Build it and...

This is the worst of times and the best of times for my daughter. This week, work has taken her away from baby Leo, which is hard on both, to say the least. If my grandson had been with his mother yesterday, they could have beheld Fenway Park together. Clare went straight from airport to ballpark; check-in could wait. I got a video report in the early afternoon. “If you didn’t know about baseball, I don’t think you’d know there’s a ballpark,” marveled my other-Sox fan. She couldn’t get over how ballpark and neighborhood fit so cheek-by-jowl. “Now you know why your father gets cranky sometimes,” I said at one point in our conversation. “We used to have a ballpark just like that,” only different, with its own personality, one based on arches and a deep centerfield. I then told Clare to find someone who could take her picture, showing fan and ballpark. Tomorrow, she takes the train to New York City. “Be on the lookout for Citi Field and Yankee Stadium as you get close,” I advised. Then, she ends the week in Washington, which means a chance to catch a glimpse of Nationals Park. The stories Mom will have to tell her eight-month old when she gets back home. Green Monsters and Citgo signs, oh my.