Royalty returns to NYC after spending a week on the West Coast in August!

After the King, Duck & I came back from the West Coast on Sunday August 18th, we all went in different directions. Duck went home to rest up & relax. As for the King and I, I will go into further detail as you read on.

I returned the car rental Saturday night to the San Francisco airport around 10PM Pacific Time which meant it was 1AM Eastern Time on Sunday. We then took a redeye flight back to LaGuardia airport after a layover in Chicago O'Hare. I wound up having breakfast at McDonald's at the airport since we had some time to kill. We finally arrived back in NYC around 9:30AM. Shortly thereafter, I got a voice mail from American Airlines that said I needed to go to customer service by the baggage claim area. That turned out to be a blessing in disguise for me. I went there and they told me my bag got lost in Chicago. For that matter, so did the King's. Duck passed up the opportunity to check his bag with us. It worked out well for him that he didn't. The King & I normally don't check our bags but since we have credit cards with American Airlines, the bag fee is waived so we didn't have to pay. We may want to reconsider next time. Since we were taking public transportation back home, I didn't get too bend out of shape. After all, it was only my dirty laundry LOL. I had everything else I needed with me. More importantly, I was weighed down enough. In that regard, I truly felt blessed that it was missing.

After we had a short discussion, we were given instructions about how we can get our bags back. We then proceeded to take a few buses to get back home. I was really exhausted so when I got home at 11AM, I laid down for an hour. When I got up I took a shower. I got ready & I left the house so I could take the subway to Lower Manhattan. I planned to catch a 2:30PM boat to Staten Island where I went to see the Staten Island Yankees play the Tri City Valley Cats at Richmond County Ballpark at St. George. The game was starting at 4PM. It worked out well as I got there with plenty of time to spare. I started looking around for a ticket when I saw my pal Rich Wolber aka Staten Island Rich who came along with an extra ticket for me. We shook hands and we spoke briefly before we headed inside the ballpark. He asked where the King was. I told him he decided to go to Brooklyn to see the Cyclones who were also home at 5PM that night. I prefer going to Staten Island and I thought I would get home earlier by doing so. More importantly, I got to take five different modes of transportation that day. That was a new personal record. Back on November 25, 2007, the King & I flew back from Dallas, Texas over Thanksgiving weekend. We took four different modes of transportation that day to get to Giants Stadium just in time for the Giants/Vikings game that Sunday afternoon. As a result, I found a new twist for my craziness. Now I'm finally writing about it.

As for the game I saw, the Staten Island Yankees wound up beating the visiting Valley Cats, 3-2 in 11 innings on a game winning home run by Eric Jagielo. With that being said, I wound up taking the 8PM boat back instead of the 7PM one that I was hoping to make. Tired and all I decided to stick out the game until it was decided.

When I finally got home that night, I barely beat the King back to the house.

What a way to wrap up an amazing week of traveling on the road and when I got back home.

Stay tuned for my week in reviews from the w/o 8/19, 8/26, 9/2 & 9/9. I plan to catch up eventually. Please bear with me.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman

Royalty w/o 8/15 in review

Shea Bridge at Citi Field

This past week was a rather uneventful one for me. Since the schedule makers had a brainstorm it prevented me from seeing any major league baseball for most of the week. Neither the Mets or Yankees were home Monday-Thursday. So I had to resort to going all the way to Coney Island to see the Brooklyn Cyclones play.

With that being said, Wednesday night right after work I met the King and we took a long subway ride out there. We got there with just enough time to go to Nathan's Famous the original one I might add for a few hot dogs, crinkle cut fries and a lemonade. A great pre game meal on our way to the ballpark which is called MCU Park these days. It used to called Keyspan Park.

Once we got inside, we met up with plenty of familiar faces. We got to see many people that we know which made for a nice night out which enhanced the royal experience.

As for the game we saw, the Brooklyn Cyclones went on to beat the Jamestown Jammers who we saw play in Jamestown on our recent road trip at the end of July. The Cyclones built an early 4-0 lead after two innings as they cruised to an easy 5-2 victory.

After staying home again Thursday night, I went back to Citi Field Friday night to see the Mets play the red hot Milwaukee Brewers. Thanks to mother nature, the game was delayed just before game time. After a lengthy almost three hour delay they finally started playing just before ten o'clock. As a result, I was forced to leave the game early due to the fact I had to count on public transportation to get me home. In addition, I had a long day in store on Saturday to deal with so I departed Citi Field in the top of the seventh inning at midnight.

The Mets were trailing 6-0 at the time. After I left the Mets wound up breaking the shutout as they scored a run. They lost the game, by a score of 6-1.

Saturday the game was originally scheduled for a 7:10PM start but Fox decided a few weeks ago to change the starting time to a 4:10PM first pitch so I knew with my game plan I was in jeopardy of having to miss the game. The way it turned out, I did indeed. That's just the way it goes sometimes. I had more important things to take care of on a personal level so I did what I needed to do.

Sunday I went back for more punishment at Citi Field. After coming back on Saturday to take a lead against K-Rod no less, the Mets still found a way to lose anyway. The Mets once again fell behind this time, 2-0. Lucas Duda hit a two run home run in the bottom of the seventh inning to tie the game at two and it gave the Mets a glimmer of hope. Unfortunately that was short lived as their lousy bullpen gave the game away again. The Brewers scored two runs in the eighth inning and two more in the ninth inning to sweep the Mets, 6-2. This time K-Rod pitched a scoreless eighth inning to help the Brew Crew leave New York in style. Unlike their last visit to NYC, when they got embarrassed in the Bronx by the Yankees.

I was happy for the great people I know who happen to live in Milwaukee.

After the game, the King and I got a ride to Brooklyn thanks to our friend Bryan Gilligan who took us to see the Cyclones play again. Well that would have been true if mother nature didn't interfere. We got to see three plus innings. During the top of the fourth, the umpires decided to tarp the field. The Cyclones were losing to the Tri City Valley Cats, 6-2 at the time. After waiting over an hour, they suspended the game.
That's how the week ended. They were completing the game on Monday night before the regularly scheduled game which was now going to be a seven inning game. Check back next week for all the details.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman