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Baseball players take seven-hour, $682 Uber ride to game

Four baseball players on the Seattle Mariners' Triple-A team had to take an Uber from Phoenix to Albuquerque, N.M., to make a game Monday after their flight was canceled. The seven-hour ride cost $683.52. They haven't said how much they tipped the driver - but they did give him a five-star rating.

The Tacoma Rainiers players were relief pitcher Mark Lowe, infielder D.J. Peterson, first baseman Dan Vogelbach and pitcher Pat Light. Their plan was to avoid a 3 a.m. wakeup call for the team's flight, by booking one on their own. When that flight fell through, they had to figure out a plan B.

Of the four players, ESPN says, Lowe is the only one who could easily afford the car ride, as he played a decade in the bigs on contracts worth $16 million. The others have been minor-leaguers.

ESPN pointed out that last month Buffalo Bills defensive back Shareece Wright took a 550-mile, eight-hour Uber trip from O'Hare Airport in Chicago to the team's practice site in Orchard Park, N.Y., at a cost of $632 plus a $300 tip.

(Note to athletes: There are these places called rental-car counters. They are located at airports - such as O'Hare - and throughout major cities - such as Phoenix. If you give these places considerably less money than $683, they will let you drive off in a car. It works pretty neat.)

The Tacoma Rainiers lost Monday's game 6-5. Between them, Vogelbach and Peterson went 1-for-7 with an RBI. Lowe and Light did not take the mound. Tuesday, the Rainiers split a doubleheader with the Albuquerque Isotopes, losing the first game 5-3 and winning the second 9-3.

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