Royalty sees the Mets play the Nationals in DC!‏

After the King & I spent the night at Days Inn in Somerset, PA we got up that morning & we ate breakfast there. When we got done, I drove 185 miles to Nationals Park to see the Washington Nationals play the Mets that Sunday afternoon, May 18th. We wound up parking the car in a ten dollar lot since free parking in DC is few & far between. We didn't want to risk having a problem so we decided to play it safe. We parked the car at 12:45PM. We then walked over to the ballpark. I went to the box office to see what the cheapest tickets they had were. They told me $25 each. Upon hearing that, I walked away. A few minutes later I found some people who had extra tickets. They wanted $20 a ticket. I told them I'll give them $20 for the pair. Thankfully they decided to give in to me. The King ‎& I proceeded to walk into the center field gate. We met up upstairs under the press box in section 312. I saw some empty seats in the last row which was row J. I wound up staying there for the whole game. Shortly thereafter, I got comfortable I heard a guy a few rows down in front of me get my attention.  It was Andy Morgan who follows me on Twitter. His twitter handle is @natsfan37. He was with his wife & young son. A few minutes later he came up to introduce himself. It was nice to meet him. I remember following him because he was a Gio Gonzalez fan. Gio had signed something for his son. We spoke & we exchanged contact information. He said he may try to come up to Citi Field in August when the Nationals come back. I told him to let me know. 
 

View from section 312

As for the game we saw, the Mets took an early 1-0 lead off of Nationals' starter Jordan Zimmerman when catcher Juan Centeno drove in a run with a single in the top of the second inning. The Nationals got even in the bottom half when Ian Desmond hit a solo homer to knot the score at one. The Nationals took the lead for good when Met killer catcher Wilson Ramos drove in a pair of runs with a double in the third inning & two more with a single in the fifth inning off of Mets' starter Zack Wheeler to go up 5-1. The Mets got two back in the top of the sixth but the Nationals added an insurance run in the eighth as they beat the Mets, 6-3. 

Near the end of the game, I got a visit from a fellow roadtripper & ballpark chaser, Ben Fallon who stopped by with his son Declan. We follow each other on twitter also. Ben's twitter handle is @steel6rings. We've met a few times in the last year. I want to thank him for taking time to visit me. He said he would have came by earlier but he got an unexpected upgrade to a suite just before the game started. 

On the way back home, the King & I stopped off at Burger King for a quick dinner in New Jersey on Route 1. We got back home around 11PM. 

Monday morning I returned the car to Avis then I went to work. I wound up driving 1,172 miles safely over the weekend.

Stay tuned for another special post that will highlight the visit to Citi Field by the two teams we saw open the season in Sydney, Australia.

Thank you for reading & following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman

Royalty meets up with Rick Morris of the FDH Lounge in Cleveland, Ohio in the middle of May!‏

On Saturday, May 17th I woke up early so I could go to Avis to pick up a car rental for the weekend. I wound up getting a Ford Focus since that's all they had left. I drove it back home so I could pick up the King as we drove all day to go to Cleveland, Ohio. We stopped off at the rest area in Pennsylvania just past the Delaware Water Gap just before 1PM. Luckily we got there at the right time. When we came out of the rest room, the line was a mile long. A few buses pulled in for a pit stop on their way to Yankee Stadium. The Yankees were playing the Pirates that day at 4:05PM. There was a mixture of Yankee & Pirate fans. As I say, timing is everything. I was beside myself but I was all smiles when I got there. 

Reason to smile

We got back in the car ‎& I drove to Brookville, PA where we got gas & made to order food at Sheetz around 3:45PM. I wound up eating my chicken fingers & mozzarella sticks in the car as we continued on to Cleveland. We arrived there shortly after 6PM. I arranged to meet up with our pal Rick Morris of the FDH Lounge outside Progressive Field, home of the Indians by the Bob Feller statue. I called him when I was 20 miles from downtown. He told me he was there already. He said he was going to stop off at a local bar so he could watch the Preakness. I told him I'll see him by the statue when he got done. We wound up meeting up around 6:30PM. We had bought some cheap tickets in advance so we were able to head right inside once we met up. We wound up meeting the King who was inside already in section 554 upstairs behind home plate. 

Me by Bob Feller statue

View from section 554

As for the game we saw, the Indians were hosting the Oakland Athletics on this night. Former Met & Indian Scott Kazmir was starting for the A's. Thanks to home plate umpire Jerry Layne he wasn't long for the night. He wound up getting ejected for complaining about the strikeout zone or the lack thereof. He lasted just one ‎& a third innings. He gave up a run on a wild pitch while walking three & striking out one. However he got off the hook for the loss thanks to his teammate, third baseman Josh Donaldson who tied the game at one with a run scoring single in the top of the third inning which was followed by a two run homer by first baseman Brandon Moss which gave the A's a 3-1 lead. The Tribe got a run back in the bottom of the sixth inning thanks to a sacrifice fly by shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera to make it a 3-2 game. The Athletics wound up putting the game away with three more runs in the top of the seventh inning when Josh Donaldson & Brandon Moss struck again. This time Donaldson delivered a two run triple & Moss added a run scoring double to give the A's a 6-2 victory. Relief pitcher Dan Otero threw three & two thirds of shutout relief to earn the win. Josh Tomlin who started for the Indians suffered the loss despite getting a quality start as he went six innings allowing three earned runs. The bullpen let it slip away once he came out. 

Regardless of the outcome, it was great to spend some quality time with our pal Rick Morris who's a big fan of the King & I. I want to thank him for always making time to join us when we come to visit. 

After we said our goodbyes to him, we walked back to the car ‎& we drove 200 miles to Somerset, PA where we spent the night at Days Inn.

Stay tuned for another special post that will recap how we spent that Sunday.

Thank you for reading & following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman

Royalty goes to Cleveland to see the Browns play the Ravens!

Prince at Cleveland Browns Stadium

After we spent the night in Somerset, PA at Days Inn, we got up in the morning and we had breakfast at the hotel before we continued our journey to Cleveland, Ohio.

We left the hotel at 9:15AM and we arrived in downtown Cleveland at 12:20PM. We parked the car on the street and we walked over to Cleveland Browns Stadium where we were going to see the Browns play the Baltimore Ravens.

We didn't have tickets yet. We went outside the southeast gate and we asked around for them. After a short time, we were able to round up a few singles. The first one cost us $20 and the second was $10 so we split the difference and we went inside to watch the game.

As for the game we saw, the Browns reminded us of the Washington Wizards from the night before. Ironically they fell behind big early as the Ravens raced out to a 14-0 lead after the first quarter. Running back Ray Rice from Rutgers was running wild early. He scored the first touchdown of the game with 8:32 left in the quarter as he ran in from 8 yards out. His counterpart in the backfield, rookie from Temple, Bernard Pierce scored with just one second left on the clock. He toed the sidelines as he took it in from 12 yards out. This occurred after he took an unnecessary roughness penalty that moved the ball from the 6 yard to the 21 yard line.

In the second quarter, the Browns started to make a comeback. They got a 32 yard field goal from their kicker Phil Dawson with 9:19 left until halftime to break the shutout at 14-3. Later in the quarter they failed to get in the end zone on a few more occasions. They wound up settling for field goals from 28 & 29 yards out as they made it a game going into the locker room trailing by five points at 14-9.

In the third quarter, the Browns' defense continued to dominate as they held the Ravens scoreless. The Browns tacked on another field goal from 33 yards out with 2:39 left to get within two at 14-12.

In the fourth quarter, the Browns took their first lead of the day with 8:48 left as Phil Dawson connected on a 41 yard field goal to give the Browns a 15-14 lead. The Browns defense was worn down as they allowed the Ravens to regain the lead. The Ravens awoke as they marched down the field on a nine play 81 yard drive that culminated with a 19 yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Torrey Smith with 4:26 left in the quarter. They added the two point conversion as quarterback Joe Flacco found wide receiver Anquan Boldin to give the Ravens a 22-15 lead. After the Browns turned the ball over on downs deep in their own territory, the Ravens got a 43 yard field goal from kicker Justin Tucker to seal the deal, 25-15. Just like the Wizards the night before, the Browns found a way to lose.

That's the way it goes. After the game, we walked back to the car as we got ready for the long ride home.
We got in the car just before 5PM. On the way back we stopped off at Burger King for a fast dinner. We made a pit stop for gas as well in Pennsylvania so we didn't have to worry about waiting all night to find a gas station who had gas. We got back home at 1AM.

All things considered we had a great weekend. We adjusted to the circumstances we were given and we made the best of them.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman

Pittsburgh Update

Day 2 of Journey
Well yesterday morning we got all packed up and headed towards Pittsburgh. We made a smart stop about 25 miles outside Pittsburgh and had a delicious four course meal at a King's Family Restaurant, we ate like royalty at a great price.
 
As for the game, St. Louis came out hot scoring two runs in the first and never looked back. My boy Big Puma hit a three run homer in the fifth as the Cardinals chased Pittsburgh's Kevin Correia out after 4 2/3 innings after giving up seven earned runs. The Cardinals' Jaime Garcia had another quality start as he pitched 7 1/3 innings and only allowed eight hits and one earned run striking out five. The Cardinals easily won taking game two of the series, 9 to 1.

After the game we headed southeast toward Somerset which is about three or four miles from the 9/11 plane crash in Pennsylvania. We got into the Day's Inn in Somerset right around midnight and bedded down to recharge our batteries for our trip to Baltimore and our first doubleheader of the trip.