This must happen fairly frequently.

Say you’re C.C. Sabathia’s agent, and you need to keep C.C. in the loop on some business matter–say, reaching out to Myanmar to make sure they have enough cotton fabric to produce the star hurler’s ginormous uniform pants.

You need to tell your secretary, or your assistant, or your “girl,” or whatever they call the agent underling in that situation to copy C.C. on the email.

Do you say, “Hey, can you CC C.C.?”

Or do you say, “Hey, can you CC Sabathia?”

Both are a bit hard to say, and ultimately susceptible to confusion–not a good situation when you’re talking about a client that’s worth like $200 million.

If it’s me, I probably go for accuracy more than expediency:

“Hey, lackey, can you CC Carston Charles Sabathia on this? And where the hell is my Jameson on the rocks?”

[image: nj.com]

You may have heard McCarver/Buck mention the other night–Phillies ace Cliff Lee, jammed in traffic hours before his World Series start Wednesday night, jumped out of his cab in upper Manhattan and hopped a pair of subways to get to Yankee Stadium.

According to the announcers, Lee went unrecognized by his fellow riders on the 6 and then the 4 train.

Reports the Daily News:

Lee was stuck in a taxi at 5:45 p.m. en route from his team’s Manhattan hotel to Yankee Stadium before his Game 1 start, when the driver told him they were hopelessly stuck in traffic and it might take two more hours to get to the ballpark. Lee instructed the driver to find the nearest subway stop. A veteran of the underground system from his visits to New York with the Indians, Lee successfully navigated from the 6 to the 4 train and arrived about 15 minutes later - in more than enough time to toss his complete game opposite CC Sabathia.

“I still had plenty of time,” said Lee, who went unrecognized. “I’ve always taken the subway, but for whatever reason I took a taxi the other day. If I would have known it would have been that long I just would have gotten right on the subway.”

Adds Gothamist:

Lee called his agent, Darek Braunecker, who advised him to leave the cab, find a policeman and ask for help getting to the stadium. The Phillies’ traveling secretary, Frank Coppenbarger, told Lee to do the same thing.

Lee instead told the driver to take him to the nearest subway. He got out at W. 119th St., Coppenbarger said.

Lee got to Yankee Stadium at 6:20, had to prove to the guards he was actually a player, then shut down the fearsome Yanks in a complete game.

The Philadelphia Phillies opted for a chartered train ride to Gotham to prepare for their World Series showdown with the Yankees at the House That Ruth(less Pursuit of Free Agents) Built.

The Phillies also hopped a train to New York to face the Yankees in the 1950 Series.

Writes the New York Times:

The reason for the train was neither historical novelty nor an exercise in team building in advance of the World Series, which begins Wednesday at Yankee Stadium. It was pure convenience. The distance between Philadelphia and New York is too short for a flight, and a fleet of buses traveling up the New Jersey Turnpike could spend as much time on the approach to the Lincoln Tunnel as the entire train ride.

So for the first time in recent memory, the team boarded the Phillie Express from 30th Street Station in Philadelphia about 4:45 p.m., bound for New York’s Penn Station.

(As an aside, today’s NY Times also has a big story about how newspaper readership is way down. My copy of the paper was trimmed badly at the printer, so I couldn’t read the print version of the Phillies-Amtrak story, as the last word in each sentence was cut. I instead read it online.)

[Ballplayers are just like you and me! Pedro Martinez turns up for work at Penn Station.] 

Amtrak officials said it was difficult clearing the sidewalks for the players upon their arrival, as they got there right at the peak of yesterday’s evening commute. The players got a mixed reaction from people schlepping into Penn Station.

When the first members of the team emerged from Penn Station on the corner of 32nd Street and Eighth Avenue, they were greeted by a couple of Phillies fans. Their voices were soon overtaken by more lusty locals chanting, “Let’s go, Yankees.”

Perhaps that explains outfielder Jayson Werth’s terse “no” when asked if he could give his assessment of the short ride.

Nevertheless, Hannah Kirkner, a native Philadelphian and a freshman at the nearby Fashion Institute of Technology, was delighted to see her team on a Manhattan sidewalk.

“I thought it was so cool they came here by train,” she said. “It’s very representative of our city to take the train. It’s so human.”

We’re doubtful the players will opt for the 4 train to Yankee Stadium tomorrow.  

[image: NY Times]

Just as the Great Yankeemobile hit a pothole en route to the Fall Classic, Trainjotting’s Connecticut Correspondent “Saugatucker” was selecting the winner of our first annual Caption Contest.

Saugatucker speaks:

The grand prize of all the dollar bills you can stuff down C.C. Sabathia’s uniform pants goes to Jim for caption #1, “Introducing the New American League Hybrid - fueled by Steroids and Bud Lime.” The Bud Lime cinched it - it would have been even more of a sure thing had submitter opted for Bud Light Lime, as you couldn’t find a more soulless brew.

Honorable Mention to Foot It Tim for “Batshit Day”. Remember, Tim, this is a family blog.

Yes, folks, it’s your last chance to come up with a witty caption for the Trainjotting caption contest. Simply come up with a funny/snarky/heart-warming tagline for the photo below, shot at our train station last week, and post it in the Comments section.

Winner gets lunch for two at Arby’s with Nick Swisher.*

My other car is a ’70s baseball hat bullpen car.

* No supersizing, please.  

On the eve of the American League Championship Series, we’d like to welcome you to the first annual Trainjotting Caption Contest. Please post the best caption you can for the following photo, taken this morning at our train station.

A little back story: The fully pinstriped and logo’d Jeep Cherokee pictured above positively lords over the train station parking lot, backed into the best spot in the yard and just daring the measly Toyotas and Chevys in its midst to knock it from its lofty perch.

In short, if the Yankeemobile could speak, what would it be saying?

The winner gets as many dollar bills as he/she can stuff in C.C. Sabathia’s uniform trousers.

The Yankees unveil a new fall tradition this evening, as the winners of the Little League World Series, the Twins representing the Twin Cities of Minnesota, are invited to River Avenue to face off against the Bronx Bombers. It’s a tall order indeed for the Twins, whose payrolls is roughly comparable to how much Brett Gardner’s personal assistant makes in a year.

Metro-North has three extra Hudson Line trains, dubbed the ”Yankee Clipper”, of course, to shuttle fans to the ballpark for tonight’s 6:07 kickoff, along with one direct train on both the Harlem and New Haven Line.

The Hudson Line trains depart Croton-Harmon at 3:55 and 4:57 and Poughkeepsie at 3:30. The New Haven Line train leaves New Haven at 2:45, makes the major stops, and then makes like a Sabathia fastball from Stamford to the Yankees-153rd Street stop for a 4:21 arrival, leaving ample time for the consumption of Bud bottles at Stan’s.

The Harlem Line direct train departs Southeast at 3:20 p.m. and makes all local stops to Mount Vernon West at 4:31 p.m. then operates non-stop to the Stadium for a 4:52 arrival. 

Of course, diehard fans can also take the subway to 125th and grab a shuttle train from there. 

“Despite a game time that is in the heart of Metro-North’s evening rush hour, the railroad wants to give fans the opportunity to try our great game day service and experience the ease of beating stadium traffic,” said Metro-North President Howard Permut.  “Although the railroad does not have a lot of extra train cars or a lot of extra track capacity on a weeknight at 6 o’clock, we felt that this playoff home stand series will allow us to attract fans who we hope will become regular customers.” 

[image: examiner.com]

For some reason, the Missus and I were discussing a commercial we’d (separately) seen for a pinstriped Yankeemobile–some car painted in full New York Yankees regalia for the taste-challenged Bronx Bombers fan in your life.

Mind you, neither the Missus nor I–Sox fan and Mets fan, respectively–can stomach much of anything Yankee-related. But we were truthfully discussing how many of the Yankeemobiles actually get sold. I know hardcore Yankee fans–some I’d even call friends–but nobody I know would ever drive such a thing.

We also discussed the insurance aspect of owning the Yankeemobile. Mind you, we live in the heart of Yankee Country, which becomes abundantly more evident when the Yankees are actually in the midst of a good season. But surely there are Yankee haters around, some who see it as their duty as card-carrying Yankee haters to key up the Yankeemobile parked next to them in the parking lot. And surely there would be times when you drive beyond the greater New York area, and perhaps even toward that crimson country known as Red Sox Nation a few hours to the north east.

In short, we decided that nobody-but-nobody would ever actually be caught dead in such a thing. Caught dead in a Yankee pinstriped coffin, perhaps, but not the Yankeemobile.

But wait. There it was, a pinstriped Jeep Cherokee, interlocking N and Y on the hood, in the Hawthorne station parking lot this morning. It was in a prime I-got-here-early spot, and the driver had backed into the space, freeing up precious seconds this evening when he’s able to simply pop the thing into Drive and, presumably, jet on down to the House That Ruth(less Pursuit of Free Agents) Built. Its grill was grinning greedily over the whole of the parking lot, like Clemens after striking out 15 and beaning three.

My only question is, if you’re already getting the pinstriped Yankee S.U.V., why not just go all out and get the pinstriped Yankee Hummer?

The NY Times’ “Metropolitan Diary,” also known as “Septuagenarian Ladies Ending Cute Stories With ‘Only in New York!’”, offers not one but two yarns that take place on our area’s trains.

One story depicts a man on the 2 train who’s wrapped up in his Rubik’s Cube, as is the rest of his train. The second, a mere day after Father’s Day, is a snapshot of a father and son on Metro-North after a Yankee game.

Dear Diary:

On the No. 2 train from Pennsylvania Station to 72nd Street:

We got on. Every seat was taken and there were about 10 people standing, but still, not that crowded by subway standards. It was midday.

I noticed peripherally that there was a guy working a Rubik’s cube — with his eyes closed. (He was also listening to an iPod, like everyone else in New York City.) I didn’t really pay attention. I was talking to my friend Jeffrey, but registered that each time he moved the cube, he moved the fingers of his right hand, as if to keep track. I guess I checked his progress, and so did Jeff — enough to realize that he was getting close.

And then the whole darn car was watching the moving fingers and the cube — it was just a few dials away. And then, after a heart-stopping hesitation, he finished the puzzle and the entire car burst into spontaneous applause and joyful celebration.

Everybody had a question.

“How long did it take?” (Twelve minutes this time.) “Do you do it competitively?” (No.) “What’s with the fingers?” (“I ran out of space in my brain so I need to use my fingers to keep track.”) Everybody in that car was really thrilled, and then Jeffrey and I got off the train.

Paula Forman

Dear Diary:

A recent trip to Yankee Stadium reminded me of some vital information I learned several years ago on a Metro-North train, heading into Westchester.

Across the aisle from me sat what looked like a father and son, who were apparently returning home from a Yankee game. During the trip, the son, about 9 or 10 years old, reached into his backpack and retrieved a half-full bag of peanuts. As he ate the remaining peanuts, he dropped the shells on the floor of the train. His father, not pleased with this, told him to stop making a mess and to put the shells in the bag to throw out in the trash can when they left the train.

The son, surprised at his father’s reaction, objected with the argument, “We threw the shells on the floor in the stadium.”

To this, his father responded, “Yes, but they keep rats at Yankee Stadium, and after the fans leave, they let them in to clean up the shells.”

Josie Ganek

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and some of the still-remaining MTA bigwigs will assemble at the new Metro-North Yankee Stadium stop tomorrow at 12:30 to christen the new E. 153rd Street station.

Metro-North says  a “special, non-revenue train will leave Grand Central Terminal from Track 28 at noon” for media types; with the railroad’s current deficit, one is excused for thinking that all trains are non-revenue trains.

With his penchant for upstaging major public events, sources say Yanks slugger Alex Rodriguez will engage in batting practice while wearing leather chaps and a cowboy hat. He’ll hit from the Roberto Clemente Memorial Field across the street from the new stations; the field is a former Little League park that the Yankees bought up with taxpayer money so the players’ children can play wiffle-ball during Dad’s ballgames.

[image: Esquire]