Ticket Plan

Rodrigo hates getting up early on Saturday mornings because he works late delivering pizzas on Friday nights. But he is saving for baseball tickets and a guy over at Twin Donuts gave him a tip about a job in Red Hook.

So he dragged out of bed and down five flights of stairs to Jerome Avenue. He cut up East 164th Street and then walked along River Avenue passed the construction of the new Yankee Stadium and down the stairs to the subway near the centerfield bleachers of the old Yankee Stadium.

The D train took him to the Broadway-Lafayette Street station where he switched to the F train that dropped him at Smith and 9th Streets in Brooklyn.

He walked by the baseball fields where he used to play in a summer league on Sunday afternoons. A smile inched across his face as he remembered the little stand that sold guacamole tacos in the park.

“I could eat four or five of them after a game,” he said. “I wish I had one right now.”

He settled for a stale donut that he ate on his way to the Van Brunt Street warehouse.

“Are you here to work?” barked a man near the door.

Rodrigo shook his head and downed the last of the donut.

Nine hours later he was sore from unloading huge wooden crates, but he had 50 dollars for the coffee can in the back of his cupboard.

“I gotta keep saving,” he explained. “The Yankees raised the ticket prices and they’ll probably do the same again next year.”

He is headed straight to his pizza delivery job.

“I hope it’s busy tonight,” he said. “I’ll fall asleep if I sit down.”

Rodrigo hates getting up early on Sunday mornings, too. But he heard about some work up in East Tremont.

“I’m not sure what it pays,” he said. “But every extra dollar counts these days.”