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Aftermath leaves Boggs shaken

Hitting coach and other Rays view ground zero of the World Trade Center tragedy through tears.

By MARC TOPKIN

© St. Petersburg Times,
published September 27, 2001

NEW YORK -- Wade Boggs spent 31/2 hours at ground zero of the World Trade Center site after Tuesday's game and could barely describe what he saw through the tears in his eyes.

"The only thing that comes to mind is, "The most horrific thing I've ever seen,' " Boggs said. "The smell, the scene, the lights with the smoke, the look on the workers' faces. It's a war zone."

Several members of the Rays' traveling party visited lower Manhattan Tuesday night or Wednesday to view the site of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and all were immensely stunned and saddened.

"It put a pit in your stomach," pitcher Jeff Wallace said. Boggs, who starred for the Yankees for five years, was invited by friends in the police department, who thought his visit would lift the spirits of some of the workers at the command center and on the site.

"They were thanking me, and I told them, "You don't need to thank me, I want to thank you,' " Boggs said. "There was one rescue worker who kept saying that he wished his brother was there because he was a big Yankees fan. I asked him what happened to his brother. He said he was one of the firefighters killed and they were still looking for him."

Boggs has been following news reports of the attacks since Sept. 11. But it wasn't until early Wednesday morning that he fully grasped the extent of the devastation.

"It looks so sterile on TV," Boggs said. "In the pictures you see on TV it doesn't seem like America. But to see the workers' faces, to shake their hands, to see it firsthand, you just want to go home and hug your family.

"It ripped my heart out. I was there for 3-1/2 hours and I cried for three of them."

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