Sports Americana

On September 10, 2001, sports felt like sports.

Barry Bonds was chasing Mark McGwire’s home run record. The Yankees were headed toward another October run. The NFL season was just getting started. College football was in full swing.

Then came September 11.

And suddenly, none of it seemed to matter.

The sports world didn’t simply react to the attacks. It essentially stopped.

Major League Baseball postponed every game from September 11 through September 16. It was the first time since World War I that baseball had postponed several consecutive days of games. The NFL postponed its entire Week 2 schedule, including 14 Sunday games and Monday Night Football. College football games were postponed or canceled across the country. The PGA Tour canceled its tournament in St. Louis, while NASCAR postponed the New Hampshire 300.

For athletes, the feeling was much the same as it was for everyone else.

Baseball players were stranded in cities around the country as air travel was shut down. The New York Mets were in Pittsburgh. The Yankees were away from New York. Players who normally worried about batting averages, injuries and playoff races were suddenly worrying about their families.

Mets catcher Mike Piazza summed up the feeling: “The realm of baseball is very insignificant right now.”

Steelers running back Jerome Bettis wondered whether people even wanted sports at that moment.

“The country is in mourning, and we are the country’s entertainment.”

That was the strange thing about September 2001.

Sports had always been an escape.

But for a few days, nobody wanted to escape.

They wanted to watch the news.

They wanted to find family members.

They wanted to know if friends were safe.

They wanted to help.

Then Sports Came Back

Eventually, though, sports did something sports have always done.

They came back.

Major League Baseball returned on September 17.

The games were different.

There were enormous American flags. Firefighters and police officers were honored. Players wore patriotic caps and uniforms. The national anthem suddenly carried a weight it hadn’t carried before.

At Dodger Stadium, police and firefighters helped unfurl a massive American flag across the field. In Pittsburgh, Air Force reservists sang the anthem. Across baseball, the return of the game became something bigger than baseball.

And nowhere was that more evident than in New York.

Shea Stadium had become a collection point for donations and supplies for rescue workers. Mets players helped load trucks and visited Ground Zero. Baseball players weren’t just returning to their jobs. They were trying to help their city.

When the Yankees eventually returned to Yankee Stadium, baseball wasn’t providing an escape from what had happened.

It was providing a place for people to gather.

For a few hours, people could stand together, sing together and remember together.

The Games Suddenly Meant Something Different

The first weeks after 9/11 created one of the most unusual periods in American sports history.

A baseball game could be important without being important.

A football game could feel meaningless and meaningful at the exact same time.

Nobody had forgotten what happened.

But slowly, the familiar things began to return.

The crack of a bat.

The roar of a crowd.

The national anthem.

The scoreboard.

The arguments over referees.

The joy of winning.

The misery of losing.

Sports didn’t fix anything.

They weren’t supposed to.

But they gave people somewhere to go.

And perhaps that’s why the return of sports mattered so much.

On September 10, 2001, sports were simply part of everyday American life.

After September 11, they became something else.

A gathering place.

A reminder of normal life.

And, for millions of Americans, one small piece of a world they were desperately trying to put back together.

Twenty-five years later, we remember the games that were postponed.

But more importantly, we remember why they were.