With the 12th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks approaching, a UF graduate has written an e-book on how American baseball became an outlet for grief.
UF alumnus Patrick Carney released “Baseball after 9/11: Six Nights That Helped Heal America,” on Amazon on Tuesday. Carney said baseball could be a healing process for those who have lost loved ones.
The e-book is available exclusively online for $2.99. The Kindle app is free and open to download on any computer, tablet or smartphone.
The e-book explains six different nights in ballparks around the country in a post-Sept. 11 world, where there was debate on whether to resume playing baseball, Carney said.
The book includes moments like the game-winning home run by Mike Piazza 10 days after Sept. 11, President George W. Bush’s first pitch at the 2001 World Series and crowd chanting U-S-A in Philadelphia on the night Osama bin Laden was announced killed 10 years later.
“Baseball allowed people to focus on the positive through all the nonstop coverage in the news,” Carney said.
Breanne Woods said baseball is America’s pastime and it gave people something to look forward to.
“I feel this book is very inspirational because it shows how baseball helped America keep moving,” said the 21-year-old UF psychology senior.
A portion of the proceeds will be donated to Tuesday’s Children, a New York-based charity that supports the families and children of lost loved ones of Sept. 11, Carney said.
“Writing the book was exciting and fun for me, but I also wanted it to have some meaning as well,” said Carney.
A version of this story ran on page 5 on 9/9/2013 under the headline "UF alumnus releases baseball book"
