Sports: Major-leaguers share in grief of the nation

Major-leaguers share in grief of the nation

By KEVIN KELLY

Never have sports -- and covering them for that matter -- seemed so irrelevant and insignificant and trivial as they did last week.

Priorities were jarred back into their rightful place.

Not only for those who died in the terrorist attacks, the families affected and those of us fortunate enough to discover our friends escaped harm in the shadows of the World Trade Center, but for the athletes and managers and others we turn to daily and weekly in search of relief from our hectic lives.

They, too, were not immune to the grief and shock and sense of loss all have experienced since Tuesday.

The brother of Astros infielder Craig Biggio works as air traffic controller at Logan International Airport in Boston and was tracking one of the flights that was hijacked.

But that's not Biggio's only connection.

He'd once taken his wife and two sons to the top of one of the towers for the breathtaking view -- on clear days you could see four states.

As millions of parents were forced to on Tuesday, Biggio had to explain to his children about terrorism and why the towers they once went up in together were no longer there.

"I watched it on TV with them," Biggio said. "You explain that things like this happen. You talk about it, but I tried not to complicate it too much."

Detroit pitcher Jose Lima knew two people working in a real estate office in the World Trade Center tower that was struck by the second plane.

"They were on one of the top floors," Lima said. "I know they're gone."

Longtime Reds broadcaster and former player Joe Nuxhall remembers the day well.

He was 12 years old, playing basketball in his back yard with friends when his mother called him into the house and told him of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

"That was a shock, but that was war," Nuxhall said. "This is so much more of a shock."

The sound of the explosion will forever be part of David Ortiz's memory.

The Twins player was on the phone with a friend, who works near the World Trade Center, when the second plane struck.

Braves pitcher John Burkett needed to get from Dallas to Atlanta on Tuesday.

His flight canceled and no rental cars available, he asked Rangers outfielder Rusty Greer, a former teammate, for assistance. Greer had a sport utility vehicle that Burkett used.

Ten hours of the drive were spent listening to the radio.

"I have callouses on the end of my finger from hitting the radio button," Burkett said. "I felt like I was back in time, getting my news from radio. There weren't a lot of people on the road. Everyone was glued to the radio.

"You could tell everybody was in a zone when you were passing people."

Padres manager Bruce Bochy visited the Pentagon with his father, who was in the Army, several times when he was younger.

"For someone to take our planes and our people and use them as missiles, I think everybody has not only feelings of sympathy, but anger," Bochy said. "We're all in mourning now, but once we get back to playing, I think it'll help people. Not that you're ever going to take your mind off what's happened."

The Manhattan skyline never will look the same, particularly for Mets manager Bobby Valentine, who was with his team in Pittsburgh when the attacks occurred.

"My son is an artist and his most prized possessions are his paintings of the New York skyline," Valentine said. "We've looked at that skyline from every angle. It's not going to seem right when we get home. If not seeing the World Trade Center isn't enough, I think seeing the smoke still rising above the city will get everyone's attention."

BETTER NEWS: With baseball returning to the field on Monday, attention slowly will begin to refocus on Barry Bonds and the Seattle Mariners.

With 18 games remaining, the Giants outfielder is eight homers from breaking Mark McGwire's record for 70 homers in a season. But he realizes that chasing a record means little in the wake of such a tragedy.

"You can't save anything like that," Bonds said. "You can never get that back. You can never get life back."

Seattle is 104-40 and remains on pace to break the major-league record for wins in a season.

OTHER MILESTONES: The six-day stoppage not only sets up a stretch run in the NL pennant races, but for individual records as well.

Padres outfielder Rickey Henderson is 15 hits shy of 3,000 and 10 runs from breaking Ty Cobb's record of 2,246. Arizona's Randy Johnson is 48 strikeouts from breaking Nolan Ryan's single-season record (383). Tampa native Luis Gonzalez, whose team has 19 games remaining, can break Babe Ruth's record of 457 total bases set in 1921.

- Information from other news organizations was used in this report.