Royalty meets up with some more special people on my way to PNC Park in Pittsburgh!

After getting some sleep at Knights Inn in Macedonia, Ohio Friday night, July 12th, I woke up Saturday morning the 13th and I went to Cracker Barrel in nearby Twinsburg, Ohio for breakfast. I wound up meeting up with the King and our pal Bryan Gilligan there. They were on their way to Wrigley Field in Chicago after they spent the night in Pittsburgh. As a result, we arranged to meet up there at 10AM. It was nice to see them again as they were in the midst of a ten day journey around the Midwest.

After we ate, we said our goodbyes and we went in opposite directions. Since I had a lot of time on my hands, I took a scenic toll free route towards Pittsburgh. I wound up stopping at a Walmart to do some shopping in Salem, Ohio on the way. When I was done, I continued on to the Steel City.

I arranged to meet some people I know who live in the Pittsburgh area for an early pre game dinner. I'm referring to Mike & Alicia Irr who are avid readers of my blog. They wound up going to the Pirate game Friday night. With that being said, I wound up meeting them at Eat N Park in nearby McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania at 3:15PM. We met up there & we enjoyed each other's company. We got to catch up since we last met. When we got done, we parted ways. I want to personally thank them for making time to see me as I was passing through the area.

Stay tuned for another special post that I'm going to write about some more special people that I met up with at PNC Park.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman

The King sees his historic 7,000th baseball game at PNC Park in Pittsburgh on 6/10/12!

The King with Mike Carroll & Peter Farrell

Sunday morning we started the day off right. After we spent the night at Super 8 near the airport, we drove to Kings Family Restaurant in Crafton to have breakfast. We met up with Steve Fekete there since he was staying a hotel which happened to be right up the road as well as our friends from Pittsburgh, Mike and Alicia Irr who said they would meet us there for breakfast since they couldn't make the game. As always it was a pleasure to see them again. The last time they were in the New York area back in the middle of March we were away in Albuquerque and Phoenix watching March Madness and Spring Training baseball so we missed them. As usual, we enjoyed each other's company. Alicia told us that she's officially retired as of February 29th and she's loving every minute of it. Mike, on the other hand, has been retired a few years now and he's loving it too. He did say we're older so in that regard it's not worth rushing it. I do hope they get to enjoy many years of retired life together.

After we enjoyed our meal, we said our goodbyes and we went to PNC Park to see the Pirates play the Royals which was indeed the King's big day as he was witnessing his 7,000th live baseball game in person. What an accomplishment it was for him.

It was reported in Artvoice which is a local paper that circulates in the Buffalo, NY area back in late May that this day was coming sometime in June. This was the special occasion that the King had been waiting for quite some time. He started counting down when he was over two hundred games away.

Upon arrival at the ballpark we were greeted by another special guest none other than Peter Farrell from the USRT by the Willie Stargell statue out behind the left field gate. Peter drove three and a half hours to take part in this historic day. It was great to see him again. He joined the King, Steve Fekete aka the Padre Punk, Mike Carroll aka Sabre Mike and I for the festivities.

It was a fun day to be at the ballpark, which I might add is one of the best around. PNC Park is a modern jewel. This venue is intimate and the scenic views are second to none. The backdrop makes this ballpark what it is. With the Roberto Clemente Bridge behind right center field, the river behind right field and the downtown skyline in the distance right behind the bridge, it's a site to behold. They did a tremendous job laying the ground work for this ballpark when it was being built.

As for the game we saw, the Pirates' A.J. Burnett, a former Yankee, pitched well. He held the Royals hitless for the first five and a third innings but then the Peter Farrell Quest for a No Hitter jinx took over as the Royals finally got a hit by Alex Gordon to ruin Peter's day.

As for the King, he was in his glory especially in the top of the fifth inning. A.J. Burnett had walked a batter and hit another with one out the King yelled out one of his famous sayings. He said and I quote "did anyone say double play." With the next pitch to Jarrod Dyson, a ball was hit right to the shortstop who stepped on second and fired to first for the inning ending double play. That was just what the King had ordered. His loud mouth got the attention of the usher who was by section 116 where we were standing to watch the game behind home plate and he came by and gave the King a nice high five for his brilliant call. With that, the game became official because the Pirates were winning. As a result, his 7,000th game is now in the books. What a way to acknowledge it.

Before departing after pitching seven and a third innings, A.J. Burnett struck out six Royals prompting the King to do his signature strikeout call which caught the attention of three young lads in particular who thoroughly enjoyed his act. It made for a perfect afternoon to cap off his milestone day.

With the Pirates clinging to a 3-2 lead in the ninth inning, we got to see Jason Grilli come in to attempt to seal the deal. He did indeed despite allowing a lead off base hit that fell softly into right field and a walk along the way after a sacrifice bunt. Grilli came back to blow away the last two hitters one swinging and the last one looking to close out the game and he picked up his first save as a Pirate. It was a perfect ending to a very memorable day for the King.

After the game, we said goodbye to Steve and Peter and we made our way back home.

Stay tuned for the special post I'm going to do about Jason Grilli who has overcome numerous obstacles to get back into the Major Leagues again.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman

Royalty starts 2011 with an added surprise!‏





Prince at Youngstown State



Prince at Winter Classic























 

When we were in Columbus, Ohio on New Year's Eve we found out that the Winter Classic in Pittsburgh was moved from 1PM to 8PM due to mother nature. Rain was in the forecast mainly during the afternoon.

As a result, we received a call from our friend, Manny Morales, who informed us that there was a college basketball game at Cleveland State at 2PM.

Shortly thereafter our friends Mike & Alicia Irr from Pittsburgh told us that there was a college basketball game at Youngstown State at 1:05PM.

I quickly figured out the distances of both places and I decided that since we were staying in Washington, Pennsylvania that Youngstown State was the way to go.

By doing so, we got to see a rare Penguin doubleheader.



First we saw the Youngstown State Penguins play the Ramblers from Loyola of Illinois.

When we arrived at the arena, the King and I were already to pay $8.00 to get in the building. The lady said here you go it's free today. She proceeded to give us tickets and we walked in.

What a way to start the New Year. We got to attend another sporting event and the price was right. What a pleasant surprise.

Based on the Penguin's performance, we got our money's worth. The Ramblers wound up blowing away the Penguins, 83-53.

After we got back to the car, I called our friends Mike & Alicia Irr in Pittsburgh who were attending the Winter Classic at Heinz Field too.

We wound up meeting them at McKees Rocks, which is located right outside of downtown Pittsburgh for dinner at Eat' N Park. We passed through Neville Island for the first time in order to get there.

After dinner we made our way over to Heinz Field to see the Washington Capitals take on the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Thankfully mother nature was cooperative enough that they were able to get the whole game in without any stoppages.

It was rather warm and it did manage to rain a little bit in the third period but the show still went on. 

The NHL did a tremendous marketing job once again making this special event possible. Royalty was happy to be part of it for the third time in four years. We saw the first Winter Classic in Buffalo in 2008. Last year we were in Fenway Park. This year was Heinz Field. Now the question is where will the next one be. We hope it's right in our backyard. We'll have to wait and see.

As for this one, the Capitals and the Penguins put on a nice display of hockey outdoors. The NHL has find a way to get people to watch hockey by having this unique event.

It was a festive atomosphere as the tickets were divided up evenly. It appeared like the fans of each team were sitting together in every other section. In other words, one section had mostly Penguin fans and the next section was mainly Capital fans and so on around the building.

We sat among many Capital fans since our friend Peter Agnew who lives in Baltimore, has season tickets for the Capitals. Back in the summer, the Capitals gave him an opportunity to purchase tickets for this unique event. He decided to pass on going to the game. As a result, he asked us if we wanted to buy the tickets. Needless to say, we gladly said yes. Our only concern was the weather. Luckily it worked out in the end.

I want to thank Peter for taking care of us. Peter and his lovely wife Carmen are good people. We always try to get down to Baltimore and/or Washington D.C. so we can spend some quality time with them. On the other hand, they love to come up to NYC because they're big fans of the Opera. When they do, we always make time to see them.

As for the game we saw, the Capitals wound up winning 3-1 before a crowd of 68,111!

The league's two superstars Sidney Crosby of the Penguins and Alex Ovechkin of the Capitals didn't even score a point.

As a result, other players such as Eric Fehr of the Capitals who scored two goals was the hero. Semyon Varlamov made 32 saves in goal for the Caps. The Penguins only goal was scored by Evgeni Malkin.

It was a bad day and night to be a Penguin.

After the game, we drove back home so we could attend the Jet game against the Bills at the New Meadowlands Stadium at 1PM.

I wound up dropping the King off at 7:15AM. I got home at 7:40AM. Since I was planning to return the car around 10AM I decided not to go to sleep.

I unpacked my stuff, took a shower and I ate breakfast before I returned the car.

After that I took the bus to the subway to the Port Authority Bus Terminal to go to the game.

The Jets decided to rest many of their key players in this one. It seemed more like a preseason game. The Jets went on to whip the Bills, 38-7!

After the game, I went back by LaGuardia Airport to pick up my car that I had left when I went to Chicago the week before.



I got home at 6:45PM. I ate dinner then shortly thereafter I went to sleep so I could catch up.

What a way to start 2011.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman

Royalty 2010 Year in Review‏

What a year it was. Here's a brief summary of the highlights that took place for Royalty in 2010.

First and foremost, the totals of the sporting events I saw live.

Baseball 178
Football 35 (26 NFL and 9 College)
Basketball 67
Hockey 58

If you do the math that's 338 altogether.

In addition, I went to 77 different venues including 8 that I saw two different sports and/or teams in.

Furthermore, I went to 27 different states.

As for the King, he saw 418 total sporting events. 399 of which were professional if you will.

He saw 243 baseball games. It was the 15th straight year he has seen 230 or more.

Now for some of the January highlights:

The King and I started 2010 in "classic" fashion on New Year's Day. We went to Fenway Park to see the Winter Classic between the Boston Bruins and the Philadelphia Flyers. We also went to Providence that night for a minor league hockey game too.

That Sunday we saw the last football game played at Giants Stadium. The Jets played the Cincinnati Bengals in prime time needing a win to make the playoffs. They got it.

The next weekend we went to Foxboro to see the Baltimore Ravens knock out the New England Patriots from the playoffs in the wild card round.

Over Martin Luther King weekend we wound on the West coast in Southern California. We saw a doubleheader at the Staples Center. The Kings and Clippers were home that Saturday. We were joined by our friend Jean Ann Harrison who drove up from San Diego to spend the day with us. We went to the ESPN Zone between games for dinner.

That Sunday the King and I went to San Diego to see the Chargers play the Jets in the divisional playoff game. We met our friend Jimmy Lieberfarb there. We all went out to dinner to celebrate the Jet victory.

Thanks to that Jet win, I got to make another unexpected trip. This time I went to Indianapolis with my brother-in-law, Scott who wanted to get a sample of royal treatment.

We wound up going to Cincinnati on Saturday night for a minor league hockey game. On Sunday morning we went to see the Indianapolis 500 per his request.

In the afternoon, we went to see the Jets play the Colts in the AFC Championship game. The Jets looked good for almost a half but they collapsed and lost to the Colts.

We closed out January with a trip to Philadelphia, Reading and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We saw the King's favorite hockey team in Pittsburgh, the Detroit Red Wings. It was our farewell to the Civic Arena aka the Igloo as well.

We were joined by our friend and fellow roadtripper, Sean MacDonald who was born and raised in Ottawa, Canada but he nows lives in Japan. Sean was visiting the States on a sports road trip. He was in Atlanta. He knew we were going to be in Pittsburgh that Sunday the 31st so he decided to meet up with us. It was his first and only visit to the Igloo. After the game, we drove him to the airport so he could get back to Atlanta to finish his journey.

During our brief gathering, Sean give me the final push I needed. When I returned home I decided to finally start my blog.

The rest is history as my blog has been drawing more attention as time goes on.

As a result, I've gotten to meet many other people who share a similar interest.

Please feel free to explore my expanding blog list. I just added a guy named Charles Stephenson who's on a mission to see every football gridiron in the NFL and in the NCAA Division 1. Please feel free to go to his site called "Field Goal" to read about his story.

Besides these other great roadtrippers, I got to see other familar faces home and away.

For example, we saw Mike and Alicia Irr in Pittsburgh in January and July.

In May, I met fellow roadtripper Andrew Van Cleve who lives up the block from Wrigley Field in Chicago.

In June, Bob Kelly who lives in Norfolk, Virginia came up to Citi Field for the first time. We meet his brother Dennis and his wife Sue in Japan in 2000 when we saw the Mets play the Cubs. In December, we saw him on our flight to Cincinnati. He was going home from a business trip.

In July, we saw Bessanne and her son Dustin in Cleveland who we also met in Japan.

Also in July we said hello to Target Field for the first time. We were joined by Sean MacDonald and his buddy Peter Sharp as well the Buffalo Boys, Andrew Kulyk and Peter Farrell aka USRT.

Our friend Steve Fekete, Bryan Gilligan and Lloyd Ramsland made the trip with us.

We also spent some time in the Show Me State and we met up with Don Steiger and his son Donnie who live in St. Louis.

In addition, we saw Dot and her Mom while we were in Kansas City. In late December we saw them again as they returned the favor by coming to the Pinstripe Bowl to see their Kansas State Wildcats.

In August, I had the privilege of meeting a family from a small town in Oregon called Burns. These people were visiting NYC for the very first time. Needless to say, we've been in touch ever since.

The Feist family sent me a beautiful Christmas that had pictures from their memorable visit.

There was Kevin along with his wife Toni and their three kids, Caleb, Austin and Carli. They also were joined by their in-laws from Nevada.

I got Kevin's attention because he was wearing an Oregon Ducks shirt.

Since I was planning to be at the Ducks first game over Labor Day weekend, I wanted to see if you knew what time that game was starting since it had still said TBA.

As a result, I wound up talking to him and his family the rest of the game. I took them back to their hotel in Midtown Manhattan since I had some rare time on my hands.

I wound up meeting his son Caleb who was with some friends at the Oregon Duck game when I went there.

Furthermore, Kevin told where I can park and take a shuttle bus to the game.

On my trip to the Northwest in September, I met up with Joey Kraft, who lives in Seattle. I met Joey back at the 2009 World Series in Philadelphia on Halloween night.

Joey and I saw a few Mariner games together and he showed me around the City too.

In October, I went to Denver to see the Jets and Wyoming. I was planning to meet up with fellow roadtripper, Danielle Granquist but unfortunately she told me she had a family commitment in Chicago that weekend.

I did see our friend Dick Harding at the Bronco game though.

In the middle of November we went up to Buffalo to see the Sabres and the Buffalo Boys. We had some other roadtrippers who came from Detroit for the weekend to see their Lions play the Bills. They were Jim Vegeant and his buddy Bob Kelly a different one from the one I mentioned earlier.

On that Sunday, we went to the Cleveland Browns game against the Jets where we see saw our friend Jimmy Lieberfarb's Cousin Ira. He introduced us to a guy named Rob Morris who has a sports talk show on the internet. He was blown away by the accomplishments of the King and I. For more details about his show, please check out his website that's listed on my blog list.

Over Thanksgiving weekend, our friend Lloyd Ramsland joined the King and I as we all got to go to the new hockey arena in Pittsburgh, the Consol Energy Center. We also met up with Mike and Alicia Irr who were at the game too since they have half season tickets for the Penguins.

In December before the Philadelphia Eagle game on a Thursday night, I met up with another roadtripper,  Kurt Smith who lives near Philadelphia for dinner. He recently started a business selling e-guides to different ballparks which will help you save money if and when you decide to take in a baseball game.

Please feel free to check out his website that's on my blog list for all the details.

A few days later over that weekend, the King and I went to Cincinnati to see Nippert Stadium, home of the Cincinnati Bearcats. We were planning to meet up with another road tripper, Jake Cain who couldn't make it due to a last minute change in plans.

Jake still was able to help us by hooking us up with his season tickets for the Bearcat game that he couldn't use. I wound up meeting his father who give me the tickets. Needless to say, we were very grateful.

If you want to find out more about Jake, please check out his website that's on my blog list.

In the middle of December, the King and I went down to Florida to see the new basketball arena for the Orlando Magic, the Amway Center. In addition, we got to spend some quality time with the King's brother Henry who put us up for the night.

Christmas weekend I was in Chicago and I met up with Andrew Van Cleve again and roadtripper Bob DeVries and his fiance Charlie Cahill.

On New Year's Eve, the King and I closed out 2010 in Columbus, Ohio watching the Blue Jackets play.

I look forward to reuniting with some of these people in 2011 as well as meeting up with others that I got in contact with during this past year. I hope to meet some more newcomers as well.

Thank you for reading along with my year in review. Without you, none of this would have been possible.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman

Royalty w/o 11/22 in review

After a wild weekend, another crazy week followed. Here's how it went:

Monday night after going to work tired I still saved up enough energy to go to Newark, NJ to see the Devils play the Capitals at the Prudential Center. The Capitals failed to show up literally. The Devils scored early and often as they shut down Alex Ovechkin and the Caps, 5-0! Johan Hedberg playing for the injured Martin Brodeur recorded the shutout.

Tuesday night after work I went to Madison Square Garden to see the Knicks host the Charlotte Bobcats. The Knicks played well on their West Coast road trip. On this night they were trying to continue their winning ways. It appeared for most of the game that the Knicks were in control until late in the game when the Bobcats tried their best to overtake the Knicks but their attempt came up short as the Knicks hung on for a 110-107 victory.

Toney Douglas lead the Knicks with 22 points but it was a balanced attack as six players finished with double figure point totals.

D.J. Augustin had 24 points and Gerald Wallace added 20 in the losing effort for the Bobcats.

Wednesday night after getting out of work early at 3PM I went to see the Devils entertain the Calgary Flames.

The Devils outlasted the Flames as they beat them in a shootout, 2-1!

Ilya Kovalchuk of the Devils scored the only goal in the shootout which gave the Devils the extra point in the standings in this one.

Thursday after spending the day with the family for Thanksgiving, I went to see the Jets play the Bengals in prime time at the New Meadowlands Stadium.

The Jets came out slow in this one. They struggled in the first half. After returning from the locker room to start the second half, they played like a team that was ready to take over. On their first drive, Brad Smith ran a reverse for a 53 yard touchdown to set the tone for the rest of the game.

Later in the third quarter he ran a kick back for 89 yards for a touchdown which helped seal the deal as the Jets wound up winning 26-10!

Friday morning I rented a car from Avis for a few days so I could drive to Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
I proceeded to pick the King up from work at the Post Office at Grand Central Station. After that, I drove by Madison Square Garden where I picked up our friend Lloyd Ramsland who joined us for this excursion.

We continued through the Lincoln Tunnel as we made our way to Philadelphia to see the Flyers play the Calgary Flames in a Black Friday traditional matinee game at 1PM at the Wells Fargo Center as it's now called.

The Flames beat the Flyers, 3-2 in a shootout.

After the game, we went to Reading, PA to see a minor league hockey game between the Reading Royals and the Cincinnati Cyclones.

The hometown Royals were trailing 3-1 after two periods but they managed to tie the game at three and they forced overtime. They wound up winning the game 4-3 with a goal in the extra session.

After the game I drove to Somerset, PA so we could get some sleep before we continued on to Pittsburgh.
We arrived at the Consol Energy Center, the new home of the Pittsburgh Penguins around Noon for a 1PM start.

We were all there for the first time as we needed to catch up to say we've been to every current NHL rink once again.

In addition, we got to visit our friends Mike & Alicia Irr who live in Pittsburgh. They have half season tickets for the Penguins. They helped us with advice in order for us to get our tickets so we could see their new hockey home. It's located right next to their old one, the Igloo as it was known in downtown Pittsburgh.

As for the game we saw, the Penguins beat the Flames, 4-1! Sidney Crosby lead the Pens as he scored a hat trick. It was the first one in the new building. Early in the game, he was awarded a penalty shot but he failed to score. He did have an even strength goal, a power play goal and a shorthanded empty net goal to finish his hat trick though. Needless to say, he was the star of the game.

After the game, we drove 60 miles to Wheeling, West Virginia to see another minor league hockey game between the Wheeling Nailers and the Kalamazoo K-Wings.

More importantly, our friend Lloyd had never seen a game there so we made sure we got him there.

The King and I were there one time back in January 1998 after a Penguin game at the Igloo.

The Nailers wound up winning the game, 3-1!

After the game, I drove us all home overnight. I dropped off Lloyd at his house in Oradell, NJ at 5:10AM after driving 422 miles.

Lloyd said and I quote "you did a terrific job driving".

I proceeded to take the King home then I finally went home. I arrived at my house at 6:15AM.

I laid down for a few hours then I went to Avis and I returned the car I rented. I drove 977 miles in 2 days.

I went back to my car which was parked across the street from the car rental and I drove to the subway. I then took the train to the Port Authority Bus Terminal where I caught the bus to go the New Meadowlands Stadium to see the Giants play the Jacksonville Jaguars at 1PM.

The Giants like the Jets started slow. They trailed 17-6 at halftime. After getting a wake up call and a pep talk in the locker room, the Giants went to work for real.

It culminated when Eli Manning threw a 32 yard touchdown pass to Kevin Boss with 3:15 left in the game to give the Giants a 24-20 victory.

After the game, despite being exhausted the King and I took the NJ Transit train to Secaucus where we connected for the train to Newark so we could see the Nets play the Portland Trailblazers at 7PM at the Prudential Center.

The Nets beat a struggling Trailblazer team 98-96! This was a closely contested game throughout.
Devin Harris lead the Nets with 25 points.

Wesley Matthews paced the Trailblazers with 25, Brandon Roy had 21 while LaMarcus Aldridge added 20 in the loss.

That sums up another crazy and tiresome week in the life of Royalty.

Thank you for reading and following along my adventurous path.

If you want to experience a sample for yourself all you have to do is let me know.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman

Royalty goes to the Steel City!

PNC Park

After returning to NYC Thursday night because the King had to go to work, it was off to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Friday morning.

We drove all day to get to Pittsburgh in order to see the Philadelphia Phillies take on the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park, America's best ballpark they claim.

In some regards, that may be true. PNC Park is a nice ballpark for the most part. The backdrop is second to none. As you can see in the picture the City of Pittsburgh with the bridge and the rivers in the background. It makes for a beautiful setting.

Unfortunately for the team it's not quite the same. The Pirates have been a bad team for a long time.

As for the game we saw, the result was different on this night. The Pirates won the game 2-0 behind former Yankee farmhand Ross Ohlendorf who picked up his first win of the season.

As for the Phillies, 47 year old Jamie Moyer was the hard luck loser. The game was nice and fast too. It took only 2 hours and 22 minutes to play.

More importantly, besides making our annual visit to PNC Park, we got to catch up with some friends that we know from Pittsburgh, Mike & Alicia Irr.

It's always great to make a road trip and see familiar faces along the way.

Mike & Alicia are big sports fans as well.

They have half season tickets for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

With the Penguins being so successful lately, they play in the playoffs that cuts into the baseball season so the Pirates take a backseat for Mike & Alicia. This game was only their second they've seen in person this year. Despite the horrible team they have, Mike & Alicia still show their support. It was great to see them again.

We look forward to meeting them again during the hockey season. The Penguins are opening a new arena in the Fall, the Consol Energy Center.

In addition, on New Year's Day the Penguins host the Washington Capitals at Heinz Field that Royalty is planning to attend. For that matter, Alicia is ready to go as well. Mike said and I "he's lukecold" about the thought. Hopefully mother nature will cooperate and it will be a day to remember for all of us.