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.

Thanks to the million-or-so people who called me, sent me e-mails, or hit me on the Tweets when they saw Jayson Werth sporting the fresh Carlos Ruiz Panamania tee during his interview with Marshall Harris on Post Game Live earlier tonight. It kinda made my week.

You’re the cot damn man, Werth. Thank you.

Check out the video of Jayson and the Comcast boys talking about the tee after the jump, but in the mean time, go get your own Panamania shirt from our handy little online store.

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If you happen to have tickets for the August 30th game against the Braves AND you’re 14 & under, this glorious Carlos Ruiz Catcher’s Backpack giveaway could be all yours, my friend:

Badass, right? If it weren’t for those Mariners hosting an ‘I Can Haz Cheezburger’ night, this would easily be the greatest promotion of the year. Looks like I’ll be dragging meech’s two & three to the game so my 8-year old can get one and I can steal the other from my 7-month old when he’s not looking. Then I’ll tell him I lost it or something. (7-month olds aren’t too bright, ya know.)

It’s about damn time they had a promotion for Chooch.

Ever since my SCATHING critique of Carlos Ruiz a couple weeks ago, the Panamanian catcher and master of calling games has simply been on fiyah! at the plate. Up until the 12th of May, Chooch was batting a humiliating .161 with ZERO home runs, ZERO runs batted in, and ZERO runs scored. Since then? How about .389 with a .500 OBP, one homer, three runs scored and eight RBI. Now that’s the Chooch we know and love!

Oh yeah, and he’s also starting to throw runners out on the base paths regularly again. Such an occurrence from Sunday actually prompted my favorite 3-second clip of the young season:

Many thanks to .gif master Tug Haines from Long Drive for the animation assist.

His much funnier ice cream remixed version can be found ATJ.

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Since being called up to the majors in May 2006, catcher Carlos Ruiz has worn the jersey #51 as a Phillie.  Now, according to team’s website, Carlos has switched over to wear John Vukovich’s old #18.

Being that it seems kind of odd to switch numbers in the middle of the season, I went back and checked the game tape from his first appearance since returning from the DL on Saturday afternoon vs. the Mets.

As you can see, he was still sporting #51:

HOWEVER, if you head on over to the Phillies website and click on the ‘Roster’ tab, it clearly shows that Chooch is no longer wearing his usual number fifty-one:

Granted, that doesn’t really prove anything, and maybe it’s just a slip-up made by the folks who are running the site.  So I went over to the MLB Shop and selected a customized Carlos Ruiz jersey from the handy-dandy drop down menu they have.  This is the image that popped up:

Now, I’m almost positive that this type of number switching isn’t allowed in the NBA or NFL while the season is going on, but I haven’t been able to find any kind of rule about MLB players making the change. So I just thought I’d warn you in case you see Carlos trot onto the field tomorrow night with a brand new jersey number, at least you’ll know it’s not a mistake.

(Thanks to super-sleuthy reader Brian for the tip)

And no, this wasn’t during warm-ups. After our eventual hero, Chris Coste, came into the game as a pinch hitter in the eighth inning for Greg Dobbs (and proceeded to go 4-for-4 including the GW single), the Phillies were temporarily left third baseman-less. So the genius baseball mind inside Charlie Manuel’s skull informed ex-infielder Carlos Ruiz to go out and play the position:

And just like everything Charlie does, it wound up being the correct move. No balls were hit to Ruiz that inning (Beltran grounded out to Rollins followed by Delgado & Tatis K’s) so Eric Bruntlett was available to pinch-hit for Brad Lidge in the bottom half and stay in the game at 3rd. Eric B. (for President) then thwacked a double to right-center, allowing Jayson Werth to score from first and tie the game up at 7.

Once again, Charlie Manuel > Jerry Manuel.

Phillies backstop Carlos Ruiz is having a hard time getting on base this year. Since he registered an uncharacteristic four hits in the 20-2 beatdown of the Cardinals on June 13th, Chooch is batting an abysmal .087 with two hits and exactly zero RBI’s. To put that in perspective, Adam “effing” Eaton has just as many hits as Carlos does during that span.

So what can he do to change this?

Tweak his batting stance? Spend a few more hours in the batting cages each week? Watch some extra game film? Seek the advice of hitting coach Milt Thompson?

Well, the answer to all those questions is a resounding “NO.” As it turns out, Carlos is better off if he just stands motionless at the plate with his bat on his shoulders.

After the jump, check out the irrefutable proof…

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Phillies backstop Carlos Ruiz isn’t exactly what you would call “popular” or “marketable,” but that didn’t stop the fine folks at Lincoln to seek him out for voice-over work on their local radio spots. Every couple innings during the Phils broadcast on 1210 WPHT am, a fluent, personable Ruiz pops in and tries to persuade you to drive the car he drives — the 2008 Lincoln MKS MKX . Listen to the embedded audio below the pic.

Carlos Ruiz Lincoln MKX radio spot

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