Travel Blog

I heard Frank McCourt speak at the Literaturhaus in Munich in 2006. He reminisced about his first visit to the city, as a U.S. serviceman in the years following the war. He said that there had been an absence of young German men and a large supply of young German women. He remembered the beer and the women.

A few years ago I read a piece he wrote about our national pastime. He said that he had never understood the game, or rather its fascination, until one day, during the World Series, when he looked up at the TV while sitting in a bar. The camera zoomed in on the pitcher's eyes as he stared toward home. It was then, he wrote, seeing that look of fierce, intense concentration, that he understood baseball.

Speaking of which, when Barack Obama leaves the White House, and Americans begin to assess his presidency, historians start to write their books, I hope it will be remembered (as the N.Y. Times Sports section reported yesterday) that before the All-Star game he visited the locker rooms of not just the players but also the umpires.