Nationals notebook

By TODD JACOBSON

Date published: 9/27/2006

By TODD JACOBSON

WASHINGTON--No Nationals players were hurt when the team's chartered Amtrak train derailed early Monday morning returning from New York, and the only inconvenience was an excessively late night.

Amtrak spokeswoman Tracy Connell said the rear wheel of the locomotive pulling three cars filled with approximately 50 Nationals players, coaches and officials lost contact with the track at approximately 1:30 a.m. north of Wilmington, Del.

Connell said the cause of the derailment was still being investigated.

She said the train was traveling approximately 30 mph and the cars remained upright after the derailment, but Nationals manager Frank Robinson called the incident "hair-raising."

"It was like two big bumps and then we slowed down to a stop real quick," Nationals third base coach Tony Beasley said. "It's a good thing we weren't going any faster."

Beasley was sitting with Robinson and many of the team's coaches in the car immediately following the locomotive.

Most of the team's players were in the final two cars and didn't notice the derailment. Mark Lerner, the Nationals' principal owner, and his wife, Judy, were also with the team.

Catcher Brian Schneider was playing cards with several of his teammates when the train car began to vibrate, the lights went off and the locomotive came to a quick stop.

"Obviously if we had been going faster it would've been bad, real bad," Schneider said. "Fortunately we weren't going that fast."

As it was, the only inconvenience to the team was a late night, and the incident hasn't caused the Nationals to rethink their preferred method of travel to New York and Philadelphia.

"I love the train," Schneider said.

After boarding the Acela train, the team arrived at Union Station shortly before 5 a.m. Many of the team's players didn't reach their homes until 6 a.m.

The Nationals canceled batting practice before yesterday's game against the Philadelphia Phillies and many of the team's players straggled in less than two hours before the game.

"It was just like being delayed at an airport or something like that," third baseman Ryan Zimmerman said. "You just had to sit there. It wasn't scary."

Date published: 9/27/2006