Thomas Mcdonald

The Air That September Thomas Mcdonald

In the days, weeks and months following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the world took on a new awareness. In The Air That September, Thomas Porky McDonald, a life long resident of Queens, New York, gives one man's take on how the world he knew was affected by the tragedy, reacted to it and helped aid in the healing process. Asan individual who did not lose a close friend or loved one on that unfathomable day, McDonald was blissfully living out the final days of the inaugural season of the short season, Minor League "A" ball Brooklyn Cyclones, who were on theverge of winning a memorable championship.¿The return of professional baseball in Brooklyn after 44 years, in fact, had served as the catalyst for a book that was originally to be about a month long tour of baseball parks near and far, from the lowest level to the very highest. Then, on the morning of September 11, planes started falling from the sky. Beginning with his original vision, McDonald takes the reader to where the book's title, which was born a few months earlier, eventually led him - right back to his New York roots. The Air That September is, as it say sin its opening pages, A New York Story.¿The game of baseball, which had always been a very vital part of the City scene for over a century, serves as a book ending force for the most destructive single act of terrorism in the world's history to date. Before 9/11, Minor League baseball, played in single deck parks in both Brooklyn and Staten Island, had become one of the stories of the New York Summer. After 9/11, Shea Stadium and Yankee Stadium, the two Big City yards that had seen so many thrills in the past, became the most tangible place where New Yorkers could come together in large (50,000 plus) numbers as one. In McDonald's view, the life-liftingnature of the ballpark helped celebrate and honor the life saving efforts of so many brave women and men, many of whom lost their lives on 9/11/01.