Royalty w/o 9/12 in review

After entertaining and enjoying company over the 9/11 weekend, I got back to my normal local routine as I went to Citi Field after work Monday night, Tuesday night and Wednesday night.

As for the games I saw, the Mets played the surging Washington Nationals who recently got their young phenom Stephen Strasburg back after he underwent surgery that kept him out of action for a year. Ironically the King and I saw him last pitch in Philadelphia on August 21, 2010. That was first and only time we've seen him pitch in person. He looked great until he hurt his arm in the 5th inning.

Strasburg pitched in Washington on Sunday so he missed pitching at Citi Field. The Nationals didn't need him as they beat the Mets in the three games I saw them play. They won by the scores of 3-2 Monday and Tuesday night and 2-0 on Wednesday night.

Thankfully I was working Thursday afternoon as the Nationals completed the four game sweep of the Mets.
I went home after work to rest up Thursday night. I wound up with a rare Friday night off due to the odd schedule making. Both the Mets and Yankees were on the road for the weekend.

Speaking of the weekend, the King and I were joined by our friends and royalty regulars Manny Morales, Frank Anichiarico and Al Linderman on Saturday as I rented a car from Avis for the weekend and I drove us down to Baltimore to see the Orioles play the Angels at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

Before the game, we met up with our pal Peter Agnew who lives in Baltimore and his friend Jim who joined us as well. We all went to one of our favorite places when we go down there, that being Looney's Pub. As usual, the food and service was second to none. Billy the chef cooked us up some great chicken wings and burgers. Manny in particular was raving about it. It was music to my ears. Royalty aims to please not tease. When I write the script, people aren't disappointed with the results.

After we all enjoyed the great meal we headed over to the ballpark. I want to thank Peter for accomodating us all by getting us the tickets. As always, he gave us his version of royal treatment.

I always looking forward to going to Baltimore just so I can meet up with Peter. He's such a good man.
After the game we saw which the Orioles won 6-2, we drove back home. The game was over in the first inning as the Orioles scored five runs off Angels' starter Ervin Santana who the King and I saw throw a no-hitter in Cleveland on July 27th. After getting roughed up in the first inning, Santana settled down but he dug too deep of a hole for himself and his team to dig out of. Zach Britton of the Orioles pitched well for seven innings allowing just three hits and one run to earn the victory.

Sunday the King and I went to MetLife Stadium to see the Jets play the Jacksonville Jaguars. We met up with our friend and royalty regular, Rich Wolber aka Staten Island Rich who joined us for the Jet game.
The Jets came out like a house on fire as they built an early 9-0 lead early in the first quarter. They went on to cruise to a dominant 32-3 beating of the Jaguars. It was quite a contrast from their subpar opening game performance against the Cowboys which they were very fortunate to win.

After the game, we drove down to Philadelphia to see the Phillies play the Cardinals in Sunday night baseball at Citizens Bank Park.

The Cardinals were trying to keep their playoff hopes alive and they did by beating the Phillies, 5-0 behind Chris Carpenter who threw eight shutout innings to earn the victory for the Redbirds.

After the game, I drove us back home and another week was in the books.

Stay tuned for the special post I'm going to write about a guy who always makes our visit to Citi Field worth it the moment he greets us when we step foot on the premises.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman

Royalty w/o 11/22 in review

After a wild weekend, another crazy week followed. Here's how it went:

Monday night after going to work tired I still saved up enough energy to go to Newark, NJ to see the Devils play the Capitals at the Prudential Center. The Capitals failed to show up literally. The Devils scored early and often as they shut down Alex Ovechkin and the Caps, 5-0! Johan Hedberg playing for the injured Martin Brodeur recorded the shutout.

Tuesday night after work I went to Madison Square Garden to see the Knicks host the Charlotte Bobcats. The Knicks played well on their West Coast road trip. On this night they were trying to continue their winning ways. It appeared for most of the game that the Knicks were in control until late in the game when the Bobcats tried their best to overtake the Knicks but their attempt came up short as the Knicks hung on for a 110-107 victory.

Toney Douglas lead the Knicks with 22 points but it was a balanced attack as six players finished with double figure point totals.

D.J. Augustin had 24 points and Gerald Wallace added 20 in the losing effort for the Bobcats.

Wednesday night after getting out of work early at 3PM I went to see the Devils entertain the Calgary Flames.

The Devils outlasted the Flames as they beat them in a shootout, 2-1!

Ilya Kovalchuk of the Devils scored the only goal in the shootout which gave the Devils the extra point in the standings in this one.

Thursday after spending the day with the family for Thanksgiving, I went to see the Jets play the Bengals in prime time at the New Meadowlands Stadium.

The Jets came out slow in this one. They struggled in the first half. After returning from the locker room to start the second half, they played like a team that was ready to take over. On their first drive, Brad Smith ran a reverse for a 53 yard touchdown to set the tone for the rest of the game.

Later in the third quarter he ran a kick back for 89 yards for a touchdown which helped seal the deal as the Jets wound up winning 26-10!

Friday morning I rented a car from Avis for a few days so I could drive to Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
I proceeded to pick the King up from work at the Post Office at Grand Central Station. After that, I drove by Madison Square Garden where I picked up our friend Lloyd Ramsland who joined us for this excursion.

We continued through the Lincoln Tunnel as we made our way to Philadelphia to see the Flyers play the Calgary Flames in a Black Friday traditional matinee game at 1PM at the Wells Fargo Center as it's now called.

The Flames beat the Flyers, 3-2 in a shootout.

After the game, we went to Reading, PA to see a minor league hockey game between the Reading Royals and the Cincinnati Cyclones.

The hometown Royals were trailing 3-1 after two periods but they managed to tie the game at three and they forced overtime. They wound up winning the game 4-3 with a goal in the extra session.

After the game I drove to Somerset, PA so we could get some sleep before we continued on to Pittsburgh.
We arrived at the Consol Energy Center, the new home of the Pittsburgh Penguins around Noon for a 1PM start.

We were all there for the first time as we needed to catch up to say we've been to every current NHL rink once again.

In addition, we got to visit our friends Mike & Alicia Irr who live in Pittsburgh. They have half season tickets for the Penguins. They helped us with advice in order for us to get our tickets so we could see their new hockey home. It's located right next to their old one, the Igloo as it was known in downtown Pittsburgh.

As for the game we saw, the Penguins beat the Flames, 4-1! Sidney Crosby lead the Pens as he scored a hat trick. It was the first one in the new building. Early in the game, he was awarded a penalty shot but he failed to score. He did have an even strength goal, a power play goal and a shorthanded empty net goal to finish his hat trick though. Needless to say, he was the star of the game.

After the game, we drove 60 miles to Wheeling, West Virginia to see another minor league hockey game between the Wheeling Nailers and the Kalamazoo K-Wings.

More importantly, our friend Lloyd had never seen a game there so we made sure we got him there.

The King and I were there one time back in January 1998 after a Penguin game at the Igloo.

The Nailers wound up winning the game, 3-1!

After the game, I drove us all home overnight. I dropped off Lloyd at his house in Oradell, NJ at 5:10AM after driving 422 miles.

Lloyd said and I quote "you did a terrific job driving".

I proceeded to take the King home then I finally went home. I arrived at my house at 6:15AM.

I laid down for a few hours then I went to Avis and I returned the car I rented. I drove 977 miles in 2 days.

I went back to my car which was parked across the street from the car rental and I drove to the subway. I then took the train to the Port Authority Bus Terminal where I caught the bus to go the New Meadowlands Stadium to see the Giants play the Jacksonville Jaguars at 1PM.

The Giants like the Jets started slow. They trailed 17-6 at halftime. After getting a wake up call and a pep talk in the locker room, the Giants went to work for real.

It culminated when Eli Manning threw a 32 yard touchdown pass to Kevin Boss with 3:15 left in the game to give the Giants a 24-20 victory.

After the game, despite being exhausted the King and I took the NJ Transit train to Secaucus where we connected for the train to Newark so we could see the Nets play the Portland Trailblazers at 7PM at the Prudential Center.

The Nets beat a struggling Trailblazer team 98-96! This was a closely contested game throughout.
Devin Harris lead the Nets with 25 points.

Wesley Matthews paced the Trailblazers with 25, Brandon Roy had 21 while LaMarcus Aldridge added 20 in the loss.

That sums up another crazy and tiresome week in the life of Royalty.

Thank you for reading and following along my adventurous path.

If you want to experience a sample for yourself all you have to do is let me know.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman