NEW YORK -- Reports that a bus carrying Yankees players to Bob Sheppard's funeral Thursday got stuck in traffic due to a fatal accident on a Long Island highway are false, according to a team spokesman.
A column in Friday's Daily News took current and former players to task for not making an appearance at the funeral of the Yankees' legendary public address announcer. Team captain
Derek Jeter, who has insisted a tape recording of Sheppard introducing him be played before every one of his Yankee Stadium at-bats for the rest of his career, was the most conspicuous no-show. According to a team source, Jeter flew home to see his family in Tampa after the All-Star Game in Anaheim on Tuesday night. "I don't know why he didn't fly back to New York to attend the funeral," the source said.
"We didn't organize any bus for the players," Yankee publicist Jason Zillo told ESPNNewYork.com. "I don't know about any bus."
Asked if it would have been his responsibility to arrange for team transportation, Zillo said, "I would think so."
NY1 cited police as reporting a bus carrying Yankees players was delayed in a traffic jam caused by an auto accident on the Meadowbrook Parkway in which three people were killed. Other Yankees sources denied any knowledge of the report and confirmed to ESPNNewYork.com that there was no organized travel plan for players to attend the funeral. "Maybe the players got stuck in traffic in their cars, and then got on a bus to try and make it," said a source, who acknowledged, "That doesn't seem very believable."
Frank Bandiero, a spokesman for the New York State Police, agreed. "I happened to pass the accident site," he told ESPNNewYork.com. "I saw the procession pass by without any problems. There was no traffic whatsoever."
The only prominent Yankees employee to attend the service was GM Brian Cashman, who delivered a eulogy.
Wallace Matthews covers the Yankees for ESPNNewYork.com. Follow him on Twitter.