Stlcardinals.com
September 12, 2001

Morris Closely Touched By Tragedy

By Adam McCalvy

MILWAUKEE -- St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Matt Morris gave a remarkably calm account Wednesday of what must have been a horrifying experience just over 24 hours earlier.

Morris woke from his slumber Tuesday morning to the ringing of his cell phone. The caller's message: New York City, where 20 members of Morris' extended family live and work, was under attack.

Part of a terrorist attack that also affected Washington D.C. and Western Pennsylvania, two hijacked commercial airplanes slammed into the World Trade Center's twin towers in lower Manhattan on Tuesday morning. The planes' impact, and the fires that resulted, caused both 110-story towers to collapse, likely killing thousands in the area.

"All my family is still there. I have big ties to that area," said Morris, whose first phone call was to his father George, an ironworker in Manhattan's Local 580. George Morris was working 15-20 blocks from the World Trade Center when the attack occurred and was armed with a cell phone. Matt said he placed the call at 10 a.m. local time, 11 a.m. in New York.

"You just hear stuff in the background that I'm watching on TV," said Morris of the call. "Sirens and people, just kind of hectic and crazy."

By that time, his father was safe, traveling north by car towards the Lincoln Tunnel and out of Manhattan. Morris said the rest of his family was safe and accounted for also. Matt said his uncle John, a firefighter in the Bronx, was with George Morris when the terrorist attacks occurred.

"He was working as an ironworker with my dad because he wasn't on the job with the fire department, but he got summoned after," Morris said. "They were all down there."

George and John Morris heard the first explosion and saw smoke when an American Airlines flight crashed into the side of the north tower at 8:45 a.m. ET. Then, they watched in horror as a second commercial plane, a United Airlines flight, banked sharply and hit the south tower 18 minutes later.

"He got in his car and started heading north, back home," Morris said of his father, who moved with his wife to Montgomery, N.Y. just before Matt was born and commutes daily. "He was just telling me what was going on. He was in traffic and at that time he was passing the Lincoln Tunnel heading north. At that time it closed down already so he was just hoping for a way out."

George Morris continued driving north, and was able to leave the island of Manhattan on the last remaining bridge that was open. The commute, normally a one and a half hour drive, took five hours, Morris said.

Other members of the Morris clan -- uncles, cousins and other extended family members -- are also ironworkers in New York City. Morris said they were assisting rescuers on Tuesday, and were likely back on the scene on Wednesday, while the Cardinals participated in a workout at Miller Park in Milwaukee.

"They're all associated with that. All the unions and everybody got together yesterday after everything went down and went to help out on the scene," Morris said. "I'm sure they've been getting calls since then, just helping out in any way.

"I'm not thinking about their safety right now. They're trying to help people who are trapped and get the city back running. That's what they're there to do."

Staying with his girlfriend in Chicago, Morris said he watched news coverage of the event all day.

"I was just shocked at the whole situation going on," he said. "And then seeing at over and over again, that didn't help me out any."

His family was not Morris' only concern. He attended Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J., and said many of his "college buddies" were working in lower Manhattan at the time of the attack.

"My college roommate and his dad work down on Wall Street and I guess they weren't allowed to leave their building for a while until stuff cleared up. Stuff like that starts to hit home a little bit," Morris said. "I'm sure I'll know of people who were injured or hurt but right now I don't."

Morris said he was confident New Yorkers would persevere.

"It's a strong city and strong people," he said. "It seems like everybody's joining hands and linking together and are going to help each other out in time of crisis. If anyone can pull through, it will be them."