Baseball

I.In 1978, my daily commute on the D trainfrom the not-quite-South Bronx of 170th Streetto the not-yet-Upper West Side of 96th, found me surrounded by men andwomen in suits with blue collars.I woke up 90 minutes earlierthan my friends and would oftenfall asleep on a stranger’s shoulder,startle awake, embarrassedbut unmolested.Contrary to popular belief,I felt safer on the subwaythan on the walk home,or the walk from school,where my legs grew strongerthanks to the ever-shifting boundariesthat defined my block,and my mother’s ever-changingdefinition of home.The elementary school in Manhattanwas better than the one in our neighborhood,where years later Taft High School would bethe…