Posted on 09/17/2001 9:54:15 PM PDT by kattracks
Baseball was awash in red, white and blue Monday night as games resumed and flag-waving fans returned, ready to pick up where they left off when cheering came easier.
From Montreal to St. Louis, the crack of the bat was a welcome sound in a setting that offered decidedly different snapshots than it did before the terrorist attacks on America:
- Mets players wearing caps with inscriptions now familiar to millions all over the world: NYPD and FDNY.
- Hundreds of St. Louis' finest marching out to honor fallen officers in New York.
- "USA! USA!" chants, a video tribute and free-flowing tears at Veterans Stadium.
Amid heightened security, six games were scheduled, all in the National League. Players wore the stars and stripes on their uniforms and caps, while "God Bless America" was swapped for "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" during the seventh-inning stretch. Flags were emblazoned on bases.
"The country is looking over our shoulder," Philadelphia outfielder Doug Glanville said. "You have to go on with your life. Baseball is a fabric of this country. It can be a process of turning things around."
Baseball postponed games just hours after the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon on Tuesday. In all, 91 games were called off, the most since World War I.
It took only three batters for Phillies fans to get back in form: They booed after Atlanta's Chipper Jones hit a home run.
At many ballparks, teams handed out small U.S. flags. At PNC Park in Pittsburgh, the Pirates gave away thousands of "I Love New York" buttons. Fans gave too, contributing about $100,000 for the New York police and fire rescue fund.
"We thought it was only fitting to come to the ballgame, we thought it was a fitting way to pay our respects to the people back in New York," said Fred Berrios of Gibsonia, Pa.
The Mets' game at Pittsburgh, originally to be played at New York, was shifted because Shea Stadium is still being used as a staging area for the rescue effort.
"It's hard, but we have a job to do," Mets pitcher John Franco said. "I don't know if it feels right, but we've got to get on with our lives. We're playing a game while people are being dug out and it's sad, but it's our job and we have to make the best of it."
A crowd of up to 40,000 turned out in Philadelphia for the National League East showdown against the Braves. Crowd sizes in St. Louis, Los Angeles, Colorado and Pittsburgh did not appear diminished.
The crowd at Olympic Stadium in Montreal observed a moment of silence and watched images of the rescue effort in New York. Fans cheered as the color guard walked off the field to John Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance."
Isabelle Lepage, 18, of Montreal brought an American flag.
"I bought it in New York in 1997 in a shop near the World Trade Center," she said. "I wanted to show our solidarity with the United States."
I don't know about anybody else, but my impression, given the limited amount I elected to see, was that nobody wanted to be playing, watching or announcing a ball game.
ESPN is just going thru the motions.
I read last week of a 30+ year old female who had been in the fashion industry for her entire adult life......she loved to create colors, patterns, etc. for shoes and purses.
After this past Tuesday, she says she now feels ashamed to have spent her life doing something so trivial and meaningless.
BARF! A message to our friends in Montreal. We gave peace a chance. We have bent over backwards to provide stability in the Middle East to the point that Bill Clinton almost had Isreal sell itself down the river to Yassser Arfat. He did this so he could win the Noble Peace prize and for his stained legacy.
Yes we have given peace a chance. In 1979, the Iranians kidnappend Amercians. In 1983. a few hundred US Marines were killed by thug terrorists in Beruit. We gave peace a chance. In 1990-91, we sent our young men and women to desert to perserve the free flow of oil at market prices and throw another thug out a small country he invaded. We gave peace a chance. In 1993 these thugs bombed the World Trade Center. We gave peace a Chance. In mid to late 90's these thugs bombed buildings with Americans in them in Saudi Arabia, and Keyna. We gave peace a chance. And in 2000 these thugs bombed the USS Cole in yemen killing several US Sailors. We gave peace a chance.
To our Candiain aneighbors, the French, the Italians , and the Germans and the rest of the pacifist in other socialist European countries that are supposed to be part of NATO. I might through the constitutes of one Barbara Lee from ,Berkeley California in here. I as a 29 year old American with two small boys, a wife, and a dog is sick and tired of "Giving Peace a Chance." I saw several thousands om my countrymen die on national TV on Tuesday. I saw the nerve center of our finacial and military infrasturcure get ripped to shreads. I saw a President that had a broken heart. If this happended in your country , would you be sitting on your thumbs wondering what to do next? I am sick and tired of you all wanting the USA to do everything for you like fight a war in Serbia in your own backyard. But it's time for you'll to step up and pitch and you balk like a sorry A-- pitcher. I am sick of Eurotrash and pacifists. This attack did not happend in my backyard in happen in my living room. Thanks for letting me vent. Now I can get some sleep.
They were asking for my autograph.....it should have been me, asking for theirs.....they are the heroes
So just how long do we stayed glued to the tv? Do we never attend sporting events again? I watched lhe last part of the St Louis/Brewers game. Was a large crowd at St. Louis. I'm planning on going to my teams first home game next week.
As for the lady in the fashion industry, she spent her life doing something that probably gave many people pleasure and will continue to do so. How is that meaningless? Sounds to me like she's accepted defeat. Just what the terrorists want us to do.
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