The Closer.(baseball event after attacks on World Trade Center and Pentagon)(Brief Article)

The greatest rally

We went back to work last week. It was hard. Nothing I have done with baseball prepared me for last week.

From the pregame ceremony to the first pitch to the time I got up and went in, everything was different.

The pregame ceremony of the first game back was OK. We had two hot-air balloons inside the dome. A big choir sang "God Bless America" and the national anthem. We all had to be on the line, just like opening day. We had to be out there in front of all those people.

It would have been better if we would have had a chance to do some of that grieving alone. As the anthem was being played, I found myself thinking about the tragedy. I got really choked up, then boom, I'm on the dome's enormous video screen. I was tearing up, and I wondered: Should I try to stop crying or let it go and just let it happen?

Local firefighters and police were out there with us. When I looked over to see them, I think I lost it, as did the whole place. We didn't know those lost souls in New York, the Pentagon or Pennsylvania, but we bonded together when the attacks happened and in their aftermath.

After the anthem, we got the game underway. Brad Radke was outstanding--he had a no-hitter through seven innings. That was good, because it ...