Getaway

The crowd gathered around Juan Carlos’s coffee cart started to break up around 7 a.m. They scattered through Highbridge and Mott Haven and a couple of guys headed across the 145th Street Bridge to their jobs in Harlem.

Javier grabbed a downtown 2 train.

“I’ve got a longer commute these days,” he explained. “I’m putting in drywall at a building on Nassau Street. It’s a pretty long ride, but it’s nothing compared to what the guys had to do after last night’s win in Oakland.”

Javier’s train was heading along Manhattan’s Westside about the time the Yankees were checking into their Houston hotel.

“We had a late game on the West Coast while everyone else got to play in the afternoon,” Javier said. “These other teams try to squeeze every dollar out of us because they can’t get their own fans to come out for a getaway afternoon game.”

Javier shook his head.

“I’m sick of my team always having to getaway in the middle of the night.”