Unlike the Knicks, “New York’s Team” Takes the Subway to Work

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We already know that the New York Rangers’ center Sean Avery loves riding his bike. Now we learn that forward Brendan Shanahan and several other teammate take the subway to the office. From yesterday’s New York Times:

"Still, Shanahan, a 20-year veteran, said he liked the atmosphere in the Rangers’ half of the empire. He likes that they make their news almost exclusively on the ice. He likes that most of his teammates live in the city. He likes riding the subway from his home on the Upper West Side.

"’What other team does that?’ he said, smiling. ‘We’re New York’s team.’"

And what about that other team that plays at the Garden? Apparently, the Knicks’ parking skills are on par with their 6 and 15 record. Here’s a report from the employee parking lot:

"You see a lot of Rolls-Royces down there, big trucks with nice tires and rims on them," Rangers forward Ryan Hollweg said.

As forward Brendan Shanahan added: "The difference is, we’re in parking spaces and they just park anywhere. We actually park in the lines. They just pull up to the door and get out of the car."

Photo: musiquenonstop/Flickr

  • Harry Hood

    Too funny, even streetsblog has taken to Knicks bashing.

  • fast, furious and fatuous

    aggressively conspicuous driving (and parking) is typical class aspirant behavior. dudes need another way of showing everyone that they matter.

    when honchos like Mayor Bloomberg ditch their aggro black SUV motorcades and Derek Jeter and Spike Lee stop doing reckless car commercials, this might begin to change.

  • Fire Isiah!

  • Larry Littlefield

    I was wondering why the Mets feel the need to show prospective players around Greenwich CT, as has been reported. Yes I know Seaver always lived there. But lots of the 1980s Mets took the train.

  • Gargamel Tralfaz

    I am not a hockey fan at all, but geez if the Rangers keep having stories like these, I might just have to go see a few games!

  • Mitch

    Amazingly enough, it used to be normal for professional athletes to take the subway to the game.

    Even the Yankees did it. Last year, Morning Edition on NPR ran a “Story Corps” piece about a Bronx kid in 1943 who got the entire World Champion Yankees team to sign his baseball.

    His method was simple: he waited for players by the subway entrance, and hounded them until they would give him their autographs.

    Can you imagine anything like that today? How many players would ride the subway? How many would give their autograph for free to a kid on the street?

    The NPR piece is on their website.

  • Perhaps if the MTA made subway cars look like Cadillac Escalades.

  • hmph

    ah, after hitting one of the most famous homeruns in all of baseball, “the shot heard around the world,” bobby thompson took public transportation home, and this no doubt thrilled many fans and helped keep the air cleaner, etc.

    yes, time was when these guys actually lived in the city, the neighborhood and went to “work” like everyday joes. now all too many of them are complete jerks.

  • MD

    I remember reading a book about the ’69 Mets that mentioned a kid running into some of them on a train – the LIRR, I think.

  • Josh

    I love it. Just another way in which hockey players are the most down-to-earth of all professional athletes.

  • Mitch

    On the other hand, John Rocker seems to have ridden the No. 7 train at least once in his life.

    Evidently, though, he didn’t enjoy the experience.

  • Eric

    I saw Brendan Shanahan carrying his groceries home on Broadway this past summer. Nice to know that so he and so many of his teammates value city living.

    By the way, Sean Avery plays almost exclusively at left wing for the Rangers.

  • Larry Littlefield

    What do the subway riding hockey players have in common with the bicycle riding models profiled here earlier?

    They are not from the United States.

  • Tom Robbins

    Yeah, Marbury got kinda sick of taking the subways living in Coney Island.
    Most Knicks live near their practice facility in Westchester.
    Hey – become a hockey fan. MSG and the Devils’ new Newark facility are easily accessable by rail. It only takes 15 minutes between Newark Penn Station and the Penn Station under the circular arena named after a square.

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