Torre: Baseball after 9/11 had added purpose

NEW YORK — Joe Torre remembers that morning as vividly as every other American. He was manager of the Yankees, and his club had been rained out the day before.

On Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001, Torre was scheduled to attend a charity luncheon, then open a three-game series with the White Sox. Roger Clemens was slated to pitch, poised to log his 20th victory of the season. The TV wasn’t on as Torre was getting ready, so he was startled when the driver who was picking him up called and said he guessed the event was cancelled. He told Torre to turn on the TV.

Torre was worried his daughter, then just 5, was watching TV with his wife, Ali, downstairs. He was worried about his son, who commuted each day through the Holland Tunnel. And about his sister-in-law, who flew for American Airlines. They were all OK, but Torre knew his country was not. Baseball, like the rest of the country, came to a halt.

“I was riveted by the TV like everyone else, and it was absolutely frightening,” Torre said.

On Wednesday evening, Torre, now Major League Baseball’s chief baseball officer, spoke to a rapt audience at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum on the site of the the World Trade Center about the impact of getting back on the field and the role baseball played in America’s recovery.

“Baseball after 9/11 played such an important role,” museum president Joe Daniels said. “As a New Yorker, in the days and weeks and months following 9/11, you’d see Joe Torre and the rest of the team at Yankee Stadium or playing in another stadium and you just felt proud. Baseball united us beyond team rivalries and reminded us that we are all Americans together.”

Baseball, of course, was not an immediate priority following the …

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