The Day the Earth Rippled

What more can any journalist write? What more can any reporter announce? Tuesday, September 11, was a day unlike any other. A day when the earth rippled. Every cognizant individual will remember where he or she was when it happened. Everyone who witnessed the repeated images of horror shall never forget. And America shut down, becoming an introverted nation whose people unequivocally unified against terrorism.

The ubiquitous sports world came to a halt on the 11th too. Baseball suspended games for six consecutive days. Football saw Week 2 canceled. Hockey teams had their training camps interrupted.

It's difficult to admit that sport is necessary to heal, but it is - just not so soon. I've never missed Yankee baseball as much as I've missed it the weekend following our national tragedy. This isn't a display of insensitivity towards the countless victims or their loved ones, but instead it's a testament that sport is a distraction to the harsh realities being updated every nanosecond on CNN's streaming banner. A very necessary distraction.

The reality of this atrocity can't be escaped, however. In the hockey world, the Los Angeles Kings lost two of their family members: Garnet "Ace" Bailey, the team's director of pro scouting, and Mark Bavis, an amateur scout. Both were on board the second plane that struck the World Trade Center. Bavis was a former college hockey star at Boston University and was just starting his second season scouting college players for the Kings. Bailey's distinguished career is highlighted by seven Stanley Cup rings - two as a Boston Bruins player in the early 1970s and five as a scout during the Edmonton Oilers' run of five championships in the 1980s.

New York Rangers President/GM Glen Sather was a teammate of Bailey's and worked with him while both were with the Oilers. "Knowing Ace the way I know him, he'd be the one guy if there was anything he could do, he'd be doing it on that flight," he said in an ESPN.com article. "It's sad."

And it's surreal to ponder what might have been. Earlier this year, the Rangers had considered holding training camp practices at Chelsea Piers Sky Rink on New York City's West Side, which would have required the team sojourning in the hotel located in the World Trade Center. Reservations were made in May; however, the locker stalls at Chelsea Piers were too small to accommodate the players. So the Rangers decided to hold training camp in Madison Square Garden, and, therefore, new hotel accommodations were made. Close call?

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