NEW YORK — The tinted glass, the out-of-state plates, the exotic badges on the hoods, these were all dead giveaways for the fans, who jostled for position by an unmarked ramp that leads out of Yankee Stadium. They gathered here to snap selfies with the players, who rolled by in their pretty cars before speeding away down a street that was blocked off just for them. No one noticed the harried-looking man up the block, walking toward the stairs to the 4 train, where he will sit undisturbed.



In fact, Larry Rothschild waited on the subway platform, wedged onto a crowded bench near the closing doors, jaunted up the steps onto Lexington Avenue, then jaywalked while running an errand near his place on the Upper East Side, all without hassle. He wore khaki shorts, a plain blue-green pullover, and brown-rimmed glasses, framing a face that is perpetually neither smiling nor frowning, like the emoji with a straight line for a mouth. Rothschild has long been one of the most...