Pedal to the Metal

He watched the Vitali Klitschko-Corrie Sanders fight on HBO the night before. "Ohh boy, blood everywhere."

Things are looking bad in Fallujah.

He has no idea why George Tenet still runs the CIA. "I think he must have some negatives somewhere," McCain says, meaning photo negatives.

McCain met with Tenet at Langley about a year ago. Seemed like a good guy, McCain says. Tenet made his case for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and it sounded compelling.

"But it was a little like a Chinese meal," McCain recalls. "An hour later I was hungry again."

The Sunday morning Straight Talk Express pulls in. McCain goes into the studio, and a producer replaces the fake background of downtown Phoenix with a fake one of bookshelves. The senator answers questions about Iraq, calls for more troops and is back home 20 minutes after the interview ends.

The McCains live in a large house with an emerald lawn, a swimming pool and guest house and a big gate with surveillance cameras at the entrance. Cindy Hensley McCain, whose father was a wealthy Budweiser distributor, grew up here. The home is filled with sprightly flower arrangements that Cindy received after her brain hemorrhage. "Look at these," McCain says, pointing to a vase the size of a water cooler in the front hall. "It's like she died or something."

A few hours later, McCain is driving his Lexus SUV to Bank One Ballpark, where the Arizona Diamondbacks will play the San Diego Padres. His cell phone blares to the tune of a harp concerto, and he jumps each time it rings. The ride to the ballpark is leisurely by McCain standards, with no mishaps except for when he rides up onto the curb in the parking lot.

McCain loves baseball. "I'd pay to see the Bedwetters play the Thumbsuckers," he says. He sits in the third row, in a box seat that belongs to Diamondbacks owner Jerry Colangelo. As in the car, McCain bears down on the action, fully engaged, if not in control. He leans forward with each pitch, gives free-associative commentary.

San Diego's Mark Loretta leads off, which reminds McCain of a joke that he heard on Leno. "Everyone in jail calls Robert Blake 'Baretta,' " McCain says. "Except for his roommate, who calls him 'Loretta.' "

McCain spent 51/2 years as a POW and is now sitting at a ballgame, spooning Heath bar ice cream into his mouth and belly-laughing at his joke. If any demons linger, they are perfectly hidden.

The Diamondbacks score four runs in the third inning. Outfielder Luis Gonzalez waves to McCain from the on-deck circle. "You see that, Luis-Luis waved to me," McCain says.

Between pitches, the following tidbits of McCainiana are gleaned:

• He would hate to live in Milwaukee.

• He has been unimpressed with Kerry's recent performances: "Kerry's gotta stop nuancing everything."

• John Edwards would have been a tougher nominee to beat.

"This is your pitch, Richie, c'mon, c'mon," McCain yells at Diamondbacks slugger Richie Sexson. Sexson is facing San Diego's Jason Szuminski, a rookie pitcher who attended MIT.

"NASA, here we come," McCain says after Sexson hits a towering home run. Szuminski leaves the mound after giving up five runs.