddie drove us to the University of Albany for another college basketball game. As we were driving there, we ran into some bad weather luckily we had enough time to get there. Eddie weathered the storm & he got us there safely. Upon arrival, I got to meet up with a few guys I've met from going to baseball games. I'm referring to Bob Deal & David Schaffer who happen to be Albany graduates. In matter of fact, it was a reunion of their alumni that particular night. As a result, Bob managed to get me into the special pre game party they had for them. It was called the Ferocious Feast. It was the 17th year they've been doing it. I wound up having some food & soda while I joined them briefly. Since I was hungry it worked out well for me. When we got done, we went into the SEFCU Arena which is the home of the Albany Great Danes. They were playing the Vermont Catamounts in their annual Big Purple Growl game. 

SEFCU Arena

As for the game we saw, Great Danes weren't anything but great. They scored a paltry twelve points in the first half. The Catamounts scored 21 in a low scoring half. In the second half, it was higher scoring but the Catamounts went on to beat the Great Danes, 55-45.

After the game, Eddie drove me home. I got back around 1:15AM. I want to personally thank Eddie for taking me. I had a great time.

That Sunday was Super Bowl Sunday. Even though the game was being played at MetLife Stadium in nearby in East Rutherford, New Jersey, the King & I decided to pass up the opportunity to. First & foremost, it would have cost us a fortune just to get a ticket. When you figure in the hassle & hell we would have had to go through to get to & from there, we knew it wasn't necessary for us to go. We saw Super Bowl 35 in Tampa, Florida back in January 2001. Since we both like the Jets, we always say if they ever get to another Super Bowl we'll go again then.

However our buddy Eddie Pelle did have a ticket for the big game as did some other people we know. I'm talking about Sean MacDonald who saw every NFL stadium this season so it was fitting that he got to go so did Andrew Van Cleve & Larry Peim.

As for the King & I we went to our friend Frank Anichiarico's place to watch it on his HDTV. 

As for the game, as you know the Seahawks destroyed the Broncos, 43-8. It was a nice way to cap off a week of games we saw that were mainly blowouts.

Stay tuned for some posts that we'll go into detail about the rest of my adventurous month of February.

Thank you for reading & following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman

Royalty w/o 1/7 in review

Prince at Rose Hill Gym

Monday morning I went to Avis to return the car I rented for the weekend then I went to work.

After work I went to Charley's Subs for my pre game meal at Penn Station. After I ate, I went upstairs to Madison Square Garden to see the Knicks take on their division rival, the Boston Celtics who were playing without All-Star Rajan Rondo who was serving a one game suspension.

As for the game I saw, it was tightly contested right through out. The Celtics led by one, 22-21 after the first quarter. In the second quarter, the Knicks out scored the Celtics by four to take a three point lead, 56-53 at halftime. In the third quarter, the Celtics regained the lead as they out scored the Knicks by seven to lead 76-72 after three quarters. In the fourth quarter, things got interesting. With 9 minutes to go in the game, things got feisty between the Knicks' Carmelo Anthony and the Celtics' Kevin Garnett. They exchanged words & they were both called for technical fouls. Apparently Carmelo Anthony had too much to say and he wound up getting suspended for a game as a result. After the game, he allegedly went to look for Garnett by the team bus. As for the rest of the game, cooler heads prevailed for the Celtics as they wound up beating the Knicks, 102-96. Paul Pierce led the way as he scored a team high 23 points which included a few clutch shots down the stretch to help preserve the victory for the Celtics. As for the Knicks, J.R. Smith added a game high 24 points in the losing effort much to the chagrin of the sellout crowd at the Garden.

Tuesday night after work I came home made dinner and then I did my laundry.

Wednesday night after work I took a ride up to the Bronx to see some college basketball at Fordham, that's where my pal Greg Venuto went to school.

Before I walked over to the campus, I stopped off at Pronto Pizza which is right across the street from the Metro North station and the campus & I had some pizza for dinner.

Shortly after I walked into historic Rose Hill gym which is the oldest in Division 1, I ran into my pal, former Knicks radio announcer and Fordham alum John Andariese who was also in attendance. John graduated from Fordham back in the day. It was nice to see him again. I used to see him all the time when I went to Madison Square Garden to see the Knicks play. John recently retired from doing the Knicks. With that being said, it hasn't been the same when I go to see the Knicks play.

When I finally went to my seat behind the basket I was joined by the King. It should be noted our friends Manny Morales and Pat Gorman were among the faithful on hand to watch the Fordham Rams host the Duquesne Dukes too. They were part of an announced crowd of 1,232. When the game began the gym was empty but it gradually filled in. I don't think they had more than a thousand people there though. As for the game we saw, the Rams beat the Dukes, 82-75 in their first conference game of the season.

After the game, the King and I joined Manny Morales who was hungry at Checkers for a post game meal before we headed to subway to go home.

Thursday night after work I went to downtown Brooklyn to see college basketball at the Wellness Center aka the WRAC which is the home of the Long Island University Blackbirds.

Before the game I went to McDonald's for my pre game meal.

After I ate, I walked over to the WRAC. Upon arrival, I was greeted by many familiar faces we had the King, Frank Anichiarico, Phil Butleman, Larry Peim, an LIU alum I might add, Michael Abrams and David Sack amongst us.

As for the game we saw, the Blackbirds were playing the Wagner Seahawks. It turned out to be a historic night as the Blackbirds had their 31 game on campus home winning streak snapped as the Seahawks shot them down, 86-75 before an announced attendance of 1,129. With the loss, the Blackbirds fell to 0-3 in the Northeast Conference and 5-10 overall while the Seahawks improved their record to 9-5 and 3-0 in the conference.

Friday night after work I went back to downtown Brooklyn but this time I went to the Barclays Center to see the Nets battle the Phoenix Suns.

Before the game I went to Subway for dinner at the Atlantic Center Mall across the street.

After I ate, I went into the arena. I went up to my seat and I met up with the King.

As for the game we saw, the Nets fell behind after the first quarter, 25-21. They continued to trail at halftime, 53-46. In the second half, the Nets woke up as they out scored the Suns, 53-26 to blow them out of the building, 99-79.

Stay tuned for some special posts that I'm going to do that will recap another memorable weekend I had. Please bear with me as I try to find the time to write about it. Trust me it will be worth the wait.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman

Royalty is going to Delaware, Washington DC & Cleveland over the first weekend of November!

Here's the game plan:

I'm renting a car Saturday morning November 3rd from Avis for the weekend.

I'll be driving to Delaware then to Washington DC after that I'll be heading to Cleveland before returning home late Sunday night.

Saturday, November 3rd Towson Tigers at Delaware Blue Hens 12 Noon

                                     Celtics at Wizards 7PM

Sunday, October 21st Ravens at Browns 1PM

I hope to meet up with Rick Morris of the FDH Lounge as well as some other special guests from his media alliance network. If I do, it's definitely going to be a thrill.

If you're interested in going on this exclusive getaway royalty style just let me know so I can arrange to have you join me.

It's going to be a blast so why not come for a "royal" ride.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman

Royalty enjoys the return of the NBA at MSG on Christmas Day!

Andrew and Dylan Van Cleve with the King and I

Like the NFL, the NBA decided to finally return to business as usual. The only difference is the NBA season didn't start on time.

With that being said, the NBA season started on Christmas Day with five games on tap.

The first one being at Madison Square Garden at Noon as the Knicks were hosting the Boston Celtics.
The last time I saw the Knicks play the Celtics on Christmas Day was back in 1985 when the Knicks trailed the Celtics by 25 points in the third quarter before they miraculously came back to win the game in double overtime. I remember it being called the "Miracle on 34th Street."

On this day, the King and I were joined by the Ultimate Sports fan Andrew Van Cleve and his son Dylan aka the Ultimate Sports Baby.

It was great to see them again as the Knicks wound up winning a thriller as Kevin Garnett missed the last shot as the Knicks won the game, 106-104.

The Knicks were lead by Carmelo Anthony who led the way with 37 points.

The Garden is once again the place to be to see NBA basketball.

These days tickets are hard to come by. Hopefully royalty can work some magic so you can experience it for yourself when the time comes.

If so, please let me know and I'll see what I can do for you.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman

Royalty w/o 3/21 in review

This week consisted of a few nights off on Tuesday and Thursday after work.

On Monday, Wednesday and Friday I went to see the Knicks at Madison Square Garden.

On Monday night, the 2010 Eastern Conference Champion Boston Celtics came back to play the Knicks. The last time they played here in December they wound up winning a thriller with Paul Pierce making the game winning shot with a fraction of a second remaining. To refresh your memory, Amar'e Stoudemire made a shot that would have won it for the Knicks but it came after the buzzer upon review as the referees looked at the replay.

This time the Celtics didn't show up for the first three and a half quarters but they woke up with 5:31 left in the game to eventually overtake the Knicks who collapsed mightily down the stretch after leading most of the game.

Paul Pierce scored 13 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter to once again help the Celtics beat the Knicks, 96-86.

It should be noted this was a very physical game throughout. There were many hard fouls by both teams.

Ray Allen took an elbow to his face and he wound up getting stitched up and he came back to finish the game.

On Wednesday night, the Orlando Magic made their first appearance at the Garden this season.
The Magic wound up pulling away from the Knicks in the fourth quarter to come away with a 111-99 victory.

They got 33 points from Superman aka Dwight Howard, their dominant center.

The most impressive part of his game on this night was his free throw shooting. He's notorious for being a lousy shooter from the charity stripe. He made 11 out of 13 free throws which totally shocked me. He made his last eight in a row too. He normally misses almost half of them.

Friday night the Milwaukee Bucks returned to the Garden. They were the opponent the night Melo played his first game in a Knick uniform back on February 23rd.

Before the game, I got to speak to Knicks radio announcer, Mike Crispino. He said and I quote "the Knicks can't beat anybody." His honesty was a breath of fresh air.

He was right as the Bucks returned the favor by beating the Knicks on their home court this time.

They were led by second year guard Brandon Jennings who ran circles around the Knicks with his amazing quickness as he scored a game high 27 points.

He made a number of big baskets late in the fourth quarter as the Knicks hung around but they couldn't close the deal.

The Bucks emerged victorious in this one, 102-96.

On Saturday night I went out to the Nassau Coliseum to see the Philadelphia Flyers play the Islanders.
With a near capacity crowd on hand, the Islanders fell to the Flyers, 4-1.

As for the crowd, there were many Flyer fans in attendance. They wound up going home very happy.

As for the game, it started with a fight just 2 seconds in. 19 seconds later, there was another fight. Order was restored for most of the game thereafter. With just under 8 minutes left in the contest, a third fight broke out.

In the second period, two goals were scored in span of 22 seconds.

In addition, James Van Riemsdyk of the Flyers scored his first career hat trick.

When he scored his third goal of the game, hats went flying onto the Coliseum ice by many of the Flyer fans who were there. They came prepared just in case.

Speaking of Philadelphia, the King and I and company went down there on Sunday to see a basketball/hockey doubleheader.

Stay tuned as I'll write a special post about our visit to the City of Brotherly Love.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman

Knicks beat Celtics, 104-101!

On the night Nate Robinson returned to the other Garden where was a fan favorite, he wasn't much of a factor.

He wound up with only 5 points.

His former team, the Knicks shined bright without him.

The Knicks played very well. They lead for the majority of the game.

Late in the fourth quarter, the Celtics had taken a few brief leads.

Most Knick fans were thinking here we go again. So close yet so far.

With 36.8 seconds to go in the game, Danilo Gallanari hit am apparent 3 pointer off the glass to give the Knicks the lead again at 103-101 as the crowd erupted.

After a timeout was taken by the Celtics, the officials looked at the replay and it was determined that the basket was a 2 point field goal not a 3 like previously ruled.

The score was changed to 102-101 as a result.

The Knicks proceeded to stop the Celtics on their next possession.

The Knicks got a huge bucket from David Lee with just 7.3 seconds remaining to seal the deal.

In a last ditch effort, Rasheed Wallace missed a 3 point attempt at the buzzer.

If he had made it, I don't know think it would have counted because it came a split second too late.

The Knicks were led by Danilo Gallanari who had 31 points.

Earl Barron, a 7 footer, who was signed to a 10 day contract the other day was impressive as well. He scored 17 points and pulled down 18 rebounds.

David Lee added 13 points and reeled in 11 boards.

For the Celtics, Ray Allen lead them with 17 points in the defeat.

Nets Surprise Celtics, 104-96!

The New Jersey Nets escaped mother nature and headed to Boston to take on one of the Eastern Conference's elite teams. The Nets came in with the league's worst record at 5-52.

Surprisingly, the Nets not only showed up physically but they played very hard to shock the Celtics on their home court. The Celtics were missing Paul Pierce.

Regardless the Nets played very well and earned the victory. The Celtics came out building an early lead, they were up 12-2 with 8:43 left in the first quarter. The Nets after a timeout scored 6 straight points to make it 12-8. The Nets hung tough the rest of the quarter. With 2.8 seconds left in the quarter, Keyon Dooling hit a basket to give the Nets first lead, 29-27 after the first quarter.

In the second quarter, the Nets started to build their lead. With 4:06 left, they opened it to double figures at 46-36. It should be noted KG aka Kevin Garnett was on the bench during this run. He had 8 points before sitting for an extended period of time.

When the Celtics called timeout, the crowd booed the team loudly. A typical what have you done for me lately reaction by the front running Celtic fans in attendance. Their team did win a championship in 2008 if I recall correctly. The Nets wound up leading at the half, 49-42.

In the 3rd quarter, the Nets came out strong and they extended their lead to a baker's dozen 65-52 with 5:14 left. They lead by 10, 74-64 at the end of the 3rd quarter.

In the 4th quarter, Courtney Lee was fouled by former Net Brian Scalabrine, on that play he got hurt. He still shot his 2 free throws and he made them. That gave him 21 points for the game with 10:56 left. Unfortunately he was forced to left the game and he didn't return.

The Nets continued to hung tough and they built their lead to 18, 94-76 with 5:06 left in the 4th quarter. The Celtics made a run. They got within 6, 98-92 with 2:06 left in the game on Ray Allen's trey. In addition, Ray Allen make a gesture of firing a gun when he delivered a premature dagger. The Nets behind some big shots and rebounds from Kris Humphries were able to hold off the Celtics last surge.

The Nets came out on top for their sixth win of the season. I didn't expect them to win the game and they pulled together and found a way to get it done. Royalty was there to witness it.

As for the high scorers in this contest, the Nets were lead by Brooks Lopez who played well start to finish. He had 25 points. Devin Harris also played well, he wound up with 23 points. Kris Humphries who was a presence had 11 points and 10 rebounds. Yi Jianlian also had 10 boards in the team effort.

As for the Celtics, KG led all scorers with 26 points in the loss. Rajon Rondo had 13 points to go along with 17 assists.

Spending the Weekend in New England

The weather is lousy today but I still have big plans for the weekend regardless.

Here's the game plan: I'm picking up another car from Avis tomorrow morning at 8AM. I'll be driving to Astoria, Queens to pick up the King for our next excursion.

A doubleheader is on tap. The first game is at the TD Garden in Boston where the NJ Nets play the Celtics at 1PM.

After that game we'll be heading back towards home but we'll be stopping in Worcester, Massachusetts to see a minor league hockey game. The Worcester Sharks play host to Abbotsford Heat at 7:05PM.

We'll be sleeping out in Sturbridge. Massachusetts at Days Inn. Sunday we'll be going to Storrs, Connecticut to see Louisville and UCONN play. The game starts at 2PM and it's going to televised by CBS.

Assuming mother nature doesn't interfere with the game plan it should be another eventful weekend for royalty. Check back to see how everything unfolded.