Royalty catches up with Memphis Grizzlies radio announcer, Eric Hasseltine at MSG!



Eric Hasseltine and I

On December 4, 2006 when the Memphis Grizzlies came to Madison Square Garden I got to meet and greet their radio announcer, Eric Hasseltine.

Eric is a great guy who I always say hello to when I see the Grizzlies play.

Over the years, I've seen him in a number of times at the IZOD Center when the Nets played there and at the Garden when the Grizzlies come to town.

He has been working for the Grizzlies since they moved from Vancouver to Memphis back in 2001. This is his 10th season with the team behind the mic. It's his 6th season doing their play by play on the radio.

Prior to that he served as their radio host on the pre game, halftime and post game shows.

He's originally from the Bay Area. In addition, he went to college at UC-Davis which is near Sacramento.

That's the same school former Jet quarterback Ken O'Brien went to.

Ironically when I met Eric I told him about my trip that was coming up in January 2007. That one I referred to as the "Bay Area Blast".

The King and I flew out to the Bay area and we saw a bunch of games over Martin Luther King weekend. We went to Cal-Berkeley for a college basketball game upon arrival that Saturday afternoon at the Haas Pavilion followed by the Sacramento Kings that night.

After the game we drove to Reno, Nevada to sleep and we hung out at a casino before returning to Stockton to see a minor league hockey game.

On Martin Luther King Day, we went to Oakland to see the Warriors play in the afternoon and then we went to San Jose that night to see the Sharks.

After the double dip, we caught the red eye flight home.

What a blast that was.

As for the Grizzlies, they've had their share of ups and downs since they moved to Memphis back in 2001.
This season they're playing better than in the past. They came to the Garden on St. Patrick's Day night with a 37-31 record. I told Eric they should make the playoffs. He had his doubts that they would. We'll have to wait and see.

When I asked him his thoughts about the Carmelo Anthony trade he said it was a good trade for both teams.
Time will tell who ultimately got the better of the deal.

While I got to see Eric, I had the privilege of seeing his partner on this night too. I'm referring to former NBA player and part owner of the Grizzlies, Elliot Perry aka "Socks" as Eric calls him. He works some of the games. Fortunately for me, this was one of them.

Eliot was an excellent shooter when he played back in the day. He was known for his knee high socks hence the nickname.

I got to speak to him too. He seemed like a real class act and gentleman. He's the one who took our picture.

I hope someday the Grizzlies can find a way to improve dramatically and win a championship so Eric can have the privilege and honor of calling it.

Keep up the great work, Eric. I'll see you again somewhere when I see the Grizzlies play again.

Hopefully the next time we'll be in Memphis in November barring a lockout and assuming the schedule works out right.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman

Royalty w/o 1/10 in review‏

This week started slow and finished very strong.

Monday night I went home after work to rest up.

Tuesday night I went to the Nassau Coliseum to see the Islanders take on the league's best, the Vancouver Canucks.

It was a great game to watch. There was action up and down the ice all night long. It was an exciting seesaw battle as both teams traded goals in regulation which ended up in a 3-3 tie. It stayed that way after a five minute overtime session.

The Canucks finally emerged victorious in the shootout, 4-3!

Wednesday night I went home again after work. Thanks to mother nature I had some shoveling to do as well.

Thursday night I was planning to go back to the Nassau Coliseum but mother nature cost me the opportunity to do so. My car was plowed in so I couldn't get there after work.

Friday night I went to Madison Square Garden to see the Knicks play the Kings.

The Knicks played awful in this one as the Kings, the worse team in the league embarrassed the Knicks, 93-83!

Beno Udrih led the way for the Kings as he scored 29 points. He was a force from start to finish. His teammate, DeMarcus Cousins, a rookie from Kentucky, who was drafted fifth overall in the 2010 draft added 16 points and had 10 rebounds.

For the Knicks, Amar'e Stoudemire finished 25 points and 13 boards in the losing effort.

Saturday night I went back to the Nassau Coliseum to see the Islanders play the Buffalo Sabres.

The Islanders cruised to a 5-2 victory as they broke open a 1-0 game in the second period as their future star and former number one pick in the 2009 draft, John Tavares scored three straight goals which is known as a natural hat trick. I don't remember the last time I saw that. It was probably when I saw Wayne Gretzky play back in the day.

Sunday I was in Foxboro for the Boston Massacre. Stay tuned as I write a special post detailing this adventurous day.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman

Royalty w/o 10/25 in review

After catching up on rest Monday and Tuesday night after work, I was ready for basketball to start.

Wednesday night after work I went out to Newark, NJ to see the Nets play their first game at their new temporary home, the Prudential Center. It was the 56th NBA arena that I've seen a game in.

As for the game, the Detroit Pistons were playing the Nets on Opening Night.

This was a closely contested game throughout. In the end, Anthony Morrow hit the winning shot as the Nets came from behind to get into the win column first with a 101-98 win.

Last season the Nets didn't win their first game for a few months.

Brook Lopez led all scorers with 25 points and Devin Harris added 22. For the Pistons, Tayshaun Prince, Rodney Stuckey and Charlie Villanueva each had 14 points in the loss.

After another night off Thursday, I returned to the Prudential Center Friday night after work.

The Sacramento Kings were in town to play the Nets. This game was similar to Wednesday night.

The Net hung tough and came back to win again. This time they won 106-100.

Brook Lopez had 29 points and Devin Harris poured in 21 to lead the way. For the Kings, Francisco Garcia and Tyreke Evans added 18 points each in the losing effort.

Stop the season, the Nets are 2-0!

Saturday I drove up to New Haven, Connecticut to see the Columbia Lions play the Yale Bulldogs at the Yale Bowl with the King.

It was a perfect opportunity for us to see the Yale Bowl for the first time.

We've previously seen games in the Ivy League at Princeton and Penn.

Speaking of Princeton, when we arrived in the seating area we heard a few people get our attention. We weren't alone.

We saw a few members of our crew in the house, they were Steve Tepperman aka "Princeton Steve" and Pat Gorman.

They were sitting near midfield so we went up and joined them.

As for the game, Yale raced out to a 31-7 lead at halftime. In the second half, Columbia came roaring back to cut the lead to 3, 31-28. Unfortunately for them, that's the way it remained as the Bulldogs hung on for the narrow victory.

Saturday night we drove back to NYC to see the new look New York Knicks play the Portland Trailblazers in their home opener at Madison Square Garden.

The Knicks with a revamped roster which included newcomers Amaure Stoudemire, Raymond Felton, Timofey Mozgov and Landry Fields still weren't able to hold an eight point lead with 5 minutes to go.

They wound up losing the opener 100-95 in front of a sellout crowd.

The fan base seemed to be back at least on this night.

Brandon Roy lead the way for the Trailblazers with 29 points, LaMarcus Aldridge added 20 points and Andre Miller chipped with 19 to blaze the trail to victory.

For the Knicks, Wilson Chandler scored 22 points off the bench. Amaure Stoudemire had 18 points in his home debut.

Sunday I went to the New Meadowlands Stadium looking a treat on Halloween. I would had been better off staying home. I could have knocked on some doors and looked for candy instead.

The Jets thought it was Easter as they laid an egg. After having an off week, the Jets should have came out ready to play but they didn't.

The weather conditions were brutal. The wind was gusting and whipping up throughout the game. The Jets game plan left a lot to be desired in this one. They should have been running the ball more especially against the Packers defense who's not good against stopping the run.

The Jets wound up throwing the ball a lot more than expected. Mark Sanchez didn't have a good game. The Jet defense played well but the offense got shut out by the Packers who won the game, 9-0!

Thank you for reading.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman