Back to Baseball After the Horrific Tragedy of 9/11

Hard to believe it has been 23 years since that horrible day when the world changed forever, and then in its small way baseball helped the country to begin the healing process. I hope you enjoy the remembrance this morning. Also, a programming note, with the late starting times this week in Seattle, I’m only going to do one newsletter for this series which will come out Friday morning.

In a dizzying span of about a half hour, in the normally friendly skies above on an otherwise beautiful late summer morning in the Northeast, four planes were hijacked by the most evil of human beings, a sub-human species, really, and our world changed forever.

Three of them crashed into iconic symbols of American might and thousands of our citizens died at the Twin Towers in lower Manhattan, and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and several hundred more perished in a rural field in western Pennsylvania, and the nation was thrown into a paralyzing coma.

It was America’s Darkest Day, eclipsing the horror of the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941, and obviously, the baseball season came to a halt as commissioner Bud Selig canceled nearly a week’s worth of games.

It was the first time since Sept. 6, 1944, the day the U.S. stormed the beaches at Normandy in the D-Day invasion, that an entire slate of baseball games had been postponed.

“We’re in unchartered waters,” Selig said in Milwaukee where the baseball owners were scheduled to have a quarterly meeting, which also was postponed. “Life unfortunately got put in proper perspective today. In the interest of security and out of a sense of deep mourning for the national tragedy that has occurred today, all Major League Baseball games for today have been canceled. I will continue to monitor the situation on a daily basis and make ongoing decisions accordingly. My deepest sympathy and prayers go out to the families and victims of this horrendous series of events.”

After six days of inactivity while the country mourned and tried to get back to a semblance of normalcy even as the crash sites were still smoldering, the season resumed with six games on Monday, Sept. 17.

And while the Mets’ visit to Pittsburgh certainly didn’t mean much in terms of the pennant races as both teams were out of the playoff picture, given the city name printed on the front of the Mets’ road gray uniforms, this was the game with by far the most juice.

Playing for a wounded city – where the spectacular World Trade Center site had been reduced to hard to fathom rubble and catastrophic loss of life – the Mets pulled off a ninth-inning rally by scoring three times to break a 1-1 tie and beat the Pirates 4-1.

“Hopefully, we made a lot of people happy watching in New York,” said Mets manager Bobby Valentine, whose team scrapped its regular caps for those emblazoned with NYPD, the New York City Fire Department, and EMS for its pre-game workout and during the ceremony conducted by the Pirates to honor those who lost their lives.

The announced crowd was 25,902, but in reality there were only about 10,000 fans at PNC Park and the atmosphere was predictably subdued. Part of that, of course, was because no one was really in the mood for baseball with the tragedy still at the forefront of everyone’s minds. Also, the Pirates were just playing out the string as the loss dropped them 34 games below .500 and Pittsburgh sports fans had already turned their attention to the NFL’s Steelers.

Many of those who showed up wore “I Love New York” buttons that were distributed as they entered the ballpark, and many of those same people had tears in their eyes as a moment of silence was observed. They also donated nearly $100,000 to the rescue fund that had been set up for the families of the lost policemen and firemen.

For the Mets, it was a somewhat remarkable show of strength to be able to come back and win the game. They had been in Pittsburgh a week earlier, ready to start a three-game series, when the terrorist attacks unfolded. Once the games were postponed, they bused back to New York and for the rest of the week they volunteered their time to help in the relief effort.

Shea Stadium was established as a drop-off location for donated items which were then boxed up and delivered to the city’s firehouses for those enduring the horrible task of searching for survivors at Ground Zero. Mets players and coaches were out in the parking lot doing their part after their daily workout inside the ballpark was complete.

When play resumed, the Mets were supposed to be hosting the Pirates at Shea but that wasn’t possible yet, so they bused back to Pittsburgh to make up the previous week’s series and it was clear that playing baseball wasn’t easy on this night.

“I wandered more today than I ever have,” Mets third baseman Robin Ventura said. “I honestly made plays at third base and I can’t remember who hit them. I thought about the hospital visits, the firemen at Shea you talked to during workouts. There’s just quick clips of images of people that go through. It’s not as easy as it seems to go out there and just block it out.”

Playing a central role in the victory were a pair of native New Yorkers – starting pitcher Al Leiter and reliever John Franco.

“I was just warming up and it was emotional for me. It was a proud moment for me,” Leiter said. “I live in Manhattan and I’ve seen what happened. We experienced it, our families are there, and we’ve seen it day to day. I think a lot of people are just like zombies.”

Leiter pitched seven innings and gave up the Pirates only run on four hits and three walks. Franco pitched a 1-2-3 eighth, and Rey Sanchez hit the go-ahead RBI single in the ninth. Mark Johnson tacked on an insurance two-run double and Armando Benitez finished it off and earned the save.

“It’s been on my mind and I know it’s been on his (Leiter’s) mind,” Franco said of pitching for the first time since the tragedy. “For him to go out and pitch as well as he did, and for me to go out and get the win, special for both of us. We were playing for the whole city of New York.”

Johnson, who had played college ball at Fordham University, cried after the game and he said he couldn’t imagine how difficult it must have been for Leiter and Franco, two players with deep connections to the city.

“You could see it in Johnny’s eyes, you can see how drained Al is,” Johnson said “He pitched great and Johnny is so close to those guys (the rescue workers), you can see how much it meant to him. I gave everything I could. I just wanted to do my part. I wanted to do something for New York tonight.”

The next night, having seen the Mets make their emotional return to the field, the Yankees took center stage when they played their first game since 9/11 at Comiskey Park where they hammered the White Sox 11-3.

And if ever there was an indication that nothing was back to normal, not even close as a matter of fact, the team that everyone who isn’t a Yankee fan loves to hate was treated with grace and reverence by the usually leather-lunged sports fans of Chicago. One sign read “Chicago Loves NY” and another read “New York City, Chicago Weeps With You.”

“We went out there and it felt kind of weird in the beginning, but it felt really good to go out there and start playing,” Yankees center fielder Bernie Williams said. “I’ve never seen White Sox fans rooting for us.”

Derek Jeter, who along with many of his teammates visited families of victims at the New York Armory, said, “I’ve had people tell me that they don’t really like the Yankees, but they want us to win for the people of New York. The city needs something to cheer about.”

Before the start of the game, Chicago firefighters and policemen marched onto the field to honor their fallen New York City brethren, doing so as the crowd of 22,785 gave their own city’s heroes a standing ovation.

They were soon joined by both teams who lined up on the baselines. Like the Mets the night before in Pittsburgh, the Yankees had planned to wear caps honoring both the NYPD and FDNY as they stood at attention for the presenting of the colors, the national anthem, a moment of silence and then God Bless America. However, they somehow didn’t have enough for the entire team, so rather than leave out a handful of players, they wore their regular caps.

“We found out we were five or six hats short,” Yankees manager Joe Torre said. “We didn’t want some guys to be out there without the hats, so we’ll do it when we get home.”

Fireworks exploded at the end of the ceremony and then it was time for the first pitch, one the Yankees eagerly awaited.

“Seeing the firemen and policemen, they are people we take for granted all the time,” Torre said. “It was very emotional. I had to come in and throw some water on my face. One thing I did feel good about is there didn’t seem to be any hesitation or any question that we were ready to play baseball.”

He was right. The Yankees immediately jumped on White Sox starter Mark Buehrle as Chuck Knoblauch and Jeter opened with singles and after Williams forced Knoblauch, Tino Martinez hit an RBI single and Jorge Posada produced a run-scoring groundout for a 2-0 lead.

While Orlando Hernandez was mowing down the White Sox, ultimately pitching seven innings of two-hit shutout ball, the Yankees poured it on with a six-run seventh inning as Alfonso Soriano and Shane Spencer hit solo homers and Posada hit a grand slam to put the game out of reach.

“It’s kind of difficult, but as you know it’s our job to go out and give the public some degree of happiness because they’ve suffered so much over the past couple of days,” Hernandez said.

When it was over, and the Yankees’ magic number for clinching the AL East was down to seven, Torre focused on the broader picture of where baseball, and the country, was.

“I think everybody was ready to move on,” he said. “Baseball is what we do, it’s our form of entertainment. It’s our form or relief. I told the players we’re not here to save civilization, we’re here to do our part and maybe we can subtract from the grief.”

• Sept. 17, 1956: At Comiskey Park in Chicago, Mickey Mantle hit a game-winning home run in the 11th inning to become the first Yankee to hit 50 home runs in a single season since Babe Ruth in 1928. With their 3-2 win over the White Sox, the Yankees clinched the American League pennant for the 22nd time in franchise history, and Mantle would go on to hit for the Triple Crown and win the AL MVP award.

• Sept. 19, 1976: Holding the Brewers to just one run on five hits in a rain-shortened game in Milwaukee, Catfish Hunter recorded his 200th career victory. Having turned 30 that April, Hunter became the youngest pitcher to reach that milestone since Walter Johnson did it when he was 27.