Osama bin Laden, the Mets, and the Phillies

I hope you will indulge me with a (mostly) non-baseball post regarding the news that Osama bin Laden is no more.

I was watching Channel 11 news last night, and at around 10:40 p.m. or so, one of their anchors made a very strange announcement: That President Barack Obama would be addressing the nation with a national security announcement, and that it had nothing to do with Libya.

My very first thought was that it was something to do with Osama bin Laden. Here's what I wrote on Facebook last night:

"Just saw that President Obama is about to make a national security announcement in around 15 minutes. Could it mean that Osama bin Laden has been nabbed?"

A few minutes later, news started trickling out that not only was Osama found, but that he was dead. President Obama said, "Justice has been done." My response to the news was a lot less eloquent. "Ding, dong, the &^%$# is dead!" I wrote on Facebook.

In flipping around the dials last night to watch the coverage, I heard about Philadelphia Phillies fans (and Mets fans in the ballpark) united as one, chanting, "U-S-A! U-S-A!" So I watched some of the game. It used to be that when breaking news came out during sporting events, fans who brought radios to the game would spread the word (when I was at the Pine Tar Game, that's how we first heard what George Brett was flipping out about.) Now word spreads via smartphones.

Squawker Jon and I were wondering what the Phillies and Mets players were thinking, as the chants went around. Apparently, they were the last people to know in the ballpark.

I normally wouldn't have been watching the end of a 14-inning Sunday night Mets-Phillies game to the bitter end. But I did actually catch the end of the game, and saw the Mets win.

* * *

I have lived on Staten Island for a decade. When I first moved here, I used to love gazing the Twin Towers when walking to the Staten Island Ferry. Then I saw huge plumes of smoke where the buildings used to be. Now, I see the Staten Island 9/11 memorial. This morning, I will stop there again, and pay my respects to those who were murdered on September 11, 2001.
 
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