Waiting for 9/12

On September 11, I had no idea of the impact. I was about 13 and thought it was just another sad news story. I had no family in New York, so it didn't affect me directly.

I remember my fourth period teacher in jr. high tell the class, "This is going to be talked about for years to come. It's not going to go away any time soon. We're living through history right now."

All I had seen were a couple clips in the morning before I headed off to school, so I really had no idea of the impact or how severe it was.

I've always sort of lived in my own little world; my own sports world. When I got home and found out my Dodger game was postponed due to the attacks, it was starting to hit me that it was something big.

I remember games were postponed for almost 2 weeks, and without sports to watch, all there was, was non-sports news.

I watched as new develpments kept coming in and different theories amassed.

For the first time I learned the significance of the World Trade Center.

I learned of the tragic stories of the New York locals. I could feel the sadness through the light coming off the screen.

For once in my life, I couldn't hide behind my security blanket. I couldn't escape from the real world and just watch my baseball games. It was real life, and not even sports could provide an escape.

Luckily, after things had settled down a bit, and we knew as a country what we were facing, not only did I welcome back my security blanket, but the entire country saw hope in sports.

I remember when baseball came back the following week, there was a feeling that even though we just suffered tragedy, we will not let our lives stop.

The national anthem meant so much more after 9/11 and you could feel the energy every time it was sung.

The Dodgers were scheduled to host the San Diego Padres for a 3-game series starting September 11, and it didn't happen.

I lived by that season schedule. I planned around that schedule. To me 9/11 lasted for a week that there were no sports for me to follow. It felt like time did not move.

When baseball started again and life started to move again, time started to move again.

So the sports world paused on 9/11 and to me, not until the week later did I see 9/12 because that's what was on pace in my schedule.

My schedule was thrown off for a little while, but once we faced the Padres like planned, 9/11 was finally over and I was ready to face 9/12.