How the New York Mets and Yankees helped a city heal after 9/11
Twenty years ago today, as first responders dug through the rubble of the World Trade Center in New York City to find survivors as well as those who had perished, everything stopped after the terrorist attacks on 9/11.
Nearly every event that would have a large gathering of people in the following days and close to a week was postponed. That included award shows, like the Emmys, flights, and nearly all sporting events.
How Major League Baseball returned to play after September 11’s attacks
Initially, Major League Baseball canceled all games for that Tuesday but they extended that postponement until Monday, September 17. Six games were played on September 17, and one of them included the New York Mets, who were to play the Pittsburgh Pirates at Shea Stadium.
However, due to security concerns that were still around New York, the series was moved to Pittsburgh and their new stadium, PNC Park. The New York Yankees resumed play on Tuesday, one week after 9/11, facing the Chicago White Sox on a scheduled road trip. The Yankees took two of three from the White Sox before they went to Baltimore, where they lost two of three to the Orioles.
The Mets swept the Pittsburgh Pirates before returning home to play the first MLB game in New York City since 9/11.
On September 21, 10 days after the September 11th terrorist attacks, the New York Mets returned home to Shea Stadium to face the Atlanta Braves. The reigning National League Champion Mets were far from that in 2001 as they were, entering the series with the Braves, in third place and five games out of the NL East lead (behind the Braves) and 9.5 games back of the Cardinals for the lone NL Wild Card spot.
New York Mets and New York Yankees baseball helped provide respite for the first responders on 9/11
Jason Marquis, a New York native, toed the slab for the Braves and Bruce Chen for the Mets. For a crowd of more than 41,000 people, the Mets took the field in a game that would provide thousands of first responders with a few hours of respite, a few hours not to think about what was waiting for them outside of the walls of Shea Stadium later that night or the following morning.
They got to see a pitcher’s duel. The late Ken Caminiti doubled and Chipper Jones scored on that double and an error to score the first run of the game in the fourth inning. In the bottom half, Tsuyoshi Shinjo had a sac fly to re-tie the game at one. Braves outfielder Brian Jordan doubled to score Cory Aldridge and the Braves had a 2-1 lead entering the bottom of the eighth.
Steve Karsay came on to pitch in eighth and, after recording an out, he walked infielder Edgardo Alfonzo. Up came future Hall of Fame catcher Mike Piazza. On a 0-1 count, Piazza hit a huge home run in many ways. For the game, it was huge as it gave the Mets a 3-2 lead, which they held on to.
It was a game that Braves starting pitcher, future Mets starting pitcher, and future Hall of Famer Tom Glavine later said that he was “part of the losing team and really didn’t care” that he lost.
“It’s probably one of the only games in the big leagues that I was a part of the losing team and really didn’t care,” said Glavine in a recent interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “It was almost like a Hollywood script. … You never like to lose. But when you digest it, if you ever felt like a city and a team needed a win more than you did, that was the night. And for that reason, not many of us really cared that we lost that game. To have baseball back in New York and to be a part of the team that was doing it, it was a great honor and something that I will never forget being a part of.”
You can watch the entirety of the game, including the pre-game ceremony here, as well as watch the Piazza home run below.
Unlike the Mets, the New York Yankees were going to the playoffs. Entering September 11, the Yankees had a 13-game lead on the Boston Red Sox in the NL East.
The New York Yankees would make it to the World Series in the weeks after September 11
After the Yankees split their road trip, they returned home to face the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. In a two-game series, the Yankees split the series before they faced the Orioles at home in a series that was also a split (one win, one loss, and a 15-inning tie).
The Yankees ended up making it to the World Series and, in the first World Series that had games take place in November, lost to the Arizona Diamondbacks in seven games.
Regardless of the outcome for the three-time reigning World Champion Yankees, the remainder of the season for the Mets, Yankees, and the rest of the baseball and sports world was a way for people to think about and enjoy something other than the reality of what was going on in Lower Manhattan for a few hours.
Recently, we have seen that arise again with the power of sports that can have with providing first responders (in this case, doctors, nurses, and health care workers) during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Baseball has long provided us a break from the trials, tribulations, and difficulties of our lives. That’s one of many reasons why it is a game that we all know and love. We will continue to as we move forward together, while still mourning and remembering all of those we lost on that day 20 years ago.