Effect of tragedy tonight on Jays?

[PurpleJays]

I thought I'd post something in regards to the awful events that have unfolded at a local mall here in Omaha. Obviously my thouhts and prayers go out to everyone thats been effected by this event. It is a truly sad and horrifying situation.

Tonight is going to be tough for the jays to say the least. My only question is do you think the Jays will be effected by whats happened?

I personally think that the Jays are going to play some of the most inspired basketball they have ever played. Hopefully Dana will have them ready to knock down the walls at the cintas center tonight.


GO JAYS.

[DawgFan]

No effect at all. Jays were out of town when it happened. Would be nice if X has a moment of silence. I would guess they will.

[OmahaBen]

Tonight is going to be tough for the jays to say the least. My only question is do you think the Jays will be effected by whats happened?

My guess is little to no effect. They're out of town.

My question is simply whether Channel 3 is still going to show the game or not. Honestly, five hours straight of news has me burned out. I realize it's a big story but how much new information are they gonna come out with at this point that hasn't been gone over already?

[outpost]

I hope no VT'ers were involved.

Getting a little scary, we had a sniper back in 1974 who killed 3-4 people. He's still put away.

We've also had one of the first instances of school violence I can recall, James Kirby (?) shot the principal in Goddard Middle School back around 1980.

Just cringing, waiting for something like what happened today to occur here. I hope it doesn't but it seems like it'll be inevitable.

I think the game will go on up there (TV). Omaha apparently needs a little diversion from today's events.

[omahajayscu]

I can't speak for everyone else, but I think this event had a huge effect on most fans. Waking up this morning, I was so excited for tonight. I threw on my favorite jays shirt, busted out the gameday hat, and headed off to class where I did little but play out scenarios for the game and think about how much I hate our starting lineup. When I got back around 2, as I am getting ready to hop on the bluejaycafe, maybe listen to some bluejay interview podcasts (i live outside of Omaha), and watch some ESPN, but then I get a phone call. Hey turn on CNN a couple people got shot at Westroads. I didn't think much of it, but then I start watching. I was stuck. I literally sat and watched CNN/Fox/MSNBC all day. When it came time to watch the game, I couldn't focus. I kept thinking "you paid 10 bucks for this online broadcast" but that meant nothing. I grew up at that mall. My friends worked at that mall. I literally drove by that mall every day for several years.

This whole game just seems pointless right now. All I thought about all day was "what if someone I know was there." Lets face it, Omaha isn't huge, if 9 of the 900,000 people were killed the odds I knew someone were huge. Its weird, right now I should be looking at box scores, checking Xavier's message board, reading everyone give us **** here on VT, bitching on the cafe, but none of that feels right. I can't help but wonder what if.

I hope and pray that the families effected can find strength to get through this difficult time.

Anyway, I don't mean to bring this sob story over here, but I saw this thread and couldn't resist. Maybe this stuff isn't as important as we think it is. Seriously, most of us probably spend hours upon hours each week looking at box scores, discussing play calls, fighting over what city is better, who owns their arena, who's uniforms are nicer, who has a better coach, whose coach makes more money. What is it all for? I am not saying that being a die hard is bad. Its freaking fantastic. But maybe sometimes, for me at least, things get taken too far and we lose sight of what really matters in life.

[Majik45]

It's a truly sad day in America when you can't go shopping for Christmas presents for your family without worrying about something like this happening. I have a lot of family in Omaha, and luckily they are all alright. I've been to this mall many times, including about 2 months ago. It's just scary to comprehend. My thoughts and prayers go out to all the families.

[Waylon Van Smack]

It's our local version of 9/11.... (not to compare them in scope) but it is an event that all here in Omaha if not the entire state will remember for our entire lives..... its always been "somewhere else" when tragic events like this occur, not anymore.

My oldest brother called me just now and said something profound.... "in my 50+ years living here, this is the saddest day of my life in Omaha." he is right.

did it affect the players?.... dunno, don't care. its small potatoes in the scheme of things.

[da_bears]

Why would one little incedent bother a basketball team.

Its not like you see SLU effected every time there is a murder in St. Louis, which could be several a week.

[MoValley John]

Why would one little incedent bother a basketball team.

Its not like you see SLU effected every time there is a murder in St. Louis, which could be several a week.

Because this one little incident is a random act of violence that isn't supposed to happen. The mall is in an affluent area and is considered safe. What happened goes against everything we know. my daughter came home from school very scared, it was traumatizing.

Generally, murders in both St. Louis and Omaha have a perpetrator and an intended victim. Not random victims. We grow comfortable in the fact that if we behave in a certain manner and avoid dangerous activities and areas, we are isolated from violence. This random act shatters that comfort and inhibits the way we go about our daily lives. We become scared to leave our own houses.

That said, I don't think the event had an effect on the basketball team, they were out of town, but your question was, well, stupid.

[DUBulldog]

Why would one little incedent bother a basketball team.

Nine people killed in a random shooting is "one little incident"? :no:

[DoubleJayAlum]

Why would one little incedent bother a basketball team.

I can't believe the ignorance of some people.

If the murder of eight people in a public shopping mall is "one little incident" what makes a "large incident" in your self-centered view of the world?

You are an insensitive a-hole. Only someone who has no compassion for their neighbors would be uneffected.

I would wager that everyone in this community is effected one way or another. Almost everyone has been at that mall to one point in time or another and it could have easily have been any one of us. My mother-in-law was in the store when the incident took place. Although she was uninjured, I don't know if psychologically she will ever recover completely.

Go to hell.

[Dawg_tired]

Because this one little incident is a random act of violence that isn't supposed to happen. The mall is in an affluent area and is considered safe. What happened goes against everything we know. my daughter came home from school very scared, it was traumatizing.

Generally, murders in both St. Louis and Omaha have a perpetrator and an intended victim. Not random victims. We grow comfortable in the fact that if we behave in a certain manner and avoid dangerous activities and areas, we are isolated from violence. This random act shatters that comfort and inhibits the way we go about our daily lives. We become scared to leave our own houses.

That said, I don't think the event had an effect on the basketball team, they were out of town, but your question was, well, stupid.

As well as insensitive and lacking judgement.

[MoValley John]

Here is how it affects me.... So far.
I have yet to find out if I know any of the victims, or am friends of people who know, or are related to the victims, so as of yet, I'm lucky.

On the other hand, my daughter has friends who work in the mall- tons of high school kids work there. Her frends were sheduled to work last night. One of the girls works part-time at Von Maur. My daughter is very noticably shaken, so are er her friends. MY DAUGHTER HAS A FRIEND WHO PROBABLY KNOWS A VICTIM. You can compound that by every high school that has students that are also employees at the mall, literally thousands of kids are affected.

The woman who took the shooter in, is a pre-op nurse at the Nebraska Medical Center. My wife knows her well. I'm lucky, I don't. What I have heard of her is that she is a hard working, very good nurse that is compassionate and caring in her job and at home. She was doing her best to take care of a kid that had been cast out ohis own home. She took him in to try and help, her family basically adopted him. She is an angel and nobody saw this coming from this kid. Now a co-woker of my wife has had her world turned upside down. My wife is very upset about her friend and co-worker having to try to live through all of this. That same sentiment is resonating through the hospital. It is tough on hundreds and hundreds of people- and they don't even know any of the deceased.

So Mr. da_bears, why don't you give your stupidity a rest for a week or two.

[LincolnJay]

Not to be gruesome but since you mentioned you didn't know the names of the victims, the list has recently surfaced:

Those killed were identified as Beverly Flynn, 47, of Omaha; Janet Jorgensen, 66, of Omaha; Gary Joy, 56, of Omaha; Angie Schuster, 36, of Omaha; Diane Trent, 53, of Omaha; and Maggie Webb, 24, of Omaha. They were all employees. Customers John McDonald, 65, of Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Gary Scharf, 48, of Lincoln, Neb., also were killed.


This will forever change people connected to Omaha. I grew up not much more than a mile from that mall and spent countless hours in the place. I saw countless movies at the 6 West Theatres there. My wife was in Omaha for business the day before this happened and took her lunch hour and shopped in that Von Maur almost exactly to the minute 24 hours before.

For those that don't "get it", I have to wonder how you were raised.

[Awesome Sauce Malone]

My ace boon sitting right behind at me at work is from Omaha and said she knew a couple of people that were killed

[Mc Bulldog]

There really isn't anything to say other than sorry. My wife and I and about 6-8 people that sit around us wondered if Drake would have a moment of silence before the game last night. They didn't but ... I think everyone in Des Moines was thinking about it. I can tell you that it was a major topic of discussion at the West End before and after the game. How unbelieveable can it get? Thoughts are with everyone in Omaha. Why would the kid do something like that? It's so far over the top of anything that should be realistic.

[troutangler]

My sister-in-law was in the store when it happened. She and some other people went into a closet in a dressing room and waited for the police to get there. They showed them on CNN coming out of the mall with their hands up. It's so weird because when I first heard about it around 4 p.m., I thought about the family I have in Omaha and shrugged it off thinking "Nahh, Omaha is a big city, what are the odds?". Then a few hours later my mother-in-law calls and tells me about all that. It's nuts.

I can't believe anyone would call it "One little incident". A fender bender on the road is a "little incident". Someone being randomly shot and killed, let alone 9 people is a lot bigger than a "little incident".

If this kid was so messed up, why can't he just go swallow a gun barrel by himself? Why does he need to take people with him who have nothing to do with his problems?

[da_bears]

I never said the event didn't effect people, Im sorry for those involved. But with most of CUs roster being from out of state I figured that they wouldn't be effected.

[The Big Guy]

Where is the Westroads Shopping Center located? I've been to Omaha many times but I can't remember where it is.

[blueness]

Basically the center part of the entire metro area.

Just north of Dodge Street, encompassing 96th to 102nd streets, just east of I-680.

One of the individuals killed was a graduate of Creighton.

One of the injured is a graduate of CU Law. He was injured after he was shot in the arm from behind...it barely missed his brachial artery, so he was able to contain the bleeding and make it to safety (he stated all this in his interview with several news outlets last night).

[MSNSaluki]

I never said the event didn't effect people, Im sorry for those involved. But with most of CUs roster being from out of state I figured that they wouldn't be effected.


Not only are you an insensitive lout, you also don't know the difference between "effect" and "affect".

Two strikes.

[DUBulldog]

I never said the event didn't effect people, Im sorry for those involved. But with most of CUs roster being from out of state I figured that they wouldn't be effected.

Whether they are from Nebraska or not is irrelevant. They all know lots of people in Omaha....even if most of the people they know are Creighton students. There was a random shooting in the town where they go to school. Nine people were killed. Many others were injured. No names were released.

Don't you think that maybe, just maybe, it was in the back of their minds a little bit that there was a senseless act of mass violence in their town and that people they know could have been involved? I'm guessing they might have been thinking about it.

Most people with any sense of empathy or compassion would be affected by a tragedy like this, whether or not they knew any of the people involved.

[Matrix]

They will be effected for sure, but maybe they can play a small role in the healing process for a few. If by nothing else, just taking their fans' minds off the tragedy for a few minutes at a time.

My prayers and thoughts go out to you.

[cpacmel]

http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2007/12/06/news/doc4758569aeee81224759104.txt

NORMAL -- A 24-year-old graduate of Illinois State University was among the victims of a gunman who killed eight people at a shopping mall in Omaha, Neb., Wednesday.

Maggie Webb, a 2005 graduate of ISU, was identified as one of the victims of the deadly shooting at the Von Maur store where she worked.

[blueness]

Among the deceased:
Angie Schuster, 36, Von Maur employee, graduated from the University of Northern Iowa in 1994 with a degree in education.

John McDonald, 65, a 1966 (B.A) and 1979 (M.B.A.), graduate of Creighton University.

[shockball]

It is disconcerting to hear about these things even from a distance. Hopefully those that are closer realize that they aren't alone.

[CU Forever]

Why would one little incedent bother a basketball team.

Its not like you see SLU effected every time there is a murder in St. Louis, which could be several a week.

You are an IDIOT:shutup:

[outpost]

Didn't want to say much about it until it resolved itself, but Son of outpost went to a funeral this morning.

One of his fellow graduates from class of 2007, and a first year student-athlete at Coffeyville Junior College (a couple of hours SE of Wichita), took his own life on Tuesday afternoon. He came home to Derby for a visit, and 2-3 days before the event had told his girlfriend that he was "thinking about killing himself".....

Tuesday afternoon, the young man's girlfriend (who happens to be a good friend of my son's too) went over to his house. Don't know how it all transpired, but she found him in his backyard with a gunshot wound to his head and the gun in his hand.

Some people do it different ways, but eventually they all seem to try to "call for help."

I guess we all could use a little better training in how to recognize the signals.