Royalty meets up with up and coming roadtrippers at Citizens Bank Park!

Me with the Carruba family, Kristy, Rich and Dylan 

Saturday morning I went out to Avis to pick up a car for the busy weekend I had planned out.

My first stop was Philadelphia where I was going to see the Phillies play the Atlanta Braves in the late afternoon thanks to Fox who decided about 10 days prior to take the game so it started at 4:05PM. Since they did I was put in a difficult position. I already had tickets for the Mets and Yankees who were both home that day at 1:10PM & 1:05PM respectively. I was hoping the Phillie game stayed at 7:05PM. Much to my chagrin it didn't. As a professional, I adjusted accordingly. I decided to take the easy way out if you will.
To make matters worse, the Washington Nationals were also home at 1:05PM that day and my boy Gio Gonzalez was pitching and he if won it would have been his 20th win of the season. As bad as I wanted to go there, I told a lady named Kristy Carruba who I worked with years ago that I would go to the Phillie game instead. She said she had an extra ticket so I told her I'll take it and the price was right so it hard to pass up the opportunity to do so. She was going to Citizens Bank Park with her husband Rich and their eleven year old son Dylan. Kristy arranged for me to meet Rich during the week so I could get the ticket in advance. By doing so, I was able to meet them at the seats upon arrival. We wound up seating in the Hall of Fame level by third base.

They got down there early so they could see the City of Brotherly Love and the ballpark. They were impressed with the ballpark. I personally love going there myself.

Kristy and I were able to catch up and I got to meet Dylan who's a big sports fan for the first time. They're good people and they're big fans of royalty. They read and follow my blog whenever they have time to do so. For that, I'm very grateful.

I got to give them an overview of all the different games and places I've been to over the years. They were dazed and amazed by my accomplishments. As I like to say, hard work pays off in everything you do in life. This is my passion so it's easy to do it with relative ease. I have a rock solid foundation in place that I've built upon over the years.

As for Kristy, she's a big TV watcher. Hence she has her own blog that she started which is called "Watching Way Too Much." If you like watching TV, I strongly suggest you take a look at it and follow along.

Kristy takes her TV watching to the extreme that I take my sports travel to. As for TV, I rarely watch but thanks to Kristy's blog I'm always kept in the loop of what's on TV these days.

As for the game we saw, the Phillies had their ace pitcher Roy Halladay starting. He's had an off year mainly due to an injury he suffered early in the season that caused him to miss some time. With him on the mound, I expected to see a good performance. Unfortunately, Roy didn't have it. He got lit up early and often on this day.

Michael Bourn who came up with the Phillies is now on the Braves. He lead off the game with a walk which is rare for Halladay. It was a bad sign. He got thrown out attempting to steal by Halladay though. It was quite a rundown he got in but he was finally tagged out. Martin Prado the next batter got a single. After a fielder's choice by Jason Heyward, Chipper Jones who's on his farewell tour got a hit. Freddie Freeman followed by hitting a three run homer to give the Braves a 3-0 lead. After the Phillies didn't score in their half of the first inning, the Braves went back to work as they chased Roy Halladay who couldn't get out of the second inning. The Braves added four more runs to take a 7-0 lead after an inning and a half. It was highlighted by Jason Heyward who hit a three run double. For good measure, Chipper Jones added a run scoring double to round out the scoring.

The Phillies broke the shutout in the third inning as they scored a run. In the fourth inning, history was made as Ryan Howard hit a solo homer to cut the deficit to 7-2. More importantly it was his 300th Major League home run.

The Braves added another run late in the eighth inning to sink the Phillies, 8-2. In the process, they put a damper on the Phillies' slim playoff hopes.

I want to personally thank Kristy, Rich and Dylan for their company as well as for the ticket for the game. I had a great time being with them. I look forward to doing it again at a ballpark and/or arena in the future.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman

Royalty sees a gem by Felix Hernandez at Yankee Stadium then goes to Citizens Bank Park for more baseball!

Saturday turned out to be a great day to be a baseball fan.

The King and I as well as Bryan Gilligan and Vincent Ascanio enjoyed that luxury.

In the afternoon, we were at Yankee Stadium to see the Yankees play the Seattle Mariners. It was a real treat because we got to see one of the best young pitchers in the game. I'm referring to Felix Hernandez aka King Felix. He was opposed by Hiroki Kuroda who started for the Yankees.

Kuroda pitched well as he allowed a run in six and a third innings. Felix Hernandez was a little better as he dominated the Yankees from start to finish as he made that one run stand up as he beat the Yankees, 1-0. He pitched a gem. He gave up just two hits as he shut the Yankees down to earn his tenth win of the season.

The game went nice and fast. It took only 2 hours and 32 minutes which gave us plenty of time to get to Philadelphia for the second game of our major league doubleheader. I want to personally thank our pal Bryan Gilligan for driving us down there.

It was my first game in Citizens Bank Park since May 12th when we went there to celebrate Dylan Van Cleve's 2nd birthday.

We didn't get to see Dylan this time but we met his Daddy Andrew. It was nice to see him again.

In addition, our friend Manny Morales was there too. He decided at the last minute to make the trip down he said.

As for the game we saw there, Roy Halladay started for the Phillies as they played the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Halladay who had been setback by an injury earlier in the season, pitched seven shutout innings as he picked up the victory. The Phillies beat the Diamondbacks, 3-0.

It was great to see another game in one of my favorite modern ballparks.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman

Royalty sees the Mets down in the City of Brotherly Love!

Phillie Phanatic

Saturday morning I went to Avis and I rented a car for the weekend. I picked up the King and off we went to another one of our many second homes, this time we went to Philadelphia to see the Mets play the Phillies in an early afternoon affair.

We got to see the best pitcher in the major leagues pitch. I'm talking about the "Doc" aka Roy Halladay. He didn't let us or the fans in jammed packed Citizens Bank Park down either.

Doc pitched a gem of a game as he went the distance in beating division rival, the New York Mets. He struck out eight batters as the Phillies backed his great pitching with just enough run support to beat the Mets, 2-1.

Thankfully the game took only 2 hours and 25 minutes to play. My rule of thumb is to allow 3 hours on average. As I like to say, a baseball game can go two hours or five hours. I just hope that it goes fast when I want it to. Unfortunately for the King and I that doesn't seem to be the case that often. This time we got a break.

Since the game went so fast we had plenty of time to get to our next game which was in Trenton, New Jersey, 40 miles away. In addition, we were able to sit down and enjoy a quality meal at a rock bottom price. We wound up going to the Golden Corral for dinner. Stay tuned as I'm going to write a special post about that unique experience.

After we ate, we continued on our way to Trenton to see a minor league baseball game between the Trenton Thunder who are the Yankees double A affiliate and the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, the farm club of the Toronto Blue Jays who we saw play a few weeks ago in New Britain, Connecticut.

The last time we saw the Fisher Cats win. This time they lost to the Thunder, 4-1. We even got to see former major leaguer Kei Igawa pitch and he picked up the win in relief because starting pitcher Manny Banuelos didn't get the last out in the fifth inning to qualify for the victory. He pitched effectively for the two and a third innings he threw.

He pitched in Japan before the Yankees brought him to the States back in November 2006. Since he signed a huge long term contract, the Yankees are stuck with him. He didn't cut it in the big leagues, now he's pitching in the lower minor leagues after spending time in Triple A. He turned out to be a total bust.

Sunday afternoon the King and I went back to the Bronx to see the Yankees play the Blue Jays. This time the Yankees beat the Jays, 5-2.

After the game, we went back down to Philadelphia to see if the Mets could savage a game in their three game series with the Phillies. After facing the best pitcher in baseball, the Phillies followed up by sending their next best pitcher to the mound, that being Cliff Lee.

Fortunately for the Mets, Cliff Lee didn't have his best stuff on this night. The Mets managed to take a 1-0 lead but the Phillies fought back to tie the game after Lee departed for the night.

The game remained tied when we were forced to leave the ballpark after watching the game for four hours after the Mets batted in the top of the 12th inning. The King had to get to work. He works overnight at the Post Office. He starts at 2AM.

The Mets wound up winning the game in the 14th inning when catcher Ronny Paulino doubled in the go ahead run to give the Mets a 2-1 win. Paulino finished the game with 5 hits.

We hated to leave but we had no choice. We got back to the car at 12:23AM. I had to drive 100 miles to get him back to work on time. I got him there at 1:56AM. He said and I quote "I'm impressed." It should be noted we had to stop for gas too.

I proceeded to drive myself home and I got home at 2:27AM.

Monday morning I woke up and I returned the car back to Avis and then I went to work.

Another adventurous weekend was in the memory bank.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman

Royalty sees postseason history at Citizens Bank Park today 10/6!



Ticket to baseball postseason history in Philadelphia 

 Yours truly was not in the house but the King fittingly was so was the "Doc"!

Doc as in Roy Halladay, who pitched a no hitter in his first ever postseason game.

He dominated the Cincinnati Reds from start to finish today in Philadelphia in Game 1 of the National League Division Series this late afternoon into early evening as the Phillies won, 4-0 to take a one game to none lead in the best of five series.

He shut down the highest scoring team in the National League this year.

What a game the King saw. He witnessed a pitching masterpiece by one of his favorite pitchers.

It should noted yours truly was responsible for making sure he had no stress looking for a ticket.
I wound up getting a second chance opportunity in the Phillies postseason lottery to get tickets.

Monday afternoon I was e-mailed and I was given a chance to purchase up to three tickets for Home Game 1 which was today.

After asking our friends Bryan Gilligan and Rich Wolber who said they couldn't go, I only bought one ticket knowing the King wouldn't say no regardless of the circumstances.

Unfortunately I was working so I couldn't go but luckily for me Royalty was represented in style.

The baseball king was attending his 236th baseball game of the season.

Once again royalty delivered for someone else.

As you can see in the picture of the sheet of paper that has my name on it. I made a copy before I gave one to the King so I could have a souvenir for myself. The other one the King used to gain admission to the game.

In matter of fact, I just spoke to the King who said he didn't know how to thank me for getting him the ticket. He was at a loss for words.

This is another great example of how Royalty comes through when given a fair chance to do so.

I don't make promises I can't keep, I only guarantee what I can do but I'm always willing, ready and able to try to do my very best to come through for you.
It never hurts to ask, if you don't you can't succeed. Don't take no for an answer. Keep plugging away until you finally breakthrough.

That's what I try to do. My time will come sooner or later. Wait and see.
When it does I'll make history.

Thank you for reading.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman