Once upon a time, the seventh-inning stretch meant something different. With two outs in the top of the inning, a strange energy would take over the crowd.
Children began squirming in their seats, itching for the home team to retire that last batter and give way to one of baseball's most hallowed traditions.
As the trademark lyrics of Take Me Out to the Ballgame blared over the stadium P.A. speakers, kids in every section sang along and tried to catch peanut and crackerjack kernels in their mouths while parents chatted, stretched and laughed at how adorable the kids were. It was an age of carefree exuberance. It was America before Sept. 11, 2001.
Tonight, as America remembers the horrific events of a year ago, the atmosphere will be considerably more somber.
As has been the tradition all season at Yankee Stadium, the seventh-inning stretch will begin with a moment of silence and remembrance for the victims of the terrorist attacks, followed by the playing of God Bless America.
The events of 9/11 have had a profound and all-too-visible impact on the world of sports. Following the attacks last year, Major League Baseball canceled a week's worth of games. It was the first time a full schedule of games had been postponed since D-Day in 1944.
Sept. 11 dug far deeper than the baseball diamond. NFL teams, still reeling from the shocking and untimely death of Minnesota Vikings' offensive lineman Korey Stringer, canceled its weekend games.
The PGA was forced to cancel golf's Ryder Cup due to the uncertainty surrounding Americans traveling abroad (the Ryder Cup is an every-other-year international golf competition between the U.S. and Europe that was to be held in Ireland).
In fact, the sports world came to such a grinding halt that 'Sports Illustrated's' cover read: The Week that Sports Stood Still.
Through tragedy and adversity, however, sports has found and shown its place and importance in America's social and patriotic landscape.
As sadness and acceptance gripped the country in the weeks following the plane crashes, Americans looked back to sports for comfort, strength and courage. Scared, uncertain and vulnerable, the nation turned to competition and found unity. "I didn't think there would be that many people at the stadium, and it was packed," Yankees' catcher Jorge Posada said in an interview a few weeks after the attacks.
"I came out there with the pitcher, and the crowd stood up and cheered. They gave us a standing ovation, and the game wasn't even close to starting.
It was like they just needed to cheer."
The New York Mets wore FDNY hats for the remainder of last season, and New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani threw out the first pitch in the Yankees' first game back home after the attacks.
In fact, the most important pitch thrown in last year's World Series wasn't even during a game — it was the strike that President Bush fired when he threw out the first pitch before Game 3 in "The House that Ruth Built."
In the wake of disaster, ordinary people, star athletes, and political leaders came together in the one venue that made sense — the sporting world.
As had happened in the 30's through the depression and the 40's with World War II, sports facilitated national pride and patriotism.
In fact, it was New England's Patriots who were in the middle of winning their first Super Bowl in franchise history while the Irish rock band U2 turned the halftime show into a quasi-memorial for the 9/11 victims.
Unbelievably, the national fervor that was witnessed last fall and through the winter has remained for an entire year.
As athletes and teams across the sporting divide will pay homage to the victims and heroes in ceremonies tonight and through the month, the country owes thanks to sports.
In the nation's times of trouble over the last century, athletic competition has given Americans something to cheer about, be a part of, and love.
Sports have been vital to the culture and optimism of the United States.
And — if anything can — sports will eventually bring people back to the carefree exuberance that once defined America.
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