Columnist Dean Juipe: Sanctuary of sports is violated

Dean Juipe

Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2001 | 10:03 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

With chilling precision, the darkest elements of mankind intruded on America this week and forever changed our compact and rose-colored view of life. It is something none of us will ever forget.

Sports, too, were infringed by the terrorists' attacks on the East Coast.

This was no longer something from a B-grade movie, such as a slow-moving blimp hovering above the Super Bowl before interrupting a game with gunshots, fire and Hollywood-conspired bedlam.

Nor was it a hypothetical situation many of us have contemplated, where a lone gunman takes aim at a specific target on a baseball field, basketball court or hockey rink and assassinates a high-profile athlete for no greater reward than his own warped sense of amusement.

For the first time since the completely different circumstances of D-day in 1944, Major League Baseball games were cancelled in a precautionary measure Tuesday and other sports stepped back to assess their priorities -- and travel dilemmas -- in the wake of the cowardly assaults in New York and Washington D.C.

Sports, once a sanctuary from the heartaches and miseries of everyday life, to say nothing of an escape from such redundancies as eight-hour work days and boring TV sitcoms, had been impacted by a blatant act of war by unnamed assailants.

Just as was the case today for governmental agencies and common businesses alike, sports leagues and organizations were confronted with dueling stimuli as they wrestled with appropriate responses in the wake of the tragedies. Should they push forward and adhere to their schedules as best as possible? Or should they defer and cancel their games out of respect for the lives lost, if not the fear of additional acts of violence?

Of course there was no easy, clear-cut solution ... no proven, established and appropriate response. Each sport, each league, was left to make its own groundbreaking decision.

When President Kennedy was killed in 1963 the National Football League played its scheduled games that weekend, albeit at the expense of critics who still seethe at the perceived indifference. Nevertheless, it's just as easy to argue that the fact the games were played reflected the inner strength of a country that was refusing to be intimidated.

The current situation was complicated by the nationwide ban on air travel that was scheduled to be lifted this morning. Teams as well as those in individual sports such as the pro golf, tennis and bowling tours would have to regroup or scramble accordingly.

A general assumption -- that the sooner we returned to business as usual, the better -- was offset by a harsh reality in which the grieving process had yet to run its course. There was no guiding light to signify which response -- to sit for a while in quiet contemplation, or to move forward and resume play -- would be judged as more correct than the other.

Sports fans are but a tiny fraction of the millions and millions of people the world over who are irate by what has happened within the U.S. borders. Our saving grace as followers of sports at this still-unnerving time: When the games do resume and are played, they will be a most welcome diversion.