Royalty has company at the Pinstripe Bowl!‏

The King, Mom, Dot and I 

Back in the middle of July, when we went to the Show Me State, we visited some people from Kansas. They were Dorothy Straney and her Mom.

These people are very special to us. The King and I met Dorothy aka "Dot" back in August 1993 at a souvenir store near Wrigley Field.

We've been in contact ever since. Over the years we've taken turns visiting each other.

In July, Dot told me that she was planning to come to NYC if her Kansas State Wildcats made it to the Pinstripe Bowl.

Early in December it become official Kansas State was coming and so were the Straneys.

When she called and told me the news I was tickled purple.

She planned to come in on Tuesday, December 28th but luckily she changed her plan to arrive on Christmas night.

She called me up that Monday from her hotel room to tell me she was in New York.

Ironically I was in a hotel room in Chicago at the time.

Mother nature did her best to mess up our plans but we still found a way to meet up at Yankee Stadium for the Pinstripe Bowl.

Dot told me she was sitting in section 309 row 7. The King and I wound up sitting there too.

It should be known we weren't alone. Our friend Larry Peim was there too.

In addition, my new found friend Eddie who drove me to Avis meet us there also.

During the game, I got a surprise visit from a former co-worker of mine, Kim Reznicek.

She is an absolute sweetheart. She made going to work something I looked forward to. It hasn't been the same since she left back in January 2010.

As for the game we saw, it was a thrilling affair. It was a seesaw battle throughout. Syracuse took the lead for good in the fourth quarter after K-State scored to go ahead by one, 28-27. The Wildcats were down by 8, 36-28 then they scored a touchdown to pull within 2 but they were called for a controversial celebration penalty that was accessed on their 2 point conversion attempt. As a result, they failed to convert giving the Orange a hard fought 36-34 victory in the inaugural Pinstripe Bowl.

Marcus Sales, wide receiver of the Orangemen led the way catching three touchdown passes as their offense exploded which enabled them to emerge as the winner in the end.

Our friend Dot who was all dressed up in purple, her mother and the rest of the Wildcats fans who sat in our section were left with an empty feeling. They had a long ride back to Manhattan, Kansas that is.

Despite the outcome, we all had a great time. It's always a pleasure to see our friends from the heartland.

Stay tuned for the closing of 2010 and the beginning of 2011 royalty style.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman

Heartland hospitality thanks to Dorothy Straney and company!

As I mentioned in the Gates BBQ post, we met up with some very special people.

Those people were Dorothy Straney, her Mom and her boyfriend Joel.

Back on August 13, 1993, the King & I were in Chicago wrapping up a monster baseball trip that started on the West Coast.

After seeing a number of games in California we stopped off in Chicago on the way home.

When we were in San Diego, we saw  the Padres play a double header on August 6, 1993 at old Jack Murphy Stadium as it was called back then.

While we were there we met a lady named Mary Alice.

We starting talking to her and we told her our game plan.

She said she had a friend who works for the Cubs.

She arranged to get us a pair of free tickets to the Cubs & Giants game that afternoon.

I went to the will call window to pick up the tickets she had left for the King & I.

We decided to walk up a few blocks towards the subway where they have souvenir stores. We went into one of them to look around.

I noticed a lady wearing a KC Royals shirt.

The Royals happened to be in town as well since they were playing the White Sox on the south side that night.

Being a pocket schedule collector, I asked this particular lady if she had a Royal pocket schedule.

She said no I don't but if you give me your name & address I'll mail you one.

Little did I know that our relationship over all these years would grow just from asking for a pocket schedule.

More proof that it never hurts to ask or try.

If I didn't say anything, we would have never met.

17 years later we got to see each other once again.

Mind you over the years we've taken turns meeting up with each other.

Dot as we call her, is a truly caring loving person.

She was blessed to have a great mother.

Her Mom, who usually accompanies her is an absolute doll.

The last some many years she met a nice guy named Joel who had the luxury of coming to New York City for the first time in May 2008 during fleet week.

Needless to say, royalty rolled out the red carpet to make his first visit as memorable as possible.

Dot went to a bunch of broadway shows that week to fulfill one of her many dreams.

We all went out for dinner together.

Afterwards, I had the privilege of taking her Mom and Joel to see old Yankee Stadium.

 I made sure that they were able to meet up with Dot after her Broadway show.

I escorted them on the train so everything worked out perfectly. Dot was so grateful that I was so willing to do so. That's just a sample of what royal treament is all about.

Now with the shoe on the other foot, Dot made sure that she made time to see us and she made sure that we didn't get lost by following us to the highway via a short cut after the Royal game.

I had mentioned to her that I wanted to possibly have a shake at Steak 'N' Shake on my way towards our hotel.

She said he have to go to Hi Boy which is a take out place which has burgers and great shakes andwas right near the ballpark.

We decided to take her advice and she came with us to made sure we found it from where we were parked in the parking lot before we headed to Des Moines, Iowa to sleep on our way back to the Twin Cities.

I want to thank Dot, her Mom and Joel for their great heartland hospitality.

Most importantly, it was an absolute pleasure to see them all again.

Thank you for making time for royalty.

She said she's planning to possibly come back to NYC at the end of December. If so, royalty will be welcoming them with open arms.

Gates BBQ: Kansas City's Own

Gates BBQ

After we went to the Negro Leagues Museum, we had to meet some people at 2PM at Gates.

Gates Bar-B-Q came highly recommended by Steve Fekete.

He comes to KC every year and he lives in this place it seems.

It was time for Royalty to give it a try to see if it meets the high standards that I set.

We wound up meeting some of Steve's friends which included a guy named Brian Acklin.

Brian has been to every KC Royal home game since August 1984.

The first time we met Brian was Opening Day on April 2, 2007 against the Red Sox. We were also joined by a lady named Dorothy Straney who we knew from Spring Hill, Kansas. She brought her Mom and her boyfriend Joel with her.

I will do a separate post in detail about these special people.

Once we got done saying hello to each other, we were ready to order our food.

My Meal

In typical heartland fashion, we were greeted by the Gates signature greeting,"Hi, may I help you?" in their heartland accent.

Since we skipped breakfast that morning I was hungry to say the least.

I proceeded to order a sandwich called turkey and a half per Steve's recomendation. It came stacked with turkey and barbeque sauce.

In addition, I had a side order of steak fries.

I noticed a pie that looked like pumpkin it was called yammer pie.

Dorothy told me since you like pumpkin you'll like it it's similar.

Needless to say, she didn't steer me wrong.

After finishing my meal, I can see why Steve loves going to this place.

If you happen to be in the Kansas City area and you like barbeque food, I suggest that you give Gates a try so you can see for yourself.

To wet your appettite, here's the link to their website:

 http://www.gatesbbq.com/

I took a peek before we left and I couldn't wait to get there.

Stay tuned for the next segment of this epic getaway.