Brad Thomas, a former Twins teammate of Michael Cuddyer, considers the slugger a lifesaver. Thomas, a left-handed pitcher from Australia, and his wife, had tickets booked on American Airlines Flight 11, which took off from Boston and was headed for Los Angeles before crashing into the World Trade Center. They didn't take that flight because Thomas had more baseball to play before heading home to Australia. Class AA New Britain had made a dramatic run to the Eastern League finals, keyed by two late-inning Cuddyer home runs in the semifinals. "Michael pretty much saved our lives singlehandedly by knocking in the winning runs in the last of the playoff games that took us to the next round," Thomas said. Thomas, now a Tigers pitcher, was Cuddyer's first roommate in professional baseball, in 1997. They played parts of the next seven seasons together, climbing through the Twins minor league system. "He credits me for saving his life," Cuddyer said. "I mean, I don't know about that. It was just a twist of fate."