By RONALD BLUM, AP Sports Writer
Ballparks stood empty, race tracks fell dark and sports television networks replayed scenes of devastation instead of games.
The terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon (news - web sites) brought professional and college sports to a standstill nationwide Tuesday and it was unclear when they would resume.
Major league baseball postponed a full schedule of regular-season games for the first time since D-Day in 1944, many college football games were called off and the NFL was deciding whether to play Sunday.
"Football doesn't seem too important right now,'' Florida coach Steve Spurrier said.
Baseball, with just 21/2 weeks remaining in its pennant races, perhaps was most affected. Teams are fighting for playoff berths and Barry Bonds hopes to hit eight more home runs to break Mark McGwire's record of 70.
Besides work stoppages, it was the first time since the Allied invasion of France that baseball wiped out a whole day of regular-season play. The New York Yankees also canceled Wednesday night's game against the Chicago White Sox at Yankee Stadium, which was evacuated within 90 minutes of the first attack.
Security was tightened outside the 78-year-old ballpark in the South Bronx, more than 10 miles from the World Trade Center but perhaps the building that most symbolizes American sports.
The White Sox planned to take a bus to Cleveland on Wednesday morning, an indication baseball would probably wipe out more games. They were scheduled to play the Yankees again Thursday.
Commissioner Bud Selig said he made the decision to postpone games "in the interest of security and out of a sense of deep mourning for the national tragedy.''
The NFL, criticized for playing after President Kennedy's assassination in 1963, wasn't sure whether to play this weekend's schedule.
"We'll gather information and speak to several parties within the next 24 to 48 hours,'' league spokesman Joe Browne said.
Jacksonville Jaguars coach Tom Coughlin's son, Tim, was in the World Trade Center when the first plane crashed into it, but escaped uninjured.
College football commissioners considered postponing the weekend's entire schedule. Three games set for Thursday night and four on Saturday were postponed, including No. 13 Washington at No. 1 Miami.
"The games themselves are insignificant in the face of what has happened today,'' NCAA (news - web sites) president Cedric Dempsey said.
Commissioners of the NCAA's Division I-A conferences, including the Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-10 and Southeastern, held a conference call to discuss their options for staging this weekend's football games. There were 116 Division I games scheduled for Thursday through Saturday. The ACC postponed all sports through Thursday.
Three Thursday night games were called off: Texas Tech at Texas-El Paso was tentatively pushed back to Saturday; Ohio at North Carolina State was rescheduled for Nov. 24; and Penn State at Virginia was not immediately rescheduled.
Saturday's Washington-Miami game might be played Nov. 24. Other games wiped out that day include Arizona State-UCLA at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. (might be played Dec. 1); San Diego State at Ohio State (rescheduled for Oct. 20); and Brown at San Diego (canceled).
Also:
- The PGA Tour canceled Thursday's starts of the World Golf Championship and two other tournaments. Commissioner Tim Finchem said the World Golf Championship in St. Louis will begin Friday with 36 holes.
The Tampa Bay Classic will open with 18 holes each on Friday and Saturday and a 36-hole conclusion. The same schedule has been applied to the Buy.com Tour event in Oregon. The Senior Tour will remain on schedule, with a 54-hole event that starts Friday in North Carolina.
"This is a sad, sad day in America,'' Tiger Woods said.
- Olympic officials said security for the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics will be completely re-evaluated but vowed the games will go on as planned from Feb. 8-24. A $200 million plan to protect athletes and spectators is no longer sufficient, said Mitt Romney, president of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee (news - web sites).
"I look for the federal government to revisit the public safety plans for the games,'' he said.
- NASCAR (news - web sites) canceled Friday's qualifying for the New Hampshire 300 in Louden but made no decision concerning the race itself. The Indy Racing League will decide Wednesday on the status of Sunday's Chevy 500 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.
- Major League Soccer postponed all four of Wednesday night's games. In Columbus, Ohio, the U.S. Women's Cup doubleheader involving the United States against Japan and Germany vs. China was canceled.
- The Thoroughbred Racing Association canceled all its cards Tuesday, and Wednesday's racing was called off at Arlington Park in Arlington Heights, Ill.; Belmont Park in New York; Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore; and Turfway Park in Florence, Ky.
- Garnet "Ace'' Bailey, 53, a former NHL player with Boston, Detroit and St. Louis, and director of pro scouting for the Los Angeles Kings, was aboard United Airlines Flight 175, one of two planes that hit the World Trade Center. Mark Bavis, an amateur scout for the Kings, also was aboard.
It was only the third time the major leagues postponed an entire day's schedule, besides when there has been labor strife, according to Scot Mondore of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
The others were Aug. 2, 1923, when President Harding died; and June 6, 1944, when Allied forces invaded France in World War II. Exhibition games were called off on April 14, 1945, two days after the death of President Roosevelt.
In Pittsburgh, the New York Mets left a hotel across the street from a federal building and moved to the suburbs as a security precaution.
Atlanta pitcher John Burkett, at home in Dallas following an off-day, borrowed the car of former teammate Rusty Greer and planned to drive about 850 miles to Atlanta, where he was scheduled to pitch against the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday.
"I felt obligated to my team to be there,'' he said. "I would've felt sick watching the game at home, knowing I could've and should've been there, but wasn't.''