Getting to Yankee Stadium by subway isn’t that difficult. Three trains service the stadium at 161st street in the Bronx, plus there’s a commuter railroad that stops at 153rd. It’s pretty straightforward. But while the Yankees have a promising young core, their rookies’ sense of direction could use some work. They’ve had some trouble navigating their way to the office.
Ready for his first day in the pros in July, Triple-A call-up Tyler Wade tried to take the D train from his hotel in midtown Manhattan to the stadium. Wade, who’s from a small city in California, couldn’t even find his way out of Manhattan on his own. From ESPN’s Andrew Marchand:
Wade exited at 155th Street, thinking he was just blocks away. But there was one issue — he was still in Manhattan.
“I get out and I see two cops and I’m like, ‘The Bronx doesn’t have big buildings,'” Wade said. “I ask these two cops, ‘Where is Yankee Stadium?’ One of them was like, ‘Dude, you are in Manhattan.'”
It’s stressful enough starting a new job. It’s even worse when you can’t find your way to work.
Some of Wade’s fellow rookies have also faced a learning curve. While Wade got on the right train but simply got off one stop early, rookie pitcher Jordan Montgomery took the wrong train entirely:
“I was walking around and was like, ‘What’s going on?'” Montgomery said. “I didn’t realize how far away I was, so I was walking around a little bit and then I got a taxi. I really had to lock in after that.”
Rookie pitcher Caleb Smith had it even worse. He never made it onto a train at all:
Smith tried to take the subway when he first got called up. The Texan waited for 30 minutes on the platform before asking someone, “Is this the right way to get to Yankee Stadium?” The guy told him, no, he needed to go to the other side. So he crossed over to the opposite track — where he was told, again, he was in the wrong place.
“I did it four times,” Smith said. “I was finally like, ‘I’m just going to get an Uber.'”
Even with his unglamorous rookie salary, Wade has opted for Uber now. That’s probably for the best.
