All Things Bubba

Hard to believe 9-11 was five years ago. It seems like only yesterday.

I was not in NYC that day. I live and work in a small town in upstate New York, and rarely make it down to the city. Like many, I was at work that morning. I had a project deadline looming, so wasn't paying much attention to anything else.

My coworker, Steve, was not as busy, and was surfing the net. He told me that a plane had crashed into the WTC. Wow. What a terrible accident. But I didn't think much more about it. I went back to work.

Then he said another plane had struck the other tower. I couldn't believe it. It must be a mistake, surely. But no, the whole office was buzzing now. One crash might be an accident. Two was an attack. Work was forgotten.

Then the news of the Pentagon attack came, and the rumors were flying. There were more hijacked planes, more targets. The White House? The Capitol? The Supreme Court? The UN building?

By now the Internet had crashed, because so many people were trying to find out what was going on. We were at a loss for while, then remembered how we used to get news. Old radios were dug out of desk drawers and dusted off. And downstairs, the director opened his office (with its large TV, tuned to CNN) to anyone who cared to crowd in.

It's an office full of engineers, so naturally, the discussion turned to structural issues. I told my boss, "Those towers are going to collapse." I hadn't seen the plans, or done any calculations. I just had an intuitive conviction that no building could long withstand that kind of insult.

"No," he said. "They're designed to withstand the impact of a plane crash."

I didn't share his faith. What works on paper often fails in the face of messy reality. A few minutes later, I was proved horribly correct. I heard on the radio that the South Tower had collapsed. When I told my boss, he thought I was joking.

The rest of the morning was a blur. We heard the other tower had collapsed as well. That all planes were grounded, and fighter jets mobilized. That buildings all over Washington, DC were being evacuated. Finally, well before lunch time, we were all told to go home. No work was being done, and there was some concern that our office building might be a target, too. (It seems silly now, but that morning, anything seemed possible.)

I walked to the parking lot with a coworker, and we were struck by how beautiful the day was. Clear, cool, sunny. The kind of day anyone would love to have off work...but not under these circumstances.

Of course I spent the day inside, glued to the TV. And online, e-mailing my friends and family. At about 5:30pm, I lost my Internet connection. I didn't know it at the time, but far from NYC as I was, my Internet access passed through the Verizon offices in WTC-7. When it collapsed, it took my Internet connection with it. I didn't get it back until midday Saturday.

I must say...2001 was the year I most wanted the Yankees to win the World Series. A lot of people who normally hated New York were on our side that year. Americans across the country, who usually rooted against the Yanks, were rooting for them. People who had lived in NYC for years but never considered themselves New Yorkers suddenly did. And it wasn't just the Yankees; a friend of mine, a Pirates fan, despises Bobby Valentine, but had nothing but praise for him when he stayed behind in NY to do volunteer work in the aftermath of 9/11.

Just once, it would have been nice to win with everyone rooting for us, instead of against us.

Yankees.com has an article about the players' memories of 9-11. Bernie didn't think it made sense to continue the season:

"When we started playing, I didn't see the sense of it," Williams said. "We were playing games and resuming our season, and it seemed ridiculous to me.

"It started making sense when I saw the faces of people who had lost loved ones, people who needed something to take them away for a few minutes and see something else," he added.

I think he's got it right. Yes, baseball is trivial compared, to, say, peak oil, global warming, or the war in Iraq. But that's one of the reasons I like it. Everyone needs a little fun and distraction. Mine is baseball. Especially if it involves a certain scrappy outfielder who can catch everything in three zip codes and always goes home with his uniform dirty.