Memories of 9/11 tragedy still resonate throughout MLB

Pre-game moments of silence on anniversary remain important

The Blue Jays staged their moment of silence prior to the performance of the anthems at Wednesday’s matinee vs. the Mets at and, even though the terrorist attack that brought down the Twin Towers in New York City was 23-years ago, on Sept. 11, 2001, for many in attendance of a certain age, memories are sharp and emotions of sadness remain close to the surface. Similar to the Nov. 22, 1963 assassination of JFK and the Dec. 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, these are dates in history that will live in infamy and will continue to be remembered forever. Never forget.

To put the aging of this tragedy in perspective, the youngest player on the current Jays roster, Leo Jimenez was just four months old, while, fully, 40 players on the current roster were 10-years-old or younger when the planes hit.

For those that may be too young to remember, here are the details of the horrific terrorist attack. The morning included two hijacked airliners flying out of Boston’s Logan Aiurport, that crashed into and brought down the World Trade Center, plus a further attack of a plane that damaged the Pentagon in Washington D.C. and a fourth brought down in rural Pennsylvania, believed headed for the White House.

Major-league baseball was shut down for a week, resuming on Sept. 19. The scheduled games that had been postponed were added to the end of the year, Oct. 1-7, meaning that the World Series between the Yankees and Diamondbacks extended, for the first time ever, into the month of November.

A cathartic moment for major-league baseball, New York City and America came when President George W. Bush dramatically threw out the ceremonial first pitch before Game 3 at Yankee Stadium, striding to the mound with a Kevlar vest under his Yankee windbreaker, delivering a perfect strike.  

But almost everybody has a story about where they were and what the anniversary means to them.

Buck Martinez was in his first year as Blue Jays manager and his Jays had just played a series in Detroit, that ended on Sunday, Sept. 9. Buck had flown and spent the off-day with family in New Jersey and was driving with his wife, Arlene, down the coast to Baltimore to rejoin his team for a series vs. the Orioles. He heard the news on the radio on the drive down and when he arrived at the team hotel, the games had already been cancelled and his coaches were all gathered in his suite.

“It’s funny, (Jays ’01 pitching coach) Mark Connor always sends me and Garth (Iorg) a text every September 11 and he always says, ‘miss you guys’ and ‘a lot of memories together’,” Buck said. “I look forward to (receiving) it every year.”  

“We all kind of gathered and watched it on television in my room. Nobody said a word. We just sat there and watched. Couldn’t believe it. It hit all of us, but it hit Mark really hard, because he was from New York and had roots there with the Yankees. So, he was really affected. We had to stay there a couple of days, of course.

“Then there were thoughts that the World Trade Center in Baltimore, close to (the newly opened Marriott) where we were at the Inner Harbor, might be another target. That had everybody anxious. Our security guy, Ron Sandelli was there with us and we knew we were just stuck there. Obviously there were no planes flying. I think we took four busses back (to Toronto).”

John Schneider was already back at the University of Delaware for his senior year as a Blue Hen catcher, after a summer spent playing in the Cape Cod League. He had been drafted in June 2001 by the Tigers, rejecting their offer as a 24^th round selection. Instead, the 21-year-old youngster from Princeton, NJ, headed back to classes in the hopes of moving up in the 2002 draft.

“That was an awful day,” Schneider, the Blue Jays’ third-year manager began. “My brother was two blocks away from the towers. I remember I was going to class on Tuesday, couldn’t find a parking spot so just decided to shitcan class that day. Came home and my roommate was glued to the TV.

“I had uncles…my brother was right there. Cell phones were not working. You’re keeping in touch through instant messenger. Shitty day. I remember going to practice that afternoon. All flights were suspended and I heard fighter jets going over our field. It was not great, just because of where I grew up and had a lot of people affected.”

My personal story: I was home in Oakville, scheduled to fly to Baltimore for the Jays’ series. I had just dropped our two youngest, Shannon and Patrick, at St. Bernadette’s Catholic Elementary and drove home to prepare for the trip to what still is my favourite ballpark. I poured a coffee and glanced at the TV. The CNN report on screen was of an accident at the World Trade Center.

Speculation from the reporter was that a small private plane may have steered off course and flown into one of the towers. As the reporter spoke into the camera, in the background, over his right shoulder, a plane crashed into the other tower and, at that moment, the world as we knew it had ceased to exist.

My bosses at The Star sent out a special request to all employees not scheduled to work that day. There was a section being produced to be distributed that afternoon. It was all-hands-on-deck to help with writing, production and distribution. It was then that I self-discovered that I would never be one of those grizzled veteran reporters with the fedora whose goal in life is to get the story first, no matter what. Instead, I sat on the sofa without speaking and watched 15 straight hours of coverage.

There was one haunting memory. In the early ‘90s, when I was with the Expos, we had flown to New York to face the Mets. The charter landed at LaGuardia but the team busses were parked at Kennedy. So the plane took off for the 10-minute flight between NYC airports. The route took us across the island of Manhattan and I remember as we banked around the Twin Towers at just about the height of the buildings looking into the lighted offices on one of the upper floors, able to see what was on the desks and other details, wondering who might actually work there and marvelling at how close we were. In hindsight, that became a chilling personal memory.   

How much has the world changed in the aftermath of 9/11? Consider this story. My colleague at the Star, Geoff Baker, who is now a vice-president of the NHL’s Seattle Kraken, was in Baltimore ahead of the series. And, yes, The Star used to travel a reporter and columnist back in the day, as did the Toronto Sun. Yes, the World Trade Center had been hit, but when the further news came out of the simultaneous attack on the Pentagon, Baker, whose background was an award-winning news journalist at The Montreal Gazette, rented the last available car from Avis and drove the two hours to D.C. to try and cover the story at the important D.C. national defence facility.

Baker parked as close to the Pentagon as he could, given the number of police, fire and emergency vehicles already there. Geoff somehow worked his way to where the biggest crowd was and flashed his Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) card to the police … who waved him in.

That’s how much things have changed in the way the world works and will never, ever be the same. Let’s never forget the victims of 9/11 and their families and continue to think of them and honour their memory.