I usually don’t make this personal, but today is a day that we all need to remember those we lost on that tragic day in 2001…and how sports helped us bounce back afterwards. First a quick second to remember those who we knew through sport who were gone that day, including all those in uniform who were such great fans, coaches and supporters of all we do in this business…not just those who died on this day but those in the military who we have lost since…that list includes many of my classmates and friends at Fordham University and Xaverian High School, including Carl Flickinger, who played Varsity B hoops at Xaverian and sat behind me in many classes for four years, Tim Finnerty, a great coach at Wagner and Fordham who went on to Wall Street but always kept coaching kids, Mike Armstrong, another Fordham guy whose lived with every move the Rams made on the field, and a childhood friend Gigi Calvi, who lived a few doors away and really loved soccer. That's just a few of those we lost today and should be remembered. Ironically 9/11 came just two days after the end of my last US Open, and we had planned to take Lleyton Hewitt, the men's winner, to Windows on the World for a photo op. on 9/10…but plans changed and we ended up doing the photo on the Brooklyn Bridge, while women's winner Serena Williams did other events around Manhattan. Amazing how time flies. Still, coming out of 9/11 there were so many examples of how sports can unify us all, none better than the amazing HBO film Nine Innings from Ground Zero, which showed how the Yankees and their fans and the city united after the tragedy, and really helped heal wounds that continue to be re-opened even to this day. For all the dollars invested and time spent on the business of sport today, it remains a social unifier because unlike most other “social” activities, sport knows no social or language barriers, it gives us both aspirational and inspirational heros, it serves as a placeholder for some of the key events in our lives, it is multigenerational, and it can serve as a great relief, either through participation or through social involvement, from the daily stresses we have. Now are there all the issues with big mone. yes. Are today's professional athletes pulled and burdened with more than ever befor. Yes. But end of the day, few people anywhere in the world, no matter what race, creed, sex, or color, can find some aspect of athletics or sport that they can cling to. That's what makes the business of sport so interesting, and why on our darkest days it is a place we can turn to. God Bless all who were touched on that day…and now back to the game.
Some other good reads for today…the New York Times’ Rich Sandomir has a great look at a New Yorker profile of Lou Gerhig 80 years ago, and what it told us about “The Iron Horse,” then, as Derek Jeter sets to pass him on the Yanks hit list… the Boston Globe's Gary Washburn has a profile on Hall of Famer to be Michael Jordan through the eyes of his Carolina teammates…the Bergen Record has a solid profile of fellow inductee C. Vivian Stringer…USA Today had a good piece on Dorito's escalation of their Super Bowl contest… and Yahoo Sports had a good piece on how the snub of Olympic baseball hurts Cuba…lastly, take a look at GQ's “The Gentleman's Fund” and cast a vote for our friend Ethan Zohn…
