blaylockboyz Goes to NYC Pt. 4 4/20

Woke up on Saturday around 7:30 since Jeff Fletcher was heading back up to Boston. Luckily everything had subsided and all travel restrictions into and out of Boston had been lifted. As he left I intended to get in the shower so I could meet up with Tom Huddle at the Blind Pig to watch the Arsenal game. Alas the best intentions sometimes go to waste and the next thing I knew it was 11 AM and I awoke to a text from Tom saying he would be there for at least another hour...

After Tom, Tim Ghiorso and I finally got our acts together, we all met up at my hotel and got our Nets tickets printed out for the Playoff game against the Bulls that night. Thanks to Tim's Stub Hub prowess we were able to score tickets at the last minute just as we did for the Yankees game on Thursday. If I learned anything from this it's that, if you're willing to gamble and wait, prices start dropping quickly as game time approaches.

Since the Knicks were opening up their Playoff Series against Boston at MSG we decided to roll over there so we could 1: check out The Garden, and 2: state our case to support keeping the Kings in Sacramento. We arrived right as the fans were exiting after a Knicks victory. There were a lot of curious people asking us what we were doing, as well as people totally aware of what was going on. Quite a few people took our pictures and there was roughly a 50/50 reaction to our plight. Some people totally on board, while others just wanted to give us a hard time, all good either way as we got the message out.

The subway to Brooklyn was relatively crowded and took maybe 20 minutes or so but conveniently dropped us right at the Barclays Center. We took a few pictures and then decided to walk around the perimeter of the Arena to check it out. As we were walking we were stopped by the staff working the VIP Entrance to express their support for Sacramento and wishing us well. As we continued on we were fortunate enough to catch Darryl Dawkins heading in for the game. In an interesting twist of fate he was wearing a purple pinstripe suit! He graciously took a picture with us and expressed his support as well. Later on he even responded on Twitter!

After making our way back to the entrance we displayed our signs and took pictures with fans and talked to people, all who were OVERWHELMINGLY in support of the Kings staying in Sacramento! It was a lot of fun and Tim and I each interviewed with some local reporters who were very receptive to our message.

As we went to go into the game we were told we could not bring our signs in. #SignGate! We told multiple people we only wanted to display them behind the ESPN announcers after the game but it was to no avail. It's funny that with all the people who have asked about our trip this has, by far, been the number 1 topic I have been asked about.

It was a pleasure to enjoy the Nets blow out in a truly "State of the Art" Arena as this place was amazing and a great reminder of things to come for us! After the game we made our way down behind the announcers and were lucky enough to get a picture with Jon Barry! A fitting end symbolically to my first visit to the "Big Apple"...

blaylockboyz Goes to NYC Pt. 3 4/19

After stopping in the busiest Starbucks I have ever seen in my life, I hurried through the mass of people to get over to the St Regis. As I was passing Rockefeller Plaza I saw the Today show setup and thought I better get a picture. It wasn't until this time that I realized all of what had been going on in Boston since the previous night.

When I arrived at the St Regis there were more local Kings fans waiting, which was great! I met up with Matt Moore, Mike Riordan, Tin Ghiorso, Jeff Fletcher, Mike Charles, Audrey Moore, and several others who were there to show support.

Since the media room was setup inside due to the pending presser, most of the media was comfortably inside where they could sit down and work rather than having to stand outside all day. Nick Monacelli, Bryan May, and Dan Elliott were out front as it turned out Nick was being sent to Boston to cover the scene up there. Before he left we were able to get a shot with the News10 crew shown above. We also started what, according to Matt, was the longest and loudest SAC RA MEN TO chant he had been a part of.

One of the common themes for the day was the reporters getting reassigned to Boston, so it was mostly just the Kings fans hanging out front. We were also joined by Tom Huddle about this time as he joined us fresh off the plane.

Some of the highlights of the morning were meeting fellow Kings fans who started to pop up. There were a couple guys in town for business who stopped by to chat, a girl who was in town for 10 weeks as part of her medical internship, and Allegra Green, who worked for the Monarchs early on. The most fun for me, however, was when we noticed a couple standing off to the side kind of watching us and smiling. Tim noticed the gentleman had a white hat with "SK" on the front and asked if they were Kings fans. Turns out Madge and Pete were from Citrus Heights and had planned their vacation to coincide with the BOG Meetings many months in advance! What a great couple! We all had a great time talking with them and were really glad they chose to come be a part of the group for a bit.

The meeting ended around 12:30 PM I believe so we all gathered around Tim's phone to listen to the audio of the presser. As you know there was no decision made in regards to the SAC/SEA saga except that there would be more time needed to process everything. Everyone enjoyed the banter between Stern and Chris Daniels, as he knows how to get under the commissioner's skin, thus eliciting snarky comments in return. Chris also stopped and chatted with everyone afterwards, which was great.

We decided to hang out for awhile and saw several of the owners leaving including Clay Bennett and Glen Taylor. Mickey Arison shook several peoples hands as he went by, which was really cool! You can't help but think owners have to love the fact that fans are that dedicated to their teams. I mean who wouldn't want customers like that?

Matt served as our host that night and we enjoyed a great meal at Carmine's, where we met a family from Seattle on vacation (triplets!), and also attempted to call Grant's show only to find out the A's were playing.
After dinner we jumped on the subway and visited Union Square before finishing up the night at Finnerty's, which is a favorite Bay Area/NorCal themed sports bar.

All in all a day to remember!