CHICAGO — Whenever Major League Baseball resumes play, it should not be before the other sports do, Reds captain Barry Larkin said.

        “How could we begin play Friday if the NFL decides not to play Sunday, which is what they're considering now?” Larkin said. “Whatever we do (as professional sports), we should all do it together.”

        Other Reds threw their support behind Larkin.

        “I definitely don't want to make any impression that we (MLB) are taking any of this lightheartedly,” Reds reliever Scott Sullivan said. “Whenever we resume the season, I'm sure a lot of the players — if not all of them — are not going to be concerned about baseball.”

        Reds pitcher Dennys Reyes concurred. He said the right thing to do is resume play “when it's appropriate for the people. Not for us, the players, but for society. That's what matters now. The game itself is (sec ondary).”

        MLB decided Wednesday to cancel its entire slate of games for Wednesday and today, meaning the final two games of the Reds' series against the Cubs would be off. Tuesday's games had been canceled after a series of airplanes were hijacked and crashed into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.

        The 50-plus-member Reds traveling party will bus home starting at 11:15a.m. today.

        Consideration was given to trying to leave early Wednesday evening, but it would have been a scramble. Some players and their families were out of their hotel rooms and scattered around Chicago during the afternoon. Besides, it would have made for a late arrival in Cincinnati.

        Some thought was given to flying, but there was still uncertainty about whether O'Hare International Airport in Chicago would be open today, Reds traveling secretary Gary Wahoff said. He said that by the time the Reds bused to the airport, waited on the tarmac and flew home, they would almost be back home from a roughly five-hour bus ride.

        Plus, Wahoff said, he wanted to be sensitive in case any players were hesitant about flying so soon after the airplane hijackings.

        Sullivan said the players don't feel inconvenienced by having to take a long bus trip.

        “Considering what the people in New York are having to go through, whatever trials and tribulations we may have just getting from here to Cincinnati is no problem,” Sullivan said. “I don't think we'd feel inconvenienced even if we had to ride tricycles home.”

        The longest bus trip the Reds had made this season was a two-hour ride between Los Angeles and San Diego.

Baseball, NFL ponder when to play
Attack on America coverage

Reds want good sense with restart RiverBats declared IL champions

Bengals' vigor for playing muted
Smith launches career at practice
SULLIVAN: NFL must put sense before $$$
IU-UK, Purdue-ND won't play
List of sports postponements
Winton Woods' Hite picks Miami (Fla.)
Cincinnati high school results
N.Ky. high school results
Prep games will go on
Cool kicker comes up clutch for Hamilton

• Return to Reds front page...