The Minneapolis bridge collapse that dumped cars into the Mississippi River and killed at least 12 people hit home for Steve Liddle the next morning at breakfast.

“Papa, you could have been on that bridge and got killed,” the Roseville, Minn., church member's 5-year-old daughter, Sarah, told her father. “I'm so thankful that you were at the ballpark.”

The Twins bench coach, whose daughter and sons, Ben, 12, and Jake, 8, were asleep when he arrived home that night, had extra reason to hug and kiss them the next day.

Each day, Liddle would take the eight-lane Interstate 35W bridge to work at the Metrodome and back home.

He did so, as usual, Aug. 1. About four hours later, the bridge broke apart. “We were getting ready to go out on the field, and somebody came in and said, ‘Hey, the bridge has collapsed,’” Liddle told The Christian Chronicle.

Amid the initial shock, Twins manager Ron Gardenhire — who also traveled the bridge daily — said the team should cancel that night’s game with the Kansas City Royals. “Our thoughts should be elsewhere,” Liddle remembered Gardenhire saying.

But with about 25,000 fans already at the ballpark, officials urged the Twins to play rather than add to traffic congestion by sending fans home early.

Immediately after the bridge collapse, Liddle was able to call his wife, Anne, check on his family and let her know he was OK. With cell phone signals jammed, other coaches and players had difficulty determining whether relatives were all right.

“I remember one of the clubhouse guys coming down to (center fielder) Torii Hunter about the third inning saying his wife was fine,” said Liddle, a Nashville, Tenn., native who played catcher on Lipscomb University’s 1979 NAIA national championship team.

Liddle said the tragedy helped put baseball in perspective.


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