Stay tuned for a thorough breakdown of the NFL schedule and Draft.
I plan to do some creative analysis that will tie in with the royalty experience.
Please check back for these unique and different segments.
Where YOU get royal treatment every step of the way! When you want the best in sports travel this is the place to go especially if you're on a strict budget.
Stay tuned for a thorough breakdown of the NFL schedule and Draft.
I plan to do some creative analysis that will tie in with the royalty experience.
Please check back for these unique and different segments.
It's the home of the 27 time World Champion New York Yankees.
It opened in April 2009. The first official game was played on April 16, 2009.
The Yankees played the Cleveland Indians that day.
Please check back for more details regarding the Stadium.
I plan to gradually give you different tidbits going forward.
Stay tuned for the bits and pieces as we go in depth to give you a virtual reality of what going to a sporting event these days is all about around the country.
Court Deli Restaurant |
Every player in the major leagues wore his uniform number 42 in his honor.
Royalty was present for this special occasion.
It was a different experience tonight at the ballpark.
Being a person who scores the game it was a little difficult to know who everybody was until I heard the PA announcer say who they were.
In particular, the relief pitchers who came in to pitch from the bullpen.
The game ended when the real #42 Mariano Rivera came in to get the last out of the game to perserve the victory for the Bronx Bombers.
They beat the Angels, 6-2!
Bobcats at Nets 7:30PM
**I plan to do a separate post when I have some time to relive my Meadowlands Complex memories**
Tomorrow after I work a half a day I'm off to the Home Opener at Yankee Stadium.
Angels at Yankees 1:05PM
After the game, I'm getting treated to a "royal" ride from the King who rented a car for the week the other day.
I normally do the majority of the driving.
For a change, it will be nice to be a passenger.
We'll be heading down south to Trenton, New Jersey for a Double A minor league game.
Akron at Trenton 7:05PM
Wednesday I'm going home to rest up and do my laundry. If I have a chance I'll try to do some blogging. If not, I'll just recharge the batteries for the rest of the week ahead.
Thursday Angels at Yankees 7:05PM
Friday Rangers at Yankees 7:05PM
Saturday Rangers at Yankees 1:05PM
Marlins at Phillies 7:05PM
Please note this time I'm going to be back behind the wheel doing the driving.
Sunday Rangers at Yankees 1:05PM
Please feel free to check in for the recaps and reviews.
In addition, if you check out my blog regularly you'll notice I upgraded my blog list.
Feel free to click on the links to find out and educate yourself on some other people I've met and/or plan to meet down the road.
After all, living the life of royalty does have its privileges.
I'm kind enough to help spread the wealth and the love for sports travel and life in general.
Thanks for reading and following.
Yours truly,
Gary Herman
The Heat started slow, they fell behind the Knicks, 29-24 after the first quarter.
In the second quarter, they caught up midway through then they added to their lead which was 55-47 at halftime.
Dwayne Wade their unrestricted superstar free agent took over. He put on a highlight reel sequence which included a monster alley oop slam dunk.
In the second half, the Heat maintained and added to their lead and cruised to an easy victory.
Thanks mostly to "DWade" as he is known the Heat had it made in the shade.
He lead all scorers with 32 points to go along with his 5 rebounds and 5 assists.
Teammate Udonis Haslem poured in 14 points and took down 10 boards.
Center Jermaine O'Neal wasn't much of a factor due to being in foul trouble most of the game.
As for the Knicks, David Lee lead them with 26 points. Danilo Gallanari had 19. Newcomer and former Heat Earl Barron added 13 points to go along with 12 rebounds in the loss.
That's why they decide the game between the lines.
This game was over for all intent and purposes right in the first inning.
Nyjer Morgan lead off the game with a triple for the Nationals. It went downhill from that point on.
Yesterday's hero Willy Taveras followed with a base on balls putting runners on first and third.
After second baseman Cristian Guzman grounded out, the cleanup hitter, Adam Dunn walked as well to load the bases.
Former Marlin and notorious Met killer Josh Willingham came to the dish to get his shot at Santana.
He made the most of it by hitting an apparent home run that went over the orange line on the center field fence.
Last year it would have been a live ball.
For some unknown reason the umpires didn't rule it a home run right away.
After Nationals manager, Jim Riggleman came out to argue.
The four blind umpires huddled together and decided to go into the clubhouse to look at the replay.
Please note the replay rule went into effect last season.
After a few minutes they reappeared, after further review it was ruled a home run.
Since the bases were loaded, it was a Grand Slam. Just like that, the Mets were down 4 runs before they even had a chance to swing the bat.
Santana proceeded to get the next two Nats out to end the horrible top of the first inning.
In the third inning, Josh Willingham did more damage when he drove in a run with a double.
Livan Hernandez pitched 7 shutout innings allowing just 5 hits.
In the eighth inning, former Yankee Brian Bruney came on to pitch. With a man on who he walked and 2 outs, first baseman Mike Jacobs broke the the shutout when he blasted a 2 run home run off the facade of the Pepsi Porch which hangs over the field in right.
That's all the offense the Mets could muster against the Nats' bullpen.
Unlike yesterday, their closer Matt Capps came on and got the Mets 1,2,3 in the ninth to earn his 3rd save and second in as many days.
The only exciting part of this game was early when Mr. Met, the team mascot, came into our section and he started throwing t-shirts into the stands as you can see in the picture above.
The Mets after a dreadful 2-4 homestand, go on the road to play the Colorado Rockies in Denver and then they head to St. Louis, the Gateway to the West before they return home on Monday, April 19 when they host the Chicago Cubs.
This has the potential to be a rough week.
Hopefully the change of scenery doew them some good.
Ruben, Jeremy and Evan Brot |
It started in similar fashion to last night's game.
This time Willy Taveras tripled in two runs to give the Nats the early lead 2-0 in the top of the second inning.
The Mets again came right back. This time they even the score at 2 in the second inning.
Thanks to a sacrifice fly to center by backup catcher Henry Blanco who made his first start of the season.
Oliver Perez, the Mets starter, helped himself with a big 2 out hit that tied the game.
In the fourth inning, Willy Taveras came through again. He delivered a 2 run single to give the Nats a 4-2 lead.
In the fifth inning, the Mets got within a run when Fernando Tatis for the second game in a row produced a clutch 2 out hit.
The score remained that way as Tyler Clippard, a former Yankee farmhand, was summoned from the bullpen.
He came on to replace starter, John Lannan, who's from Long Beach on Long Island, a notorious Met killer on the mound.
As for Clippard, he dominated in the 3 innings he worked. He allowed one hit and he struck out 7 batters in the process.
In the ninth inning, newly signed free agent closer & former Pirate Matt Capps was brought on to shut the door.
Capps was less than stellar in his inning of work. He did manage to barely survive as Willie Harris made a game saving catch to end the game.
Hence the Nationals walked away with the curly W and Capps got credit for a save with a very subpar performance.
Tomorrow the Mets hope to get back on the winning track when they sent their ace Johan Santana to the hill to face former Met Livan Hernandez in the rubber match.
The Nationals got on the scoreboard first when shortstop Ian Desmond tripled in a pair of runs in the second inning.
The Mets proceeded to score the rest of the runs for the night.
This is how they did it:
Jeff Francoeur hit a leadoff home run in the bottom of the second inning.
Rod Barajas lead off the fourth inning with a solo blast of his own to tie the game at 2.
In addition, Rod "raised the bar" again when he repeated the feat in the sixth to give the Mets a 3-2 lead.
In the seventh inning, another rare occurence took place when pinch hitter Fernando Tatis laced a single to left to drive in another run with 2 out no less. The Mets got a clutch hit. It was about time.
Jeff Francoeur who batted next delivered as well. He added another 2 run blast to give the Mets a 6-2 advantage.
In the eighth inning, shortstop Ruben Tejada got his first major league hit. He singled up the middle to centerfield.
Later in the inning, Alex Cora and David Wright delivered run scoring singles to round out the scoring.
Mike Pelfrey who started for the Mets pitched a solid 6 innings earning a quality start and his first victory of the young season.
The Washington Nationals make their first of 3 visits.
Tonight at 7:10PM
Post Game Meal at Donovan's Pub in Woodside.
I can't wait to have a pair of Pork Chops they only serve them on Fridays.
See previous post for the picture of them. It will make you salivate.
Tomorrow and Sunday afternoon at 1:10PM.
Tomorrow night we're off to a minor league baseball game in New Britain, Connecticut.
That game starts at 6:35PM.
Sunday night I'll be at the Knick game against Dwayne Wade and the Heat at 6PM as well.
Check back for the recaps and the wrap up of the weekend festivities.
Tired of reading about, do something about it.
Phone lines are ringing off the hook.
Calls will be answered in the order they are received.
Hope to speak you shortly.
Have a nice weekend.
Yours truly,
Prince Charming
First pitch is scheduled for 7:10PM.
Check back for the recap.
Check back for my recap.
The Prince is making his way into the building now.
We saw the last exhibition game between the 2009 National League Champion Philadelphia Phillies and the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Both teams used almost all their players in this game in preparation for the season that starts Monday for most teams.
The Phillies did all their damage on offense mainly with their starters in the first 4 innings.
They scored all their runs and hits during that time.
Jayson Werth hit the lone home run in the game for the Phillies.
As for the Pirates, they wrapped up a dreadful spring.
They fought to the end but fell a run short. They had the tying run on 3rd base with 2 outs in the 9th inning but first basemen Steve Pearce got called on strikes after hitting numerous foul balls to end the game.
We had a few friends/royalty regulars join us for the trek to the City of Brotherly Love.
We had Bryan Gilligan and Rich Wolber aka Staten Island Rich.
Bryan joined the King and I at the baseball game while Rich went to the Philadelphia 76er game against the Toronto Raptors instead.
Rich wound up seeing a good one. He said the Raptors blew a 17 point lead early in that game. In the end, Chris Bosh missed the last shot in regulation. The Raptors did eventually survive and they won in OT, 128-123!
In addition, we saw some familar faces at the ballpark as well.
First we saw our buddy, Jim Lowry who took us up on the elevator. Jim and I exchanged goodies that were had for each other.
Secondly, when we were exiting the right field gate we got to say a quick hello and goodbye to our lady friend, Lisa Wilson who's a supervisor at the that gate. She always so happy to see us. She knows we're real fans and we usually bring the Phillies luck.
We bought $10 tickets when we got to the ballpark.
When we told Lisa that she said and I quote "somebody gave me 5 tickets I wish I would have knew I would have gave them to you guys".
In this day and age, thoughtful and caring people are hard to find but royalty has the knack to find them.
It was a fluke goal that appeared to hit off a Devil skate in front.
The game wound up being decided in a shootout. Jonathan Toews of the Blackhawks scored the lone goal to give his team the victory.
Ilka Kovalchuk scored the only Devil goal of the night just 5:49 into the first period.
It was his 40th goal of the season.
This game was played without a single penalty being called all night.
I don't remember ever seeing that happen in all the hockey games I've seen over the years.
I like to think it's a very rare occurence.
As far as I'm concerned, it was a historical game.
Tomorrow Pirates at Phillies 1:05PM
It's an exhibition game to get us back in the swing of things.
Back to the hardwood at night when we drive back up to the IZOD Center.
Hornets at Nets 7:30PM
Easter we'll be spending in Beantown with a severe case of baseball fever.
You can see my recent post for more details.
Yankees at Red Sox 8:05PM
A great way to start another season.
Fenway Park in prime time!
Put me in coach, I'm ready to play.
It's going to be a blast.
Check back for the recap of the festivities.
Hope you enjoy the weekend and the holiday if you celebrate.
Thanks for reading.
Yours truly,
Gary Herman