Remembering 9-11
Stopping Baseball
September 11th, 2001 will forever be a day that holds many memories. For us baseball fans, it’s the second time, in my generation, that a disaster stopped baseball. The first-time would-be October 17th, 1989. The San Francisco earthquake stopped the third game of the world series between the SF Giants and the Oakland A’s. Being a Giants fan, at that time, this was a major issue for me. Even at ten years of age, I understood the mechanics of baseball and just how detrimental it was for us to change venues. This gave the A’s an advantage and they took the series. Some would argue that this is not true, but me being a former die-hard Giants fan… I will always firmly disagree.
San Diego, CA
My 9-11 Story
I’ve never openly told my story to such a wide audience before, but this being the twenty-year anniversary… I feel compelled to share with you what I was doing when we were attacked on 9-11-2001.
I was out to sea the day the attacks happened. My carrier, the USS John C. Stennis CVN-74, was off the coast of San Clemente Island qualifying our Navy and Marine Corps pilots to land and launch off of a carrier. 9-11 started off, for me, like any normal day. I woke up, showered and dressed, and then went to work. My day started earlier because I was manning the shop as part of my watch rotation. I had finished all my regular duties and was watching sports highlights on ESPN (Bonds was hitting homeruns with his massive head, so I was tracking that) when my shop supervisor came in. He switched it to the news and I went and checked my email. Very mundane and very normal. I was in the middle of responding to emails to friends and family when my supervisor told me to come and look at the news because someone just drove a plane into the World Trade Center. I remember being in disbelief. How could anyone hit the World Trade Center? It’s massive. It defined the New York City skyline. I turned the corner of the shop to look at the news and that was the moment the second plane hit. That moment flashes in my mind every night when I close my eyes. I’m not sure if it is because I was out to sea when it happened or because it happened on my watch, but I feel a sense of responsibility. It’s hard to shake and I’ll probably never get rid of that feeling.
When everyone realized that we were under attack… that all the secure chatter that we had been seeing had actually come true… we locked down and prepared for war. We fully expected to just deploy right then and there. No going back to San Diego, no going to tell our loved ones good bye… just off to bomb Afghanistan. There was panic, sadness, terror, numbness, and a lot of anger flowing through the ship. Once the reports of the attack on the Pentagon and the downed flight in Pennsylvania came through to us, we started feeling more anger. Nothing else mattered that day, just that we needed to get whomever did this and make them pay.
Then the towers started to fall.
Determination took over terror and fury took over everything else. We were all collectively ready to go and fight for our country.
My ship finally was deployed to the Arabian Sea in November. I was able to see the end of the 2001 baseball season from my home in San Diego. However, it just wasn’t the same. I was angry and spoiling for a fight. When we finally got to leave, we left in great fanfare. White uniformed sailors lined the ship as we left San Diego harbor. Our ship flew one of the flags from the tower’s rubble. It was a sight to see.
Twenty Years Later
I am still angry. Maybe a bit more because of what is currently happening, but I’ll keep this politics free. I lost friends during Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. I broke my back firefighting on that deployment, right after 9-11. Even with all the bad, I still love my country and I still love the Navy. The events of 9-11 did change the face of this nation, for a time. We became more patriotic and united. We had that a long time ago, too, with baseball. Baseball was, and I still think it is, America’s past-time sport. A sport that unites us, even with rivalries.
So, on during this time of deep sorrow and remembrance… be well sports fans.
Commentary contributed by Jamye Wagner