One if By Sea to Two New York Baseball Stadiums

The Mets and Yankees have continued to come up with ways that people can avoid driving to baseball games and here's another way: they can take a complimentary New York Water Taxi to either stadium (H/T Aimee via Sarah). The transport leaves from Pier 11 (at the end of Wall Street) and is a great alternative for businessmen and businesswomen who would rather not squeeze into a packed 4 train in business suit and sweat their way to 161st in the Bronx.

During the course of the season, the taxis will leave 90 minutes before game time and arrive at least 30 minutes before first pitch. There will be no return service.

The water taxis, adorned with the team and Delta logos, are equipped with air conditioning, a bar and satellite television, and can accommodate 147 passengers. Tickets will be available up to two hours before departure and can be found on the New York Water Taxi website or by going to Pier 11.

Now, before we celebrate, there are some drawbacks here:

One, the boat only takes you there and not back. So if you actually want to leave the Bronx after the game, you're still going to have to get into a car, train or subway. Two, there's only 147 seats on the boat and it's first-come, first-serve so it's not going to accommodate a large amount of people. Lastly, as the New York Times points out, this type of service isn't new; New York Waterway (New York Water Taxi's rival) has been doing this since 1996 and has four more pick-up locations in addition to Pier 11 (West 38th, Weehawken, Hoboken, and East 34th)--and they have return service. But New York Waterway charges $22 for their service while New York Water Taxi is free, so there is some give and take.

The New York Daily News writes that Bernie Williams and Jeff Francoeur helped to "christen" the first day of the free taxi service and had some adventures with breaking champagne bottles. I doubt I'll end up using this service since going down to Wall Street to go up to the Bronx makes zero sense for me, but this is a great option for people who work down on Wall Street and then can head home via train or subway after the game. And like the Metro-North station at Yankee Stadium which was opened last year (although some were less than impressed), this just provides another option for fans to get to the Stadiums in New York. And more options are always good for those trying to go out to see the New York baseball teams. 

Pictures from the New York Times