Last week, I wrote that the tragedies at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon serve to once again remind us that some things are truly important while others are not. The events that have followed since the attacks have also revealed another truth that is all too often veiled.
Heroes do not catch footballs or swing baseball bats, they hold fire hoses and treat the injured.
I have watched a lot of television over the past week. Actually, "a lot" is a relative term since I watch too much under normal circumstances anyway. But this week I just couldn't keep it off, continually awaiting new military and rescue updates. When I needed a break from the really hard news, I would turn to ESPN. The all-sports network was featuring many stories on how the disaster was affecting the sports world.
The primary impact was the numerous cancellations of major sporting events ranging from baseball games to the Ryder Cup international golf tournament.
In the first couple of days after the attacks, Major League Baseball's plan was to resume play on Sept. 14. This date was eventually pushed back and that was a good thing for the New York Mets because they would not have been able to play their series, scheduled for Shea Stadium.
Immediately after the rescue effort began in downtown Manhattan, New York City turned the stadium's parking lot into a command center.
Thousands of pieces of equipment were stored in the lot and picked up periodically by the firemen and rescue workers who needed to reload. ESPN ran a story on the parking lot's new use.
As I watched the pictures fly by, I couldn't help but to realize the tremendous irony.
Shea Stadium has been around since 1964.The Mets have won two championships within its famous walls.
The Beatles had one of their most famous concerts in the stadium.
At the end of his career, Willie Mays played Shea's center field. All of these events occurred, but it was only now, after being turned into a rescue command center, that Shea Stadium saw true heroes perform.
Please don't get me wrong. I know the Beatles were the most influential music group and I think that not enough people realize that Willie Mays was the greatest baseball player of all time. But great musicians and super athletes are not heroes.
If you want a good look at a hero, just travel down to Manhattan's financial district and look for the guy who is on his hands and knees, clearing away warped steel with his battered hands.
If you can't do that, then watch news footage from a week ago and find the guy who went back into "ground zero" about a minute after nearly dying from smoke and soot inhalation. If he's asked why, he will respond, "My 'brothers' are still trapped in there."
Several years ago, there was a news story about a girl who had fallen off a bridge and into the water below.
She was saved by a fire fighter who, immediately upon seeing the accident, got to the bridge and jumped into the water.
I was really struck by the story because I couldn't believe the amount of courage and fortitude that this guy must have had to make the conscious decision to jump off a bridge.
I never asked myself whether I would have been able to do the same thing. I don't think I wanted to hear my answer.
For the next couple of days, I wondered whether that great bravery was contained only within a handful of people like the hero of that day, or if it could be found in all those who chose to be fire fighters and police officers and rescue workers.
My question was answered last week as I watched one person after another put them self into an extremely unstable environment in an effort to save others.
Professional sports figures get paid ungodly amounts of money for what they do. The justification is based on the law of supply and demand.
There is a heavy public demand to watch fantastic athletic ability and only a tiny fraction of the population is capable of producing.
As a result, the price for such talent is sky high. On Sept. 11, this nation's demand changed. Our desire is no longer athleticism. It's guts, nerve, will.
The supply now comes from those who are working in the wreckage of what used to be the Twin Towers or the Pentagon.
It may also be found in the memory of those passengers who were on board the plane that crashed into a field outside of Pittsburgh.
Upon learning that the highjackers were planning to hit either the White House or the Capital, several of these blessed souls decided to fight their attackers and try to crash the plane in a place where others could not be hurt.
It would be an insult to attempt to describe their courage with words.
It would, of course, be completely naive to believe that the rescuers will be compensated monetarily for what they have done for all of us.
But money is not the way in which a society can best reward its worthy citizens. The payment should be made in terms of an ultimate respect, awe and admiration. The professional athlete is way too familiar with this currency.
A quick story as heard on the airwaves of WFAN in New York: A couple of days after the disaster, a man called New York Giants General Manager Ernie Accorsi. He explained that he worked at the top of the World Trade Center for a big brokerage firm.
Although his job was obviously important, he decided to take a couple of days off and fly across the country to watch his beloved Giants play the Broncos on Sept. 10.
His plan was to fly back Tuesday and get back to work the next day. If he had been in his office Tuesday morning, he would have been trapped above the explosion.
Tremendously touched, he needed to let Accorsi and the rest of the Giants know that if it weren't for his love of the team, his children would not have a father.
I realize that for every one uplifting tale that came out of the catastrophe, there are 1,000 nightmares.
But I thought I would pass the story along for anyone who hasn't done much smiling lately.
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