Associated Press
Pedro Martinez could become the second Dominican in the Hall of Fame.
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Rich Hofmann: Pedro Martinez? Dominicans still eat him up in New York
NEW YORK - At the corner of St. Nicholas Avenue and West 191st Street, the menu of El Nuevo Caridad restaurant features the Pedro Martinez special: pollo guisado, arroz, habichuelas, ensalada de aguacate and agua. That is, chicken stew, rice, beans, avocado salad and water. At lunch yesterday, it seems like the way to go. (The cerveza is an improvisation.)
The place is crowded but not out-the-door crowded. It is a Sunday lunch crowd, a lot of families. Here in Washington Heights, where the majority of the people are of Dominican descent, you can walk for blocks and blocks and not hear any English spoken. In the restaurant, there is a persistent Spanish buzz.
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."
A block down, near West 170th Street, is Peligro Sports. It is a storefront sporting-goods store, not a quarter of the size of the Modell's. There is one jersey hanging in the front window display, red and white pinstripes, back facing out:
MARTINEZ
45
Inside, a woman is using a long pole to bring a Martinez jersey down from an elevated rack for a customer, Juan Javier. He tries on the small, decides on the medium. He buys a Phillies hat, too. He says he is headed for Citi Field.
"I am the No. 1 fan de Pedro," he says, laughing. It is the only English he will speak during our conversation. You ask him why he buys it and he looks at you like you have asked why water is wet.
"He's Dominican - and I don't like the Mets," he says, a friend providing the translation.
But wasn't he better years ago? Isn't he just the fifth starter? Why now?
"Because he's Pedro," Javier says, rushing out to the game.
One of the store clerks, Freddy Pena, says they sold two Martinez jerseys in 2 hours.
"But that was a replica jersey," he says. "That's $85. We haven't sold too many of them before today. But we sold out of the authentic jerseys completely, about 20 of them. They're $160."
El Nuevo Caridad is a Dominican baseball kind of place, the walls full of pictures of players with the owner. There are a couple of Martinez. The menu features not just the Pedro Martinez special, but those of a couple dozen other players as well.
Martinez gets hit hard at times in the game playing on the televisions but hangs around for six innings. There is no cheering in the restaurant, no sighing, no vocal reaction. People just watch while he is pitching - some intently, some out of one eye, some with the sixth sense to look up when something is about to happen.
There is only one player from the Dominican Republic in the Baseball Hall of Fame, pitcher Juan Marichal. Martinez could very well be the next. It is why they still watch - out of habit, out of affection, out of pride.
"Everybody is a fan of Pedro here, everybody," says John Fernandez, of Washington Heights. "Right now, I would say that Manny is very popular. Pujols, too. But Pedro is, too. Everybody is excited to see Pedro back."
He is asked to find words in his second language to explain the feeling. He does not hesitate.
"He's a legend - Pedro is a legend," Fernandez says, and it is enough.
Send e-mail to hofmanr@phillynews.com, or read his blog, The Idle Rich, at http://go.philly.com/theidlerich.
For recent columns go to http://go.philly.com/hofmann.
