If I ever heard this story before I had completely forgotten it. But I’m fairly sure I hadn’t heard it before. If you haven’t, by all means, click on Kevin Kernan’s story at the New York Post about reliever Brad Thomas, Michael Cuddyer and a near-miss on September 11, 2001.
Short version: reliever Brad Thomas and Michael Cuddyer were teammates on the Minnesota Twins’ Double-A team in New Britain. They were playing in the Double-A playoffs together in September, 2001. Their first round series was scheduled to end, one way or another, on September 10. Thomas and his fiancee had tickets on American Airlines Flight 11 from Boston to Los Angeles to go home in the event New Britain lost the series. Cuddyer’s homers helped them move on to the next round, however, so Thomas didn’t use his tickets. Flight 11, of course, was hijacked and flown into the World Trade Center.
The forces which propel our lives forward are unknowable as we look forward and are often incomprehensible looking backwards.
