Royalty w/o 8/13 in review

Nick Swisher hits his 200th MLB Homer - Grand Slam

Monday night after work I went up to the Bronx to see the Yankees host the Texas Rangers in the first game of their four game series.

Before I went into the Stadium, I met up with the King for dinner at Burger King a few blocks away. After we ate, I stopped by the KJY Fruit Market so I could get a cold bottle of water to bring in to the ballpark since it was rather warm out and I wasn't going to splurge for one inside for five times the price.

After I exchanged pleasantries with my pal Jin Kim, the King and I continued up the block to the Stadium.

We went inside and we went to our seats in section 420B row 7 right behind home plate in the grandstand.
As for the game we saw, the Rangers broke through first as they scored a run in each of the first two innings to take an early 2-0 lead off Yankee starter David Phelps who got the rare start. The Yankees got going against Rangers' starter Ryan Dempster in the third inning as they put up a five spot. Nick Swisher hit a grand slam, his 200th Major League homer and Curtis Granderson added a sacrifice fly to give the Yankees a 5-2 lead. They extended the lead in the sixth inning as Eric Chavez hit a solo homer. They tacked on a few more runs late as they went on to beat the Rangers, 8-2 in the battle of the best in the American League. David Phelps went five innings to earn the victory and newly acquired former Red Sox' pitcher Derek Lowe wound up pitching the last four innings of scoreless relief to earn a save.

Tuesday night after work I returned to the Bronx for game two of the series. This time I met the King for dinner at the 7 Fish Market. We had some fish together before we went into the Stadium to see more baseball. Vincent Ascanio was planning to meet us there but he got delayed on the train so we wound up seeing him at the ballpark instead.

As for the game we saw on this night, it was scoreless until the seventh inning as the starters Matt Harrison of the Rangers and Hiroki Kuroda of the Yankees were battling in a pitchers' duel. In the seventh inning, Harrison put a guy on base and for whatever reason Rangers' manager Ron Washington decided to take him out of the game. He came in with a 13-6 record. Despite that, he summoned Alexei Ogando from the bullpen to attempt to get out of the inning. He came in throwing heat but Nick Swisher was able to catch up with it and he hit a two run homer to give the Yankees a 2-0 lead. The next batter was Mark Teixeira and he followed with a solo homer of his own to give the Yankees a 3-0 cushion. That proved to be the difference as Kuroda pitched a complete game two hit shutout as he shut down the high powered Rangers to guarantee the Yankees no worse than a split in the four game series.

Wednesday night after work I went back up to the Bronx again for game three. The King told me he wanted to sleep longer so I told him I'll go to the Court Deli Restaurant and get us some sandwiches to eat by our seats. I got a corned beef and he had turkey. When I got off the train, it was raining. I still proceeded to round up the food for us and then I took it into the Stadium. I went upstairs and I started to eat. The King arrived shortly thereafter. We both enjoyed our dinner. Then we patiently waited out the rain delay which lasted an hour and forty five minutes. The game finally started at 8:50PM.

For Yankee fans, it was worth the wait. Even though they had to sweat it out. Freddy Garcia pitched well as he went six and two thirds before giving way to the bullpen trio of Boone Logan, David Robertson and Rafael Soriano who held the Rangers off the scoreboard as the Yankees won the game, 3-2.

The only offense the Rangers could muster on this night was courtesy of Josh Hamilton who finally hit a home run at the new Yankee Stadium. Just before he did, the scoreboard informed us of that fact. The guy sitting next to me was upset to say the least. A few pitches later, boom there it goes, see ya. To add insult to injury, he hit another one in his next at bat. Fortunately for the Yankees, he failed to tie the game as struck out in the ninth inning with a chance to do just that.

Thursday night after work I went home and took it easy since the Yankees and Rangers wrapped up their series in the afternoon as the Rangers managed to win a game before they left town. As for me, I got to relax and recharge the batteries for the busy weekend I had planned.

Stay tuned for some special posts that will go into further detail about the fun I had home and away entertaining fellow roadtrippers.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman

Royalty w/o 7/30 in review

Monday night after work, I went up to the Bronx to see the Yankees host the Baltimore Orioles.

Before I went into the Stadium, I went to Burger King to have dinner. I wound up getting a Memphis pulled pork sandwich. After I ate, I picked up a frozen bottle of water from my pal Jin Kim who was hawking them outside his store, KJY Fruit Market on my way to Yankee Stadium. Since it was so hot I needed some relief. For a dollar, I couldn't go wrong.

After I got inside the Stadium, I went up to my seat in section 420B row 7. I got to see Vincent Ascanio who was up there already. We exchanged pleasantries and we got ready for the game.

As for the game we saw, the Yankees scored first as Eric Chavez delivered a run scoring single in the bottom of the second inning to give the Yankees an early 1-0 lead. The Orioles responded quickly as former Yankee Wilson Betemit lead off the top of the third with a solo homer to even the score at one. The Orioles tacked on a few more runs in the fifth inning as they hit a few sacrifice flies to take the lead for good at 3-1. The Yankees played catch up the rest of the night. Former Mariner Ichiro Suzuki followed a solo homer by Eric Chavez with one of his own in the eighth inning to get the Yankees within a run. It was his 100th major league home run since he came over from Japan back in 2001. Unfortunately for him and the Yankees, that's the way it stayed as the Orioles held on for a 5-4 victory.

Tuesday night after work I returned to the Bronx for game two of the series. This time I decided to go to the Court Deli Restaurant to get a sandwich for the King and I. Right after I walked in, I turned around and my pal Eddie Pelle was there. What timing that was. Eddie said this was his first time there. He said he read about it on my blog so he decided to try it out. He asked me what he should get. I told him they have great pastrami and corned beef. He decided to order a combo sandwich. After we got done ordering, we took the food out so we could eat it at the Stadium.

Eddie told me he had a seat in section 415. I told him to come with me so he could get an upgrade. We went up to section 420B and we ate our sandwiches. Shortly thereafter, I asked Eddie how his sandwich was. He said it was delicious. That was music to my ears. After we finished eating, we watched the game.

As for the game we saw, the Yankees got off to a fast start as they scored five runs in the first inning. In the second inning, the Orioles got a few hits then they struck out twice. They started a two out rally as they strung together five more hits and a walk before they made the third out. Chris Davis delivered the big blow as he hit a grand slam. When it was all said and done, they scored seven runs as they roughed up Yankees' starter Ivan Nova in the process. They added another run in the third inning to make it 8-5. They added on more runs later as they cruised to an easy 11-5 win.

Wednesday night after work I went home so I could do my laundry. I ate dinner and rested up briefly.
Thursday night after work I went out to Coney Island to see the Brooklyn Cyclones play the Connecticut Tigers at MCU Park.

As for the game I saw, the Tigers tossed the Cyclones a beating as they whipped them, 11-3.

Friday night after work I went up to the Bronx to see the Yankees open a three game series with the Seattle Mariners.

Before the game, I met the King at the 7 Fish Market where we had a pre game meal.

After we ate, we went into the Stadium to see the game. We had a few veteran pitchers starting the game as the Mariners were throwing Kevin Millwood against Yankees' ace CC Sabathia.

As for the game we saw, the Yankees knocked Millwood around as they scored four runs off him in six innings. They added a few more runs against their bullpen. CC Sabathia on the other hand, pitched well and he even went the distance as the Yankees won the game, 6-3. He allowed just three hits and he struck out ten in the process.

During the game, I got a tweet from fellow roadtripper, Tike Narry, who was visiting the New Yankee Stadium for the first time with his wife and their seven year old son Patrick. I wound up meeting up with Tike and Patrick during the game on the concourse. He's from the Bay area. He told me he has season tickets for the San Francisco Giants and he goes to a lot of Oakland A's games too. It was nice to meet and greet them.
After the game, our friend Bryan Gilligan drove the King and I to Donovan's Pub in Queens for a post game meal.

Saturday the King and I went back to the Bronx to see game two of the series. We also got a ride to Philadelphia from Bryan Gilligan as we saw the Phillies game too that night.

Stay tuned for the special post that I'm going to do about our busy day.

Sunday the King and I went back to Yankee Stadium for the finale of the series.

As for the game we saw, the Mariners scored first to take an early 1-0 lead. The Yankees tied the game at one in their half of the first. They scored a run in the second and another in the fourth to go up, 3-1. Former Yankee Jesus Montero drove in his second run of the game to cut the lead to 3-2 in the fifth. The Yankees answered with a run in the fifth and they got two more in the sixth to pull away as they beat the Mariners, 6-2.

With that, another week of baseball was in the books.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman

KJY Fruit Market up the block from Yankee Stadium

Jin Kim in action

When I go to see the Yankees play, I always buy my dinner outside the ballpark.

If you read and/or follow my blog you know some of the places I go to.

Here's another place that you should go to before you go into the Stadium.

This place has all the goodies you need to snack on such as a wide array of fresh fruit, candy and soft drinks.

In particular, my pal Jin Kim is usually outside on the street in front of the store which is located at 71 E 161 Street selling bottles of ice cold water as well as popcorn, candy bars and peanuts among other things. The store is just past the McDonald's when get off the subway and it's right next to the 7 Fish Market where I like to eat from time to time as well.

My pal, Jin Kim is notorious for his unique way of selling the bottles of water, Poland Spring 24 ounce ones.

He says and I quote "Do you know how much water cost at Yank Stadium?". He then says "five dollars, why would you pay five dollars inside when you can pay one dollar here." "One dollar, one dollar, one dollar" really fast numerous times.

In other words, you can get five bottles of water from him instead of one at Yank Stadium for the same price.

Like the royal way of operating, you can't go wrong.

In addition, as the weather gets warmer in the summer, he sells frozen water so it lasts even longer for the same one dollar.

Print out this post and show it to him. That way he'll make sure you get the royal treatment you deserve.

Most importantly, you can bring the food and drinks into the Stadium too. Just don't open the bottle until you get inside the ballpark and you won't have a problem.

Thank you for reading and following.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman