Royalty sees the entire Subway Series at Citi Field!

View from Section 516 Row 3

If you an avid reader and/or follower of mine, you know the King and I were in Pittsburgh at PNC Park when the Mets and Yankees played the first installment of this year's Subway Series earlier this month.
This time we stayed home and we went to all three games in Queens at Citi Field.

Friday night after work I went to Taste of Dolly's for a few slices of pizza. After I ate, I got back on the 7 train for one stop to Citi Field.

Upon arrival, I saw our pal Sam Citron who works as a security guard at Citi Field checking bags. He said and I quote "it's always a pleasure". In addition, he told me how much he enjoys reading my blog. I was so elated to hear him say that. I work so hard to keep it up and maintain it. It's nice to know that people like him really appreciate it. It makes me feel so good. I can't thank him enough for giving me such praise and I know he truly means it from the bottom of his heart.

I really lucked out because I got into the ballpark just before the sky opened up and the rain came pouring down. A minute or two later I would have gotten soaked even though I had an umbrella. It was that bad.
Once I made it up to the Promenade level where our seats are located, I saw our buddy Martin Caamano who was there for the game too. We got to say hello and talk for a little while we waited out the rain delay.
After waiting almost an hour, the game started. The Mets came out with their hitting shoes on as they jumped on Yankee starter Andy Pettitte for five runs in the first inning. Ike Davis delivered the big blow as he hit a ball that glanced off of Yankees' right fielder Nick Swisher's glove and went over the fence for a three run home run.

The Yankees broke the shutout later in the game when Alex Rodriguez hit a home run to straight away center field and it landed in the home run apple that pops up when a Met hits a homer. It was quite a blast. The Yankees chipped away but the Mets' bullpen managed to hang on again as the Mets finally beat the Yankees for the first this year after getting swept in the Bronx, 6-4.

After the game, we went to Donovan's Pub to celebrate the victory. I wound up having a pair of pork chops. They were really good.

Saturday during the day I was able to catch up on sleep and I was able to do other things around the house.
Once I got done, I headed to Citi Field for game two of the Subway Series.

I arrived just before game time at our seats in section 516 row 3. Upon arrival, I heard my name mentioned so I looked up and it was Manny Morales and Marc Beck who are big fans of royalty. They were in their usual Saturday plan seats three rows behind us. It was great to see them.

As for the game we saw, the Mets built a 3-0 lead early on. Once the sixth inning started the roof caved in for them. It started with a lead off walk to Mark Teixeira. I said to myself here comes the beginning of the end. Nick Swisher came up next. He appeared to hit a routine fly ball to right field that should have been the first out of the inning. Lucas Duda who was playing right field, misjudged the ball as he broke back at first. By doing so, he wasn't able to catch the ball. To make it worse, he let the ball get by him so Nick Swisher wound up getting a double. That's not an "error" on my part. The official scorer made an error by scoring it that way but I guess he wanted to reward Nick Swisher for getting his 1,000th major league hit sooner than later. With runners now on second and third and nobody out as a result, Raul Ibanez came up to the plate and he proceeded to line a ball over the fence in the right field corner to tie the game at three. Just like that, the Evil Empire as Yankee haters call them struck back. A few batters later, Eric Chavez pinch hit and he delivered what proved to be the game winning run as he hit a home run to give the Yankees a 4-3 lead. That's the way it ended thanks to the Mets failure to get a big hit in the clutch with runners on base in the late innings. It was a very frustrating and heart breaking loss for us Met fans.

Sunday night thanks to ESPN was the rubber match of this three game set. The Mets had R.A. Dickey pitching against the Yankees' CC Sabathia. The way Dickey's been pitching lately we were hoping for a similar performance. That wasn't meant to be though. The Yankees were able to get to Dickey early as they built a 5-1 lead which included a three run homer by Nick Swisher. By the way, that his 1,001st major league hit. The Mets showed their resiliency to come back as they were able to fight back against Sabathia who wound up getting a no decision as the Mets managed to tie the game at five. In the top of the eighth inning, Robinson Cano lead off for the Yankees and he hit a bomb of a home run to center field that landed in the batter's eye just past the home run apple. That turned out to be the difference again as the Mets fell short, 6-5.


The only bright spot for the King and I was that our pal Manny Bonilla came by our seats to visit us late in the game. It's always nice to see him.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman