Yankee Captain Derek Jeter told WCBS no one was going to feel sorry for either team, and then said something very much like, "Maybe we'll be able to get some rest on the train ride home."

So far early Monday, I've seen no headlines about "Yankees take the train home" or anything close, and Amtrak has yet to comment. If that changes during the course of the day, I'll amend this blog accordingly and indicate such. Until then, it's a case of "no news is good news"—a case I realize I'm ruining right here when the ordinary is painted as extraordinary.

Sure, Major League Baseball teams have taken the train now and again in recent times, and often it's been news with a capital "n" when they do—more a media event than a rational choice of utility. At times, other teams in the Northeast and Midwest have been reported to be on the train, the very novelty of it covered ferociously by diligent reporters. In all fairness, it has been fairly novel, and often steeped deeply in nostalgia; either the team players voted to do it and the schedule allowed it, or else bus or air options temporarily were unavailable. So it was news. Because it was still "odd."

During the 2009 World Series, it was "news" that the Philadelphia Phillies and the Yankees (and baseball fans) used Amtrak to get to and from Citizens Bank Park and Yankee Stadium. That made me happy, as a rail advocate and as a baseball fan, but the fact that such an option was newsworthy also showed how far U.S. passenger rail has to go before it's accepted as an everyday option.

Jeter's comments Sunday came much closer to that desired normality; trains weren't the focus of his comments; the team's fatigue was. Trains just fit into the post-series equation.

So the Yankees came home by train, and are set to host the Atlanta Braves in the Bronx for a three-game set. I don't expect the Braves to take the Crescent into New York, but Atlanta's next series is with the Boston Red Sox in Boston. One never knows.