RONNIE GIES HAD been missing for almost 10 days when his wife, Carol, got two unexpected invitations for Sept. 21, 2001. One was to go to the World Trade Center with other grieving spouses and loved ones of firefighters who were believed to have been lost in the collapse of the Twin Towers. The other invitation was to the Braves-Mets game that night, the first regular-season professional sporting event in New York City since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.
She wasn't so sure about taking everybody to a baseball game -- Gies (pronounced Geese) and her three boys, ages 13, 16 and 18, could barely leave their living room at the time.