Well, hello, my friends, and welcome to the Live Inspired podcast Monday morning moments with John O'Leary.

We record these each and every Monday to begin your day and your week in awe

and on fire with a burst of inspiration. And as we step into this September 11th,

2023 Monday, we thought it would be wise to slow down and pause, be reminded of the significance

of this date and also what it means for us going

forward. The first sporting event after the September 11th, 2001 attacks occurred in my own

backyard of St. Louis, Missouri. With still simmering debris fields in New York and Washington and Pennsylvania,

a nation both mourned what had been lost and struggled how to return to any semblance at all of

normal. With the perceived potential of additional attacks, all airlines were grounded, all public

events were canceled. All downtown areas

were still quiet. And all stadiums were empty. It was determined the first event would be a simple

baseball game played in the Midwest. Although the stadium, Bush Stadium, was packed with fans

that night. they weren't there

simply gathered for baseball, but instead as a small, defiant stand against terrorism. Those fans

hoped their mere attendance in the face of another attack, maybe even one that might occur that

night, would show the world we would not live in the shadow of fear.

Before the game, a veteran of World War II, an icon in the baseball world, a man who had been ravished by advanced Parkinson's disease,

a perfect bastion of humble courage, and a personal hero to me approached the microphone in the

middle of the stadium.

With the paper he was supposed to read, crumbled in his hands prematurely due to tremors

from the disease.

Jack Buck looked up at a pack stadium in St. Louis and a national television audience

...