Baseball
Ceremonies mark 9/11: 'It's a sad day'
Compiled from Times wires
© St. Petersburg Times
published September 12, 2003
NEW YORK - Flags flew at half-staff and Yankee Stadium was silent for 15 seconds Thursday night during a low-key ceremony to mark the second anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
"Terrorists unsuccessfully attempted to break the spirit of our great nation," Bob Sheppard, the Yankees' longtime public address announcer, told the crowd.
"New York City firefighters, EMS personnel and police officers performed courageous acts of heroism that inspired the country," he said.
On the first anniversary of the attacks, the Yankees dedicated a monument in Monument Park to the "victims and heroes" of Sept. 11, and ceremonies included saxophonist Branford Marsalis playing Taps.
Yankees pitcher David Wells gave a $40,000 check to the Silver Shield Foundation, which assists funding the education of the children of police and firefighters who died. Color guards from the police and fire departments were on the field as God Bless America was sung.
The seventh-inning stretch happened to come at exactly 9:11 p.m. ("Only at Yankee Stadium," Roger Clemens said) and the crowd chanted "U-S-A! U-S-A!"
"I'm sure our lives will never be the same again," said Yankees manager Joe Torre, who spent Thursday morning at home with his family. "It was very tough. I watched TV. I turned it off. It's a sad day, yet it's a proud day. You never want to forget what happened two years ago. I don't know how Dec. 7 affected people back in the '40s. It has to be something similar."
Torre said the attacks and aftereffects put things in perspective.
"It certainly keeps you from thinking it's the end of the world if something goes wrong here," he said.
Yankees outfielder Hideki Matsui remembered January, when he visited the World Trade Center site shortly after arriving in New York.
"I had to see with my face ground zero, that's why I went there," he said.
Detroit manager Alan Trammell was in San Diego at the time of the attacks. He wasn't worried while his team was in New York.
"I have all the faith in the world in our people here," he said.
All major-league teams displayed baseball's red, white and blue ribbon logo and there were special commemorative decorations on the four sides of each base.
In Cincinnati and Milwaukee, players observed a moment of silence and wore caps with the U.S. flag stitched onto the left side.
In Kansas City, the Royals offered the best available seats free to police, firefighters and emergency workers.
In Chicago, a video showed U.S. Naval Capt. David Johnson raising a flag at U.S. Cellular Field that had flown above the Pentagon earlier Thursday. Johnson was at the Pentagon when it was attacked in 2001.
In St. Louis, fans saw a video replay of a poem read by the late broadcaster Jack Buck on the day baseball resumed after the attacks.
In Oakland, the A's and Angels stood along the baselines while a bagpiper played Amazing Grace and placed a baseball on the mound.
TWINS COACH HOSPITALIZED: Minnesota third-base coach Al Newman suffered a hemorrhage in his brain, but did not have an aneurysm as initially feared, tests showed.
Newman remained hospitalized in serious condition.
Newman had an MRI exam Thursday and will remain in Chicago for one week as doctors monitor him, Twins spokesman Mike Herman said. There were plans to conduct more tests next Wednesday or Thursday, including a CAT scan and an angiogram, he said.
Manager Ron Gardenhire said the Twins had just finished batting practice Wednesday when Newman felt severe pain in his head.
The Twins hung Newman's jersey in the dugout.
Newman was a member of the Twins' 1987 World Series champions.
ATHLETICS: Bench coach Terry Francona was suspended for one game for an argument with umpires last week at Tampa Bay. Francona is expected to serve the suspension Saturday at Texas.
BRAVES: An MRI exam this week on John Smoltz's tender elbow did not show further damage, the closer said. The right-hander, on the disabled list for two weeks with tendinitis, returned to Turner Field after three days of rehab in Birmingham, Ala. Smoltz said he won't travel with the team on a six-game trip beginning tonight in Florida, but he plans to return for the postseason. ... Manager Bobby Cox was ejected in the first inning, the ninth time this season he's been tossed. He was angry that Marcus Giles was called out trying to steal third.
RED SOX: Rightfielder Trot Nixon has a strained muscle in his left calf and probably will miss at least a week.
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