I have a soft spot for major leaguers who ride the subway to Shea or Yankee Stadium; the notion of a guy making several million a year eschewing the team bus for the unknown of the underground pleases me to no end. Anything can happen on the subway–you might fall in love, or end up bad-mouthing your way out of a promising career.

So, needless to say, I enjoyed reading about rookie Reds pitcher Daryl Thompson, a few hours from making his major league debut…in Yankee Stadium, no less…ending up in Brooklyn after taking the wrong subway.

Writes the NY Times:

[Thompson] and two other rookies, Jay Bruce and Paul Janish, left their Midtown hotel and decided to take the subway to Yankee Stadium. But they got on the wrong train and ended up in Brooklyn instead of the Bronx.

“I had a big old bag and I was going to ride the bus,” Thompson said, “but they said I could ride with them. They said, ‘We’re rookies, let’s take the subway and get there ahead of the bus.’ ”

After about 30 minutes, they realized they were going the wrong way.

“Janish was in charge at first,” Thompson said. “Bruce ended up asking a lady, and she told him which way we needed to go. He got us back on the right track.”

They arrived at the stadium shortly before 11 a.m. for a game that began at 1:08 p.m. “The guys in the clubhouse gave me stuff for trying to follow those guys because they didn’t know what they were doing,” Thompson said. “Bad impression.”

The 22-year-old Thompson went on to hurl five shutout innings against the most all-star rich lineup in the world. Maybe he’ll take the Borough Hall detour every time he pitches in New York.