Today... But With Baseball: 28 Days Out

Welcome back to volume 9 of today with baseball. For those who are unfamiliar with what the phrase means. Check out the intro blog here.

Today’s Moment? The aftermath of baseball following 9-11

Unfortunately for way too many Americans, September 11th, 2001 is a date that will live in infamy till the end of time. Depending on your age, you most likely remember everything that happened that day. the breezy beautiful fall weather, the traffic to work and what they said to their husbands or wives as they left for work.

Although I was only 7 and had almost no grasp on what was happening at the moment, I still remember the teachers and adults at school with a scare wide-eyed look on their face as they quickly tried to stay calm to make sure us children didn’t get out of hand.

Growing up as the son of a police officer in a big city, I was always aware that what my dad did could quickly turn very dangerous and unforgiving. Since I was only in 1st grade, I didn’t know what terrorism even was, but I did know that was used to create such terror was airplanes and my dad spent the last part of his career at the Philadelphia airport unit, so that made me very worried.

The day to day norms for many people all across the states was put on hold. The stock market was closed for several days. Planes were grounded for I think a week. One other norm that was also postponed was baseball. Since the whole ordeal of 9-11 happened early in the morning, commissioner Bud Selig quickly postponed all games until further notice. The ultimate decision was to resume play 6 days later on the next Monday and adding on an extra week to the season.

I know I am biased toward baseball, but you don’t realize how comforting those daily distractions are until they are taken away from you. I don’t remember baseball not being played back in 2001. But I do remember it coming back. I remember seeing the images of Sammy Sosa galloping across the outfield in Wrigley with an American flag raised high up in the air, Pizza’s game winning homerun against the braves just a couple of miles away from ground zero. It was a surreal feeling that helped bring the country together and help get back to normal, as impossible that seemed at the time.