Royalty starts the New Year with a bang!

After finishing 2011 strong, 2012 got off to a flying start for me.

The King and I took a bus from Chinatown to Philadelphia early Sunday morning to get the New Year started.
We went to Lincoln Financial Field where we met up with Andrew Van Cleve and his son Dylan aka the Ultimate Sports Baby. We rounded up cheap tickets outside the stadium and we went in to see the Eagles close out their season with the Washington Redskins.

When we got inside we met up with our friend Frankie Centola who was with his son, Frank the third. Frankie gave the King and I a nice upgrade to the club level. Andrew couldn't join us because he had the baby in a stroller. He decided to watch the game from the ramps instead. It worked out well for all of us.
As for the game we saw, the Eagles dismantled the Redskins, 34-10.

After the game, the King took the bus back to Chinatown. We then took the subway to the Port Authority Bus Terminal when we got back to NYC just after seven o'clock.

We decided to brave the weather since it was raining to try and get into the Giants game against the Cowboys at 8:20PM.

We got out to MetLife Stadium with no problem. The problem we had was we didn't have tickets for the game. We knew it wasn't going to be easy.

As expected, a number of people were looking too. There were scalpers with tickets but they were too pricey for our liking.

We waited awhile. The game started and the prices were still too high. Shortly thereafter, we were wandering around the stadium and I found a ticket on the floor. The King told me to go ahead and try it. I did and I got in. He continued to look but he couldn't get anything so he decided to go home.

I walked into the stadium with 5:54 left in the first quarter. The game was still scoreless.

Less than a minute later, Victor Cruz turned a short gain for a first down into a 74 yard touchdown pass to give the Giants a 7-0 lead.

They continued to build their lead to 21-0 before the Cowboys came back to get within a touchdown at 21-14. The Giants managed to extend their lead. They eventually won the game, 31-14. As a result, they won the NFC East division.

Stay tuned for my latest visit to the Winter Classic. I will do a special post recapping the whole experience which will include the past ones I've been to.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman

Royalty enjoys the return of the NBA at MSG on Christmas Day!

Andrew and Dylan Van Cleve with the King and I

Like the NFL, the NBA decided to finally return to business as usual. The only difference is the NBA season didn't start on time.

With that being said, the NBA season started on Christmas Day with five games on tap.

The first one being at Madison Square Garden at Noon as the Knicks were hosting the Boston Celtics.
The last time I saw the Knicks play the Celtics on Christmas Day was back in 1985 when the Knicks trailed the Celtics by 25 points in the third quarter before they miraculously came back to win the game in double overtime. I remember it being called the "Miracle on 34th Street."

On this day, the King and I were joined by the Ultimate Sports fan Andrew Van Cleve and his son Dylan aka the Ultimate Sports Baby.

It was great to see them again as the Knicks wound up winning a thriller as Kevin Garnett missed the last shot as the Knicks won the game, 106-104.

The Knicks were lead by Carmelo Anthony who led the way with 37 points.

The Garden is once again the place to be to see NBA basketball.

These days tickets are hard to come by. Hopefully royalty can work some magic so you can experience it for yourself when the time comes.

If so, please let me know and I'll see what I can do for you.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman

Royalty meets up with fellow roadtrippers Andrew Van Cleve and Kurt Smith in the City of Brotherly Love!

Andrew Van Cleve, Kurt Smith, The King and I

The King and I arrived in Philadelphia around 1PM on Sunday as we planned to meet up with some special people.

I'm talking about Andrew Van Cleve aka the Ultimate Sports fan who just moved to the City of Brotherly Love after spending the last 17 years of his life in Chicagoland. He spent the last ten years up the block from Wrigley Field.

He was forced to move because his lovely wife Nicole aka the Ultimate Sports wife got a job as a professor at Temple University.

Andrew is also the proud father of Dylan Salvatore aka the Ultimate Sports baby who has the unique distinction of seeing his first sporting event at Wrigley Field at a mere three days old. He's been to over a hundred live games since.

We were also joined by Kurt Smith, the author of ballpark e-guides. Kurt felt like he was out of his league because he doesn't have the time to attend nearly as many live sporting events as the rest of us. He was privileged and honored to be sitting at a table at Jon's Bar & Grille which is located a few blocks from Andrew's new home with us sports travel legends. He deemed it a Kodak moment.

Kurt has a baby on the way who's due to arrive in February so that will further prevent him from going to games live.

Regardless Kurt is a great guy who has to continue to find a way to support his latest family addition. With that being said, he has his side business of writing and selling ballpark e-guides which are tremendous sources of information for sports travelers as well as people in general. He has put lots of time and effort into producing these which he sells for a mere $5. I strongly suggest that if you haven't gotten one for your local team that you do so. He has done a number of them. Believe me, you can't go wrong and you'll be supporting a good cause in the process.

It was great to see Kurt again. He came in special from his home in South Jersey to meet up with us. Even though he couldn't make the football game, we still got to spend some quality time together. I want to thank him for giving us some of his precious time.

As for the football game, the King and I drove Andrew there with us.

We wound up working some royal magic as we met up with our good friend Frankie Centola who lives in Philadelphia. We all got to see the game from the club level, royal treatment indeed. We showed Andrew some of our own Brotherly Love.

With Andrew relocating to the Northeast, I fully expect to see him more often.

As for the game we saw, the Eagles raced out to a 28-0 lead over the Jets with 9:57 still left in the second quarter. The Jets cut into the lead as they trailed, 28-13 at halftime. They got the ball first in the second half but they continued to make costly mistakes which prevented them from pulling off another miraculous comeback on the road. They wound up losing to Eagles, 45-19.

Andrew decided to depart a little early since the game was over for all intent and purposes. By doing so, he was able to get back home to see Nicole and Dylan.

I want to thank Andrew for spending the rest of the afternoon with the King and I. As always it was an absolute pleasure to see him again.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman

Royalty sees a rare Saturday night game at Wrigley Field!

Our View from Aisle 222 

Thanks to Fox, the Chicago Cubs got to play their first Saturday night home game in almost 13 years and the King and I arranged to be there. It wound up working out perfectly since we got to go the Ultimate Sports Baby's first birthday party in the afternoon.

The last time the Cubs played a scheduled Saturday night game at Wrigley Field was back on June 20, 1998. They wound up playing a day-night doubleheader against the Cardinals on August 31, 2002.

This time mother nature did her very best to ruin the chance for us to see a rare Saturday night game at Wrigley Field. The weather forecast was brutal. The temperature dropped into the low 40's at game time and the wind was howling throught the light rain that falling. The first pitch was delivered at 6:13PM. The game was stopped at 8:24PM with a 2-0 count on the Giants' Aaron Rowand in the top of the 7th inning when the umpires wisely decided that was enough. Shortly thereafter, the game was officially called off.

The Cubs lost to the Giants, 3-0 in a rain shortened game. They made a few errors thanks to the lousy field conditions that cost them a few runs. It should be noted the Cubs had their chances to score but they failed to capitalize on them.

The King and I as well as Andrew Van Cleve and his father stuck it out and we braved the elements. Once the tarp finally went on the field we all decided to call it a night at the ballpark.

Andrew and his father went back to his house and the King and I headed out to Elgin, Illinois to go to the Grand Victoria Casino before we went back to our hotel to call it a night.

Stay tuned as I'm going to write a special post about the way we altered our game plan for Sunday.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman