While many newspapers are using the run-up to the World Series to run some of the most inane baseball coverage ever published, at least one newspaper came through with a somewhat-interesting sideshow article: The New York Times covered the Phillies’ train ride to New York City, and answered the “why” question:

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. [...] The Phillies have been boarding Amtrak charters for several years to Washington to play the Nationals. Normally, the Phillies take a bus to New York if they come directly from Philadelphia.

You don’t come here for fancy New York Times news articles, I think. But don’t worry, there’s a fun part: The train arrived just around rush hour, which means the Phillies have already done their part to annoy New Yorkers.

“It’s almost 6 o’clock now,” said John Williams, an Amtrak police officer, who was hard at work clearing the sidewalk outside Penn Station of commuters trying to get home after work. “This is killing us.”

It will only get worse, Mr. Williams. The Phillies will be doing some more killing of New York when the World Series starts tomorrow night.

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