9/11 with Tony Gwynn began reporter’s road trip through MLB history

Ever wonder how a sportswriter can end up with 50 pairs of new underwear and two overstuffed suitcases on a short scheduled reporting trip?

I traveled to San Diego in September 2001 to interview and write about Tony Gwynn’s Hall of Fame career coming to an end weeks later.

It was early Tuesday morning, Sept., 11, when the phone rang in my hotel room at the Mission Valley Marriott near Qualcomm Stadium. I groggily reached for the phone, answered, and it was a friend from Atlanta.

“Did you hear what happened in New York?" she breathlessly said. “A plane just crashed into the World Trade Center."

OK, I figured someone accidentally crashed their private plane, thanked her for the call, and went back to sleep.

A second plane crashed, into the South Tower of the World Trade Center.

This time, I stayed awake, glued to the TV set like the rest of America.

Commissioner Bud Selig postponed all 15 games that day, extended the postponements until Friday, and then again for three more days until Sept. 17. It was the longest regular-season stoppage, outside of a players’ strike, since World War I shortened the final month of the 1918 season.

Original source: https://www.usatoday.com/sports/