Baseball games resume with new patriotic fervor
By Daily Bruin Staff
Sept. 23, 2001 9:00 p.m.
 The Associated Press The Arizona Diamondbacks, left, join
players of the Colorado Rockies in holding a U.S. flag across the
infield of Denver’s Coors Field Sept. 17.
By Ben Walker
The Associated Press
Baseball was awash in red, white and blue and patriotic songs
Sept. 17 when games resumed and flag-waving fans returned, ready to
pick up where they left off six days ago ““ when cheering came
easier.
From coast and coast and across the border to Canada, 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:
“¢bull; Mets players wearing caps with inscriptions now familiar
to millions all over the world: NYPD and FDNY.
“¢bull; Hundreds of St. Louis’ finest marching out to the
warning track to honor fallen officers in New York.
“¢bull; “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” chants, a video tribute
and free-flowing tears at Veterans Stadium.
Amid heightened security, six games were played, all in the
National League. The one scheduled American League game, between
the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Devil Rays, was postponed for
logistical reasons.
Players wore the stars and stripes on their uniforms and caps,
“God Bless America” was swapped for “Take Me Out
to the Ball Game” during the seventh-inning stretch and 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.”
It took only three batters for Phillies fans to get back in
form: They booed after Atlanta’s Chipper Jones hit a home
run.
“You realized the healing had started when they booed
Chipper,” Philadelphia manager Larry Bowa said after a 5-2
victory.
At Dodger Stadium, longtime Los Angeles broadcaster Vin Scully
addressed the crowd, saying: “The president has said it is
time to go back to work. Baseball gets up out of the dirt, brushes
itself off and goes back to work.”
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 ““ and the 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.
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.
The Mets’ game at Pittsburgh, originally to be played at
New York, was shifted because Shea Stadium was still being used as
a staging area for the rescue effort.
Managers Bobby Valentine of the Mets and Lloyd McClendon of the
Pirates hugged each other as the teams lined up, and New York
reliever John Franco shed a tear during pregame ceremonies.
The Brooklyn-born Franco, playing on his 41st birthday, wound up
as the winning pitcher in a 4-1 victory. Wearing a New York fire
department sweatshirt, he got several pats on the back after the
final out.
