Meeting 'Pretty Ricky'

Sometimes fate chooses a reporter's subject for them...

Photos by Kyria Abrahams

I met Ricardo “Pretty Ricky” Torres, Jr. in the Bronx on the second day of the 2013 Emperor’s Stickball League Memorial Day Tournament, on Stickball Boulevard. He had just scorched a line-drive hit, good for two RBIs, and rounded home to score after another smash from a teammate.

I was with Marcus Enriquez, the boyfriend of Kyria Abrahams, who took photos for my piece "Love the Huddle," and we happened to be sitting close to the curb where Ricky parked himself after scoring. We silently looked up from our plates of hot-sauce covered chicken and rice as he entered our periphery, stumbling slightly and a bit winded from his sprint to home plate.

Seeing us, he smiled out of the side of his mouth.

“How you guys doin’?” he said.

As New Yorkers tend to do, we waited a beat before replying, gathering ourselves after the unprovoked nicety.

“Good,” we said.

“How are you?” I asked back.

“Good, too.”

In my initial pitch to Narratively, I had intended to profile two stickball play…