At 1 o'clock, all of the televisions are suddenly tuned to Channel 11. A couple walk in, a guy in jeans and a girl in a short white dress. They sit at a table over to one side. More people come in; friends. They decide to form a bigger table. The original couple gesture to an empty adjacent table but the one guy shakes his head.
"Pedro," he says, pointing at the television screens that they cannot quite see.
A nod. They move to a better vantage point.
There is a Modell's on West 181st Street. You walk in, looking for the jersey. Besides the Mets and Yankees, the jerseys of many players from the Dominican Republic are for sale on their own individual racks: Albert Pujols, Manny Ramirez, Hanley Ramirez, Alfonso Soriano, Miguel Cabrera.
There is no Pedro Martinez jersey. There is, however, a Michael Vick Eagles T-shirt.
Walking, wandering on a steamy Sunday morning, commerce is actively being conducted, both regulated and unregulated. One guy is selling phone chargers that look 10 years old, their wires all tangled, and a television that looks like it belonged to my grandmother. On the same block, you can buy a leather couch displayed on the sidewalk for $399 and a coconut for $3.
Over on Amsterdam Avenue, two guys are playing checkers and a handful more are hovering over the board. Gabriel Rosario, of Washington Heights, is one of them.
"Pedro is still very popular in this neighborhood," Rosario says. "I would say it goes like this: first David Ortiz, then Manny Ramirez, then Pedro. Around here, it's the Yankees or Boston - the rest, forget it. The Mets, a little. I like the Mets, but I hope Pedro beats them today."
