Growing-up, I remember always hearing adults say they remembered in vivid detail where they were when President Kennedy was killed. When those adults recounted their stories and personal reflections, you could see on their faces the immediate recollection of pain and horror. I was not yet 7 when the Challenger disaster occurred. Home with the chicken-pox, I do have vague remembrances of that day. In some ways I wish my memories of 9/11 were as equally hazy.

On the previous anniversaries of 9/11, there have been regular calls to ‘never forget.’ While I understand the sentiment, I do not believe any one that lived that day could forget the details. On September 11th, 2001 I was working for the Baltimore Orioles. While I also did Ballpark Tours, worked on the Phones, and other gopher type tasks; my primary position was in the Box Office. Getting to work at around 8:30 am that Tuesday morning I recall my walk up along side The Warehouse, remarking to myself what a beautiful day it was. The sky was a deep clear blue, and the air was crisp with the feel of Fall.

In the Box Office, there were two TV’s in the Windows facing the Babe Ruth Statue and the retired numbers. A fellow worker came down to where we were right around 9 and told us to turn on the TV’s, one of the WTC’s had bit hit by a plane. We turned on the ‘Today’ Show on in the background as we prepared to open at 9am. When I saw that the New York skyline was just as blue as it was in Baltimore, my first inclination was terrorism and I said ‘Bin-Laden’ out loud thinking back to the events of the U.S.S. Cole. When the second plane hit, there was obviously no doubt.

In the subsequent minutes afterward, myself and fellow workers were glued to the TV, as we were being approached at the Windows. The O’s had been scheduled to play Toronto that night and people were clamoring for September tickets as Ripken’s career was coming to an end. We were telling people at the Window that it seemed unlikely to us that  that there would be a game. One person asked me, “What do the events in New York have to do with baseball in Baltimore?”

When the Pentagon was hit at 9:36 am, everyone understood immediately that everyone everywhere was impacted. It seems somewhat irrational now, but the Warehouse was closed and workers were sent home. There were legitimate worries that the Warehouse and the World Trade Center in Baltimore could be targets. I’ll always remember that helpless feeling of getting home and not knowing what to do. I’ll always remember being with my gf (now Wife) Laura later that night and wondering together what tomorrow would bring, being stricken with horror for the lost, and the overwhelming sense of anger.

The rescheduling of home games from the week of 9/11 to the first week of October, meant that September 30th, ’01 in New York was no longer Ripken’s last scheduled game. A group of O’s employees would still bus up to the Big Apple that last weekend in September. The City was still smoking. The signs and pictures of the missing still lined the streets. It was a City and a Country still in their initial days of mourning.

In the time since, I’ve interacted with people that have much more harrowing stories. I know one Gentleman that was in the Towers. I know friends that were friends/family of Elizabeth Wainio (a fellow Catonsville High grad) who died on Flight 93 in Shanksville, PA. When you think about what those people went through, providing your own recollections seem so trivial.

Still, a decade later the events of that day remain imprinted and vivid for all of us. Here is to the lost, and the hope that there is not another day we will recall so clearly for all the wrong reasons.

Chris Stoner
Chris Stoner

Owner

Chris Stoner founded Baltimore Sports and Life in 2009. He has appeared as a radio guest with 1090 WBAL, 105.7 The Fan, CBS 1300, Q1370, WOYK 1350, WKAV 1400, and WNST 1570. He has also been interviewed by The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore Business Journal, and PressBox (TV). As Owner, his responsibilities include serving as the Managing Editor, Publicist, & Sales Director.

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