How Should the Sports World Handle Sept. 11, One Year Later?
August 25, 2002

Courtesy of On The Wall
Story by: James Bisson

Not a single person from our generation, or the one directly preceding us, will ever forget September 11, 2001. Nor will we ever stop mourning.
And it’s just as well, because if 9/11 taught us anything, it’s that the Western world needs to recognize its vulnerability, although some would argue that it’s something we should have been aware of long before terrorists plunged aircraft into cherished American landmarks.

Another thing the events of Sept. 11 showed the public was that sport, by and large, is insignificant in the course of life. Major league baseball shut down for an entire week following the attacks; ditto the NFL, which rescheduled Week 3 of its 2001 season to allow sufficient time for the North American public to grieve.

By and large, the sporting world treated the days immediately following 9/11 with the utmost care and caution. Nobody knew what the right amount of time off was, but when it was time to resume play, fans returned; some reluctantly, some emphatically. It was time to begin the healing process.
It seemed almost fitting that the New York Yankees returned to the World Series last year, ‘America’s

Team’ losing out by the slimmest of margins to the Arizona Diamondbacks. But the two teams combined to put on one of the more memorable World Series of our time, and giving baseball fans one more reason to believe in sport again.

Super Bowl XXXVI was won by the New England Patriots, an almost eerie coincidence when you consider the rampant patriotism that emanated from every corner of the continent for months following 9/11.

And the half-time show, featuring a terrific performance from U2 and a moving tribute to the victims of the attacks, gave fans tingles.

We remembered the dead, and we moved on. And the world of sports helped us do that. Now, the first anniversary of the tragedy approaches, and the thought on many people’s minds is, “How will sports handle the first anniversary of September 11?”

The NFL has far less to worry about in this regard; since September 11 falls on a Wednesday this year, the league will not have to concern itself with any sort of tributes prior to the games. The league may decide to have something more low-key on the 15th, but its impact would likely be far less.

Major League Baseball, however, is in a different situation altogether.

Commissioner Bud Selig and the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) have done many things over the last 10 years to alienate fans who have loved the game for decades. But the scenario that MLB faces now may be the final straw for angry baseball supporters.

MLB has a full slate of games set for September 11. Heck, the New York Mets and Atlanta Braves are scheduled to play a doubleheader at Turner Field in Atlanta. 16 games scheduled, on a day when many people will be disinterested in sports altogether.

For all the mourning the public did in 2001, is it too much to ask for a Wednesday with no games scheduled? Sure, pennant races heat up as September draws longer, and baseball interest reaches its peak as the playoffs approach. But Wednesday is infrequently used as a travel day for some teams; why not schedule a day off across the board out of respect?

Thankfully, the Yankees will be playing at home, allowing MLB at least some sort of local-impact tribute. If baseball’s show must go on, then it needs to do it right. Every park should take the steps necessary to show respect to those who died. There’s no other way to do it.

What’s worse about MLB’s situation is the labour dispute taking place between MLB’s owners and the MLBPA. Though no strike date has been officially set, players are talking about walking off the job as early as mid-September. If this is the taste players and owners want to leave in the mouths of fans, then baseball could be headed for a catastrophic fall.

The fact that players would even consider striking while the memories of 9/11 would still be fresh in the minds of North Americans is disturbing. The worst part of all is the realization that a mid-September strike would effectively result in the cancellation of the World Series for the second time in eight years. If that were to happen, baseball would lose more fans than it could afford to part with.