Mariners reflect on changes since Sept. 11

KIRBY ARNOLD, FOR THE OLYMPIAN

Originally published Tuesday, March 12, 2002

PEORIA, Ariz. -- Lou Piniella says he still feels numb, partly because he knew people who lost family members.

Dan Wilson thinks about the soldiers fighting for the freedom that allows him to play baseball.

Desi Relaford can't get over the memory of one of the world's most alive cities falling silent like a ghost town.

Six months ago Monday, when everybody's world seemed to stop, the attacks on New York and Washington, D.C., made an impression that will never go away for those Seattle Mariners.

"It's something that you really have to put behind you, but you never will," said Piniella, the Mariners' manager. "It's always in the back of your mind. When you travel, you're reminded of it. When you're watching television, you get a constant reminder of it."

A day like this, Wilson says, is a necessary reminder that the country should look back as it moves ahead.

"It's a time to see how things have changed," the Mariners' catcher said. "Getting on an airplane isn't what it used to be, and security at ballgames is still very high.

"Things have definitely changed, but I think this country has gotten back to normal pretty much."

And as he goes about his business on the baseball diamond, Wilson says his thoughts are with men and women on a much more intense playing field in Afghanistan.

"We can't forget that we've got a pretty serious war going on," he said. "There's a lot of people fighting for our country and we can't forget them at all."

Piniella, who played and managed for 14 seasons with the New York Yankees, has tried to be a source of comfort for friends there who still grieve.

"I know a few people who lost family members," he said. "I've corresponded with them through the mail more than anything else."

No current Mariner had a first-hand feel for New York like Relaford, a utility player who was with the Mets in 2001. The Mets were in Pittsburgh on Sept. 11, but Relaford recalls returning to a city that was unlike the place he had left days earlier.

"If you know New York, you know how alive it is," he said. "It's the city that never sleeps. But after that, we went back and you could literally walk out on the streets and see nobody. It was a ghost town, and that was scary.

"It was strange just to see how scared people were. They were staying at home and weren't doing things. That's not what New York is about."

Relaford, who joined several Mets teammates in the relief efforts, also remembers his own conflicted feelings when the season resumed six days after the attacks.

"That first game back, there were a lot of emotions," he said. "At the time, it was only a week or so away from the end of the season. I was one of the many guys who didn't care whether or not the season started again. There are a lot more important things than a week of baseball.

"But at the same time, with the president saying we needed to get back to normal, it made us feel good that when we got playing again, people kind of looked to us to help divert attention from what was going on in the world."

From the other side of the country, Wilson felt a similar pride in his role in the recovery.

"I think we helped initialize the healing process," he said. "The playoffs and the World Series did kind of lock it in as far as people thinking ahead, that life does go on and this is another World Series. People mark the time by those kinds of events."

Wilson returned to New York five weeks after the attacks when the M's faced the Yankees in the American League Championship Series. He joined several teammates in a trip to Ground Zero.

"It was a pretty intense experience," he said. "The sights and smells and sounds, everything was a dark reminder of what had happened."

"It was numbing," Piniella added.

Six months later, that feeling remains.

Mariners glance

- Monday: Seattle 7, Chicago White Sox 5.

- Today: Seattle vs. Arizona, noon (1240-AM, 1030-AM).

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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