Jays and Orioles meet again, 25 years after their Sept. 11, 2001 game was postponed

TORONTO — After an off-day in September 2001, former Blue Jays manager Buck Martinez was driving from New Jersey to Baltimore for a series against the Orioles when news of the U.S. terror attacks came across his car radio.

When he arrived in the Maryland city, uncertainty hung in the air – particularly with the team hotel so close to the Baltimore World Trade Center.

“My coaching staff all gathered in my suite glued to the TV,” Martinez recalled Friday in a text message. “Everything we saw was unbelievable. It hit us all very hard.”

The Toronto-Baltimore game and other Major League Baseball matchups were postponed. With air travel ruled out, the Blue Jays returned to Canada later that week via bus.

They didn’t play again until a Sept. 18 home game against Baltimore, which included an extended pre-game ceremony.

“It’s the only time I appreciated the crowd going, ‘U.S.A.! U.S.A.!'” longtime baseball writer Richard Griffin said Friday, shortly before the Blue Jays and Orioles played at Rogers Centre on the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

That fateful morning, Blue Jays players and team staff were evacuated from their waterfront hotel after the first plane hit the World Trade Center tower in New York.

Cellphone service was poor at best. The team’s travelling secretary at the time, Bart Given, remembered the panic and rumours that circulated as people milled about outside the hotel.

“You’re all trying to gather information,” Given said. “People have different levels of understanding of what’s going on. Some hadn’t really seen the news cycle yet, they’re confused.”

Players and team staff had recently been given BlackBerry mobile devices, he said. The technology allowed for PIN (personal identification number) to PIN messaging, which came in handy that day.

Given’s device was in near-constant use. He was in charge of team transport and logistics and he would send individual PINs to others as plans developed.

There was a lot to co-ordinate and many unanswered questions.

“Can we get buses (home)? Will the bus drivers drive us? How many buses do we need? How many drivers do we need,” he said. “I think we predicted a 12-hour drive and I wasn’t sure how long we’d have to wait at the border.”

Once the all-clear was given, many members of the Blue Jays’ contingent went back to their rooms. Others walked a few blocks to donate blood.

“I figured that’s the least we could do,” said Jay Stenhouse, the Blue Jays’ assistant director of public relations at the time. “You see so many people (on TV) who were hurt and injured.”

The rest of the day was mostly spent gathering information and trying to make sure everyone’s family members were OK, Given said.

He eventually secured the services of two charter buses. Bookings were made for a late-night 750-kilometre journey north.

“It might sound mundane and ridiculous, but we bought some movies – old DVDs (digital video discs) – for the ride for everyone to (be) distracted and make the time go by a little quicker,” Given said.

“We were just happy to be moving and trying to get some normalcy,” said Stenhouse.

Major League Baseball resumed play on Sept. 17. Schedule adjustments were made to the regular season and post-season as a result of the extended break.

A 16-minute ceremony preceded the Toronto-Baltimore game the following night. An announced crowd of 18,604 watched the Blue Jays defeat the Orioles 8-5.

For many, baseball provided a welcome break from the grim news cycle at the time. New York was the site of some of the more powerful moments.

They included Mike Piazza’s go-ahead home run in the Mets’ first game back at Shea Stadium on Sept. 21. When the Yankees returned home Sept. 25, members of New York’s fire department and police department stood along the baselines during an emotional 30-minute pre-game ceremony.

The Yankees reached the World Series that fall and U.S. President George Bush – with a FDNY pullover covering his bulletproof vest – threw out the ceremonial first pitch ahead of Game 3.

“I feel like baseball kind of brought normalcy back a little bit,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said Friday in a pre-game media availability. “Where people could actually enjoy a game as opposed to worrying about what’s happening next.”

A moment of silence was observed before Friday night’s game at Rogers Centre. Members of Toronto’s fire services honour guard stood at attention on the infield during the national anthems.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2026.

Gregory Strong, The Canadian Press