Former Phillies manager Larry Bowa reflects on baseball’s healing role after 9/11

Next month will mark the 6oth anniversary of the Phillies signing Larry Bowa as an amateur free agent. And in all that time, Bowa has never not cared about the outcome of a game. 

Except once. 

The date was September 17, 2001. It was the first day baseball returned after the terrorist attacks six days earlier in which 2,977 people were killed.

"Winning or losing that night wasn't at the top of the list," Bowa told On Pattison on Thursday, the 24th anniversary of 9/11. "It was trying to get people into the frame of mind for two or three hours where they were thinking about something else - and I think we did a good job."

Damn good.

As Americans, we needed a distraction. We needed a sense of normalcy. We needed to be pulled away from our television sets, where we watched nothing else but the news coverage on a 24-hour cycle. 

Baseball provided that. 

Everyone knows about President George W. Bush throwing a perfect strike at Yankee Stadium during a first pitch ceremony at the World Series. Everyone remembers Mike Piazza hitting the go-ahead home run for the Mets against the Braves at Shea Stadium. But what most people forget is the first day back had games played elsewhere, and not in New York.

The Phillies hosted the Braves at Veterans Stadium on the 17th - a decision that was made with a lot of trepidation. 

"The biggest concern was, are we coming back too soon," Bowa said. "The reason we did was because the whole idea wasn't to make people forget about what happened - how could they? We'll never forget. But we wanted to try to entertain as best as we could, right?"

The Phillies were in Atlanta on 9/11. The ended up being stuck there for a couple days. Bowa said all they did was watch the news coverage at the team hotel. They then bused from Atlanta to Cincinnati, where they were supposed to play next, but then those games were cancelled. 

Somehow, they were able to book a charter flight home that weekend and were scheduled to start a crucial three-game series with the Braves on Monday, whether they were emotionally ready for it or not. 

Legendary Phillies play-by-play voice Harry Kalas welcomed baseball back with an emotional opening to the broadcast.

During the National Anthem, the players lined the field. A crowd of 27,910 people showed up at the Vet. As Bowa stood there listening to the anthem, he became emotional. A tear rolled down his cheek. 

"When you're standing on the baseline and they're showing things (on the JumboTron) and you hear Harry open it up, emotionally, it got me," Bowa said. "It wasn't even that I didn't want people to see me (cry), it's just that I was thinking about all the people who lost their lives for no reason. It was a sick act. A sick act. They said goodbye to their spouse, their kids, their families that morning and... they never came home. That all goes through your mind when you are standing out there. It was awful. Awful."

Bowa said when he posted the lineup for the game, he told the team that if anyone didn't feel like they could play in the game because they were still grieving or they maybe knew someone who died, that they could come to him and ask off the game and he wouldn't have any issue with it. 

No one did. 

In fact, they went out and played a heck of a game. The Phillies beat the Braves 5-2. Scott Rolen hit a pair of home runs. After the second one, the crowd was frenzied. They stayed on their feet, begging for Rolen to re-emerge from the dugout for a curtain call. He was reluctant. 

"Scotty never liked to show up the other team, ever," Bowa said. "He played the game the way you are supposed to play it. Hard. But I said, 'Scotty, you got to go back out, man.' He said, 'Bo, you know me.' And I said, 'I know but this is different. Tonight, it's different.'"

Rolen went, and tipped his cap to the crowd. 

"It was unbelievable," Bowa said. 

The Phillies were a scrappy team. After that game, they won the next two games, sweeping the Braves, and climbed to within a 1/2 game of first place. But they could only go 8-8 the rest of the way, having to finish the season on a three-city, nine-game road trip as games that were lost in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 had to be made up. It was too much for a team without a ton of talent to overcome, and they ended up finishing 86-76 in second place, two games behind the Braves. 

"It derailed a lot of people," Bowa said. "It would have been very difficult to go in the clubhouse and ask the guys to ignore the tragedy and focus on our chance to catch the Braves. That never entered my mind. I couldn't do that - out of respect to all the policemen and firefighters and the people who gave up their lives to save others. ... They're the real heroes. Baseball players are just a sideshow."

Bowa got into uniform on Thursday. He donned the powder blues. But he also donned an FDNY hat. He may be getting ready to turn 80-years-old, but he's never going to forget the heroism of that day. 

"I will always respect first responders, no matter what," he said. "It doesn't matter who you are - Republican, Democrat - it doesn't matter. Respect these people. They throw their lives on the line every single day."

And Bowa will, never more than on 9/11 each year.