'Very uncertain times': Amid current crisis, White Sox travel director remembers 9/11
Ed Cassin remembers all too well what it was like on 9/11.
After playing a night game at Cleveland the day before, the White Sox arrived in New York City early in the morning Sept. 11, 2001, for a series against the Yankees.
Catching some needed sleep, Cassin's hotel phone rang later that morning with news of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center's twin towers.
One of the first calls came from Kenny Williams, who was in his first season as Sox general manager.
"He said, 'I don't care what you have to do, get us out of here,'" said Cassin, who is in his 22nd year as the White Sox's director of team travel.
"I was on the phone for 12 hours that day," Cassin remembered Wednesday on a call from Camelback Ranch, the Sox's home in spring training. "I talked to the Port Authority police, New York City police and the New York state police, trying to get permission for two buses to come out of Manhattan on the morning of Sept. 12."
The White Sox were ultimately cleared to leave that morning by bus, although they were flagged down by police to pick up a crew of triage nurses and drop them off at a hospital on the New Jersey side of the George Washington Bridge.
The Sox made it back to Chicago and endured the fallout from 9/11 while baseball was shut down for a week.
Fast forwarding to the present, major league baseball has already been suspended for over a week due to the coronavirus pandemic.
"Logistics-wise, yeah, there are some similarities (to 9/11)," Cassin said. "There are also similarities with personal feelings, just because of the unknown."
As major league baseball was shutting down last week, Cassin noticed the stress from Sox players and staff looking to get out of Arizona.
"Guys are just unsettled," Cassin said. "They will invariably come to me with questions and I generally know where to point them if I don't have the answer myself. Right now, none of us have answers.
"They really didn't know what to do. We sent nonroster guys home, sent all the minor league kids home. The spring training facilities have been staffed at a skeleton level for 40-man (roster) guys and the initial thought was, 'Yeah, we want to stick around.'
"As each day goes on, you're seeing fewer and fewer of these guys still around. Very uncertain times."
Cassin, who flew back to Chicago on Thursday, estimated 10-15 players on the White Sox's 40-man roster are still in camp even though there are no organized activities.
Many players and staff flew back to their off-season homes, and some drove. Others had rental cars that were dropped off back home after one-way fees were waived.
"It's obviously been a difficult time for everyone in the world," Cassin said. "For a baseball club in spring training, we have the same information that everyone else in the world has and it changes on a day-to-day basis."
The regular season was supposed to open next Thursday, which is not happening.
Cassin handles all of the Sox's flights and hotels during the season, and he also lines up buses and equipment trucks for road games.
"I sent out emails (Wednesday), starting with United for charter flights," Cassin said. "I emailed all the hotels, bus companies, truck companies to cancel April road games. I'll probably give it another week and I think at that point we can pretty safely say we're probably not going to play in May."