Another Major League Baseball season will soon be upon us, which brings me to the Czech Republic. And the Holocaust. And Hollywood.
I’ll explain.
Sports are ubiquitous. They’re everywhere, and they create common ground to connect world travelers. This notion was affirmed during a European trip I once enjoyed with some academicians, “Following Freud’s Footsteps” from the Czech Republic to Austria to England. Folks from Pacifica Graduate Institute organized a wonderful two-week experience for those interested in Sigmund Freud, the famous founder of psychoanalysis.
Our first full day in Prague was impacted by the Prague Marathon, which, like the Boston Marathon, is a Hallmark Event. Traffic was redirected or shut down throughout the ancient city on Marathon Sunday. That didn’t stop Dr. Beth and me from a scheduled visit to the American Embassy. I’d messaged the Embassy that I was an influential American legislator (okay, I may have exaggerated the “influential” part a bit), and a meeting was set up. Our gracious host Ed Findlay (press attaché)briefed us on numerous topics. Sports came up when I pointed out that the NHL had many Czech players, including Boston Bruins like defenseman Zdeno Chara and high-scoring center David Krejci. Former B’s goalkeeper Jaroslav Halak was also a Czech expatriate.
(The Czech icemen lost to Canada in overtime at the recent Winter Olympics.)
The next day we thirty travelers boarded our bus for a sobering visit to the Nazi concentration camp at Terrazin—where three of Freud’s sisters disappeared. Before visiting the crematorium, we saw a Nazi propaganda film showing the happy Jewish “guests” enjoying futbal (soccer) games at the prison camp.
Later, when back on our bus, I conversed with a woman in the seat behind mine. Renee seemed particularly moved by our emotional visit to “Theresienstadt,” as the Nazis called it. Eventually, she shared that her husband was Jewish, born in 1943 in a concentration camp in the then-Soviet Union. He and his parents survived the war and soon marched westward with other refugees, eventually crossing the Alps into Italy—and to another squalid camp. They soon left Italy, traversed the Alps into France, and eventually reached Paris, where they won a refugee lottery to receive coveted green cards to America.
Viva legal immigration!
Renee’s husband was older—over 50—when they met 37 years ago, but they had four wonderful children together.
Tears streamed down Renee’s face when she spoke of her brave 100-year-old mother-in-law.
I was moved and contemplative after listening to Renee and thanked her for her trust and for sharing part of her life story with me.
Later, I learned that Renee was a Hollywood actress before marrying. I couldn’t resist googling “Renee Coleman” and saw that she indeed had an impressive list of Hollywood credits. But the one that really got my attention was her role in one of the greatest sports movies of all time: “A League of Their Own.” Also starring Tom Hanks, Gina Davis, Rosie O’Donnell, and Madonna, the film was inspired by real events and focused on the Rockford Peaches, a women’s baseball team that played in a small professional league during World War II.
Renee played Alice “Skeeter” Gaspers, #18, a baseball standout from Saskatchewan—of all places. (Renee herself is from Saskatchewan.)
As our tour took us from Prague to Vienna to London—following Freud’s footsteps—I resisted the temptation to press Renee on what it was like to work with Tom Hanks, Madonna, et al. I somehow thought it would diminish the powerful conversation we had after leaving Terrazin.
Still, I resolved to again watch “A League of Their Own” with new eyes and a fresh appreciation for that female baseball star from Saskatchewan, of all places. And I also realized—again—that sports are ubiquitous.
(The Red Sox open their 2026 season on April 3rd in Cincinnati. Garrett Crochet will be the Opening Day starting pitcher.)
