Royalty sees a Major League doubleheader with Dave Block, the Gratitude Guy!

Me & Dave Block Outside Citi Field

Sunday afternoon the King and I went to Citi Field to see the rubber match of the three game set between the Mets and the Nationals. We wound up meeting up with fellow roadtripper, Dave Block who lives in San Diego. He calls himself the Gratitude Guy. I met up with him a few years ago and we've seen each other a number of times since. Dave is always grateful especially when he can spend some time with the King & I.

He told me earlier in the week that he was going to fly into New York early Sunday morning. He wanted to go to see the Met game with us and he also wanted to join us for the Phillie game that we were going to see at Citizens Bank Park that night as the Phillies were hosting the Cardinals. It was going to be his first time there. At first I didn't think we were going to have room in the car for him but since our friends who expressed interest bailed out, it turned out to be a golden opportunity for Dave as we were able to drive him to and from Philadelphia. He was very grateful that it worked for him. I'm glad it did too.

Dave Block, me & The King

As for the game we saw, the Mets got a solo homer from John Buck and a sacrifice fly from Mike Baxter as starter Dillon Gee and four relievers combined to shut out the Nationals, 2-0 as the Mets won the series, two games to one.

As for Dave, I got to introduce him to some of the regulars who were on hand for the game. They included Bryan Gilligan, Vincent Ascanio as well as Frank Anichiarico.

In addition, I got a visit from Bob Deal who's another roadtripper I've met on a number of occasions in the past year. He came up to say hello. I introduced him to Dave. We got to catch up on our recent travels. It's always a pleasure to see Bob. He said he plans to come back to Citi Field again in late August when the Mets play the Tigers.    

After the game, the King drove us down to Philadelphia for the Sunday night game as the Phillies were playing the Cardinals. On the way down, we wound up stopping off at McDonald's and we got some food since we were all very hungry. We didn't have a lot of time because it took us a while to get out of New York. As a result, we ate it in the car.

We got tickets thanks to our buddy Frankie Centola who hooked us up. When he comes up to New York, we'll return the favor by taking care of him.

We showed Dave some royal treatment as we said hello to our friend Lisa Wilson who works at the right field gate. We told her we plan to bring the Phillies luck. She always treats us like royalty when we see her.

When we finally got upstairs we stood behind section 319 where we were joined by our pal and fellow roadtripper, Andrew Van Cleve who was by himself. He normally has one of his sons with him. He was able to enjoy the game and our company without having to worry about taking care of his children.

Dave Block & I at Citizens Bank Park

As for the game we saw, the Cardinals scored first as Matt Carpenter, the second batter of the game hit a solo homer to make it 1-0. The Phillies responded with a pair of runs to take a 2-1 lead after the first inning. The score stayed that way until the top of the sixth inning when the Cardinals scored a run on a ground out by David Freese to tie the game at two. The Cardinals broke the tie when they took advantage of a two base error and they got a run scoring single from Allen Craig to go up 3-2. The Phillies came right back as they got a pinch hit double by Laynce Nix that tied the game again at three. In the bottom of the eighth inning, the Phillies broke it open as Ben Revere got a run scoring single that was followed by a three run homer by Erik Kratz which gave the Phillies the lead for good as they beat the Cardinals 7-3.

On the way back home, we dropped off Andrew who lives nearby then we dropped off Dave at a subway in Queens so he could take a train to JFK airport to catch a flight home early Monday morning.

It was great to see Dave and Andrew again.

Stay tuned for my w/o 4/22 in review as I continue to play catch up.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman

Phillies hold off Pirates, 4-3!

Royalty went to Citizens Bank Park to tune up for the official start of the 2010 season.

We saw the last exhibition game between the 2009 National League Champion Philadelphia Phillies and the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Both teams used almost all their players in this game in preparation for the season that starts Monday for most teams.

The Phillies did all their damage on offense mainly with their starters in the first 4 innings.

They scored all their runs and hits during that time.

Jayson Werth hit the lone home run in the game for the Phillies.

As for the Pirates, they wrapped up a dreadful spring.

They fought to the end but fell a run short. They had the tying run on 3rd base with 2 outs in the 9th inning but first basemen Steve Pearce got called on strikes after hitting numerous foul balls to end the game.

We had a few friends/royalty regulars join us for the trek to the City of Brotherly Love.

We had Bryan Gilligan and Rich Wolber aka Staten Island Rich.

Bryan joined the King and I at the baseball game while Rich went to the Philadelphia 76er game against the Toronto Raptors instead.

Rich wound up seeing a good one. He said the Raptors blew a 17 point lead early in that game. In the end, Chris Bosh missed the last shot in regulation. The Raptors did eventually survive and they won in OT, 128-123!

In addition, we saw some familar faces at the ballpark as well.

First we saw our buddy, Jim Lowry who took us up on the elevator. Jim and I exchanged goodies that were had for each other.

Secondly, when we were exiting the right field gate we got to say a quick hello and goodbye to our lady friend, Lisa Wilson who's a supervisor at the that gate. She always so happy to see us. She knows we're real fans and we usually bring the Phillies luck.

We bought $10 tickets when we got to the ballpark.

When we told Lisa that she said and I quote "somebody gave me 5 tickets I wish I would have knew I would have gave them to you guys".

In this day and age, thoughtful and caring people are hard to find but royalty has the knack to find them.