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Moving on Baseball returns to a nation longing for normalcy
And so, just like that, the games are back. The scores are right there in the morning paper. The highlights are on TV. America has returned to the business and the entertainment of baseball, a week after the most heinous act of terrorism ever on its soil. We have moved on, it seems, or at least we've started to. In Philadelphia on Monday night, about 30,000 flag-waving fans in the cradle of liberty greeted the Phillies and Braves at Veterans Stadium. They stood for a moment of silence, listened as a choir dashed through God Bless America and the Star Spangled Banner, and watched the big replay screen as a tribute to baseball's place in the nation's history was played. Chipper Jones, the Braves third baseman, smacked the second pitch he saw from Philadelphia righty Robert Person over the fence in right-center for a 1-0 Atlanta lead. Jones' counterpart, Phillies third baseman Scott Rolen, hit two home runs off Atlanta starter Greg Maddux. The Phillies won 5-2, closing to within 2 1/2 games of the first-place Braves in the National League East. It all comes back so easily. Baseball is not as it was. Teams wore American flag patches on the backs of their jerseys and on their caps. In all six stadiums that hosted games Monday, there were tributes to the thousands killed in last Tuesday's massacres in New York City and Washington, D.C. Policemen and firemen were honored in St. Louis. Arizona pitcher Curt Schilling scribbled GOD BLESS AMERICA on his hat. Tears flowed. Huge lines formed outside Busch Stadium in St. Louis as stringent security measures took hold. The Riverwalk outside new PNC Park in Pittsburgh was closed as a precaution. Bomb-sniffing dogs patrolled Dodgers Stadium before a game there. But there was baseball. There were hitting stars, pitching stars, announcers who raised their voices. Players questioned the home plate umpire. Errors were made, sparkling defensive plays turned. We have moved on, it seems, or at least we've started to. Monday night, some of the game's best pitchers were there for the return. Maddux, for instance, along with Person, who has lost once in his last 18 starts. In Pittsburgh, lefty Al Leiter started for the Mets. That series was switched from Shea Stadium in Queens -- you used to be able to see the World Trade Center towers from the upper walkways at Shea -- because the stadium still is being used as a staging area for rescue efforts. In Los Angeles, ace Kevin Brown started for the Dodgers, fighting for a spot in the playoffs in a too-tight-to-call NL West. In Denver, strikeout artist Randy Johnson started for the Diamondbacks, trying desperately to hold onto their NL West lead. In Montreal, Expos ace Javier Vasquez was beaned in the fifth inning, knocking him out of the game. The Marlins put up eight runs in the top of the sixth to win 10-6. In St. Louis, Bud Smith, a 21-year-old who threw a no-hitter his last time out, pitched for the Cards and got the win. They're now tied for the wild card lead. It all comes back so easily. No one knows what the statute of limitations is on grief. How long is long enough to mourn thousands of dead? How long do you grieve for a people's shattered psyche? Like the rest of the American sports, baseball took the weekend to reflect, to gather itself, to forge ahead. And now it has done all of that. Now, baseball is back. The challenge -- for baseball and for all of us -- is not simply to get back to normal. You get up and go to work. You go to the store, you cut the grass. You play when you can. Getting back to normal, for many, is maybe too easy. The challenge now is to remember how we got to normal in the first place. And to remember what it's like to have that normalcy ripped away. We have moved on. Hopefully, we're moving ahead, too. John Donovan is a senior writer for CNNSI.com. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer. Comments? To e-mail Donovan, click here.
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