Royalty sees a rare triple play turned at Yankee Stadium against the Orioles!

Friday night April 12th after work I went up to the Bronx. I stopped of at the Court Deli RestaurantCourt Deli Restaurant when I got off the subway. I proceeded to buy a corned beef sandwich that I ate when I finally got up to my seat in section 420B row 7 at Yankee Stadium after I made a special visit to see a young man named Jacob Landis who was at that game too. Stay tuned for the special post that I'm going to do that will go into further detail about him. It promises to be a great read.

Little did I know when I met him that we were going to see history that night.

Jacob wasn't the only one I knew that was at the game. We had a number of regulars in the royal court if you will that were on hand that night as the Yankees opened a three game series against their division rival, the Baltimore Orioles in what was a rematch of the 2012 American League Division Series in October.

I'm referring to Michael Abrams who has seen over 900 consecutive Yankee home games, of the course the King was present and accounted for as was, Bryan Gilligan, Vincent Ascanio and Pat Gorman. In addition, we had David Sack who was there with his friend Andrew.

As for the game we saw, the Orioles went ahead 1-0 in the top of the third inning. The Yankees answered back in their half of the third as they tied the game at one. In the bottom of the fifth inning, the Yankees took the lead, 2-1. The Orioles got even in the seventh inning when they capitalized on a Yankee mistake as former Red Sox Kevin Youkilis made an error as catcher Matt Wieters was the beneficiary of his blunder. He advanced to second on a balk by Yankee starter CC Sabathia. Two batters later he scored to tie the game when shortstop J.J. Hardy got a single to center field to drive him in. The Yankees once again wasted no time as they took advantage of an Oriole error by center fielder Adam Jones who appeared to have caught a fly ball but at the last minute the ball came out of his glove which allowed three runs to score after an intentional walk and a hit by pitch. That gave the Yankees a 5-2 lead going into the eighth inning instead of ending the seventh inning tied at two.

In the top of the eighth inning, the Orioles were all ready to stage another comeback as they got two singles to start the inning from Alexi Casilla and Nick Markakis. Then came the unexpected play of the game as third baseman Manny Machado hit a ground ball to second basemen Robinson Cano who threw the ball to shortstop Eduardo Nunez to force out Nick Markakis at second base. Nunez then turned and he got Alexi Casilla in a run down between second & third. Casilla was tagged out for the second out then low and behold, the Yankees managed to get the batter Manny Machado out too as he tried to go to second base but he was thrown out which completed the rare triple play which invoked me to imitate a classic call of the King as I blurted out he out, he out and he out. They were all out. Triple Play! With that being said, the Yankees behind CC Sabathia escaped further damage. That was music to my co-worker Dan Juvan's ears as he stopped by a few innings earlier to visit. He was joined by his pal Isaac who he refers to as his brother from another mother. They were also with their friend Jess who was at the game with them. I want to thank them for coming up to say hello.

As they departed to go back to their seats, it was time for Mariano Rivera to come on in the 9th inning. He proceeded to close it out as the Yankees beat the Orioles, 5-2.

It should be noted that the last time the Yankees turned a triple play at Yankee Stadium was on June 3, 1968.

As a baseball fan, it was great to witness history again.

Stay tuned as I will recap another memorable weekend the King and I experienced. Please bear with me as I continue to find time to play catch up.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman

Royalty sees another doubleheader on Jackie Robinson Day!

Me at Citizens Bank Park

April 15th marked the 65th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in the Major Leagues.
As a result, all teams and players acknowledge this momentous occasion by honoring this baseball legend by wearing his number 42 which was retired by all teams. Only a select few like Mariano Rivera of the Yankees still wear 42 on a regular basis.

Royalty celebrated this special day by seeing not one but two Major League games on this Sunday.

First of all, we met up with our friends Phil Butleman and Bryan Gilligan by Yankee Stadium as the King proceeded to drive us all to Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia where the Mets were visiting the Phillies that afternoon.

Thanks to our friend Frankie Centola who was there with his son Frank the third, for getting us tickets for the game.

It was nice to see them again as always. We'll be returning the favor on Memorial Day when the Phillies visit Citi Field to play the Mets.

As for the game we saw, the Mets were looking to sweep the Phillies. The Mets jumped out to an early 2-1 lead after the first inning. The score remained that way until the seventh inning when the Met bullpen came on and imploded.

The Phillies finally broke through against Met pitching. Mike Pelfrey who started, worked in and out of trouble for six innings. He handed over the one run lead to the bullpen and they let the game get away as the Phillies poured it on as they avoided being swept. The Phillies wound up whipping the Mets, 8-2.

After the game, we drove back to Yankee Stadium for game two of our doubleheader.

We arrived with a little time to spare as the King managed to get the job done despite the usual Sunday traffic heading back to NYC.

In the nightcap, we got to see the rubber match between the Angels and the Yankees on Sunday night baseball thanks to ESPN.

The Angels drew first blood in this one as they scored the first run of the game in the top of the second inning thanks to a home run by Mark Trumbo. The Yankees answered right back to tie the score in the bottom half of the inning as Raul Ibanez delivered a run scoring single.

The Yankees tacked on four more runs in third inning and Derek Jeter hit a three run homer in the fourth to give the Yankees' a 8-1 lead. The Angels' came back to cut the deficit to 8-5 but the Yankees added three more runs late to win the game, 11-5 to take the series, two games to one. During the game, I received a visit from a co-worker of mine, Dan Juvan who was at the game with his friend Issac.It was very nice of them to come up to the royal box to say hello.

In addition, I did get to see some other special guests while I was at the Yankee game that night as well. Stay tuned for the special post I'm going to do regarding them.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman

Outdoor Classic Weekend Getaway in Review

Another weekend came and went, unlike most people royalty spent it wisely. Before going to work on Friday morning, I walked a mile and a half with a few bags in hand to pick up a car rental from Avis for the weekend.

I do have a car but it's rather old and I prefer to use it locally to get around. So I rent cars all the time since I rather go in style and I don't want to have any problems getting where I want to go.

With that being said, this time I rented a Pontiac G6 equipped with satellite radio, XM. That was an added bonus. Actually Neil who works there treats me well because I rent cars from them all the time, knows my preferences. So like the good guy he is he accomodated my needs and wants. Needless to say, I'm very grateful for the added value I received. I got the car at 7:09AM for the record.


First order of business was to get to work on time. I drove the car to the subway in Queens by 111th Street where I can pick up the 7 train. I found a parking spot on the right side of the street because they have alternate side parking over there on Thursdays and Fridays. I took the 7 train to Queensboro Plaza and connected with the N train. Thankfully I did get to work on time at 8:30AM.

After putting in a full day at the office, I went back to pick up the car. I left the office at 5:30PM in Midtown Manhattan. I got some rare great service from the MTA which is exactly what I needed.

I wound up getting into the car at 6:02PM. I had to pick up the King and our friend Larry Peim along the way out to the Meadowlands where we were seeing the NJ Nets play the Toronto Raptors at 8PM.

After a pit stop at Burger King which we wound up taking out because we were pressed for time, we parked the car for free at 7:37PM. After a short walk over to the arena we were in the building at 7:50PM. That gave us plenty of time to get situated for the 8:12PM opening tip.

After the game, we got back into the car and headed towards Syracuse, NY. We drove halfway there and stayed over in Days Inn located in Dunmore, PA. I planned to arrive there around 1AM. Sure enough, we parked the car at the hotel at 12:55AM. We checked in.


We woke up Saturday morning and had a nice continental breakfast to start our day. We got back in the car and finished the drive to the NY State Fairgrounds, the site of the Outdoor Classic that we were attending. Check back for a separate post regarding that unique event.

We got to the Syracuse area early around 11:15AM for the game that was scheduled to start at 1PM.

After the game, we walked back to the car and drove 96 miles via State road 13 which were picked up in Cortland, NY we passed through Ithaca, where my co-worker here at Fox Stations Sales, Dan Juvan went to college en route to Elmira to see another hockey game.

Interesting note about Dan, he played football at Ithaca College, he was their quarterback. In addition, he was given a try out by the Buffalo Bills in 2009. Unfortunately for him he didn't make the cut.


Before the game which started at 7:35PM we stopped since time did allow at Pudgie's. We got there at 6:40PM which left us plenty of time to sit and relax and we were able to enjoy some freshly made hot pizza.

Let me tell you it was as good as advertised. You can ask my friend, Larry Peim who joined the King and I for this getaway. He was raving about it.

We proceeded to go to the hockey game. After the game, I drove back to Hartsdale, NY to drop off Larry. He got home at 2:26AM. Next stop was the Castle where the King resides in Astoria, Queens I dropped him off at 3:15AM.

Last but not least I took myself home. I arrived home at 3:40AM.

Sunday I stayed home most of the day trying to catch up on sleep and cleaning up around the house before it was time to go back out to the IZOD Center to see the NJ Nets entertain the Memphis Grizzlies at 6PM.

I already did a post on that game so please feel free to check it out.

Monday morning I went back to Avis before going back to work to return the car rental. I returned the car at 7:02AM.

I drove 740 miles in all during this 3 day rental. Another reason why I think it's best to rent a car. Normally I do that kind of mileage in a 2 day rental if not more. Why should I buy a new car and abuse it when I can rent and test drive many different cars without having to worry about maintenance. It works for me.

Needless to say, I did get to work on time again. Until the next rental, I'll be staying in the local area.