MLB return to normalcy will take time

Major League Baseball is back. However, like everything else, the context of the games has changed.

Broadcasting one of the six games on Monday that restarted the season, the Mets in Pittsburgh, was a struggle and it was strange.

Broadcasting the first two innings was an out-of-body experience. One really didn’t want to be doing this, hoping one was doing so in a way respectful enough in light of the national tragedy.

The players were apprehensive for that and other reasons. For the Mets players, there were families that were left behind in New York City at a time when no one knew what might happen next.

They boarded a charter flight for Pittsburgh on which they were allowed to bring no luggage of any kind, including briefcases. Every player had to go through a personal security check on the tarmac before boarding the plane, including the electric wand being passed over his body.

Once in the air, they passed over lower Manhattan and the smoldering rubble. Some of the players looked and cried. Some turned away, unable to view for themselves what they had been watching on television for days.

In Pittsburgh, both the Pirates and Mets players were being asked to focus long enough to get the games in, with no one kidding anyone about what was on their minds. For the first couple of innings they did the mechanics while their hearts were elsewhere.

As the game progressed, the broadcasters and the players began to again feel the game, but not very deeply and not for very long periods of time.

If one smiled, was it appropriate? Could one laugh yet? Was a high five in order? Could one as a player or announcer get excited about anything to do with the game while the rescue efforts and the memorial services went on in New York, Washington and hundreds of communities directly affected by the loss of innocent lives?

The Pirate organization, in a show of compassion for the city from which their opponents came, passed out the “I Love New York” buttons to all entering the park. The fans wore them, the players put them on their street clothes and management people pinned them on their business suits.

The fans sat mostly quiet for this first game back. They joined in the opening ceremonies, singing God Bless America. They politely applauded for Mets and Pirate players, but there were no cheers chanted, no verbal abuse shouted at opposing players and on one hollered at the ump.

The games for the rest of the year in MLB are entertainment moments, sites of respite from the agony and grieving.

It will be interesting to see how both fans and players view the post-season games. The intensity level of the games will pick up; the fans will again care, cheer and boo.

Yet, it will not be the same. A renewed perspective on what’s important, a worthy lesson, but at far too terrible a cost, will permeate our society for a long time to come.

All sports will be day to day for awhile. The future is moment to moment. We wait and watch. The games are a brief pause in the suffering. Nothing more.

Old Town native Gary Thorne is an ESPN and NBC sportscaster.