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You recall, but as life moves on, you build up scar tissue. Now that the 20-year mark is coming around, those old feelings come to the forefront. “I think in this day and age, because it’s so digital and everyone’s attention span is a little shorter, you need to put the time in on things. The Mets are proud he is wearing their cap into the Hall.
He rounded the bases a step or two faster than most of his home runs, chomping on his gum, still numb even as the stadium lost its mind. In normal circumstances that year, a Mets vs. Braves game pitting Bruce Chen vs. Jason Marquis would have smelled like a 9-8 runfest. The Mets had hammered Marquis all four times they'd seen him that year, and the Braves had scored seven runs in two innings against Chen earlier that season. But then some light applause turned into an overwhelming roar, and by the time the bagpipers reached second base, they couldn't hear the sound of the instruments they were playing 6 inches from their ears. "It threw a shiver up my spine," McDonough says.
Members of 2001 Mets share their stories during '9/11: The Mets Remember'
You can be sure this summer Piazza will have his No. 31 retired by the ballclub. “I said, ‘No I am not a hero.’ The people that went to work that day were heroes. The people who tried to save them were heroes and the families that had to move on without a mother or a father or a sister or brother or an uncle are heroes.
Atlanta players were solemn as the crowd erupted for 30 seconds, enough to lure Piazza out for a curtain call. But deep down, even the Braves were cheering. "It seems only fitting that Mike hit a game-winning home run," Maddux says.
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Photographers noticed her and the kids right away, and she spent the rest of the night trying to ignore the constant clicks and flashes of cameras. "Camera after camera after camera, taking pictures," she says. As he sat there in his uniform, two hours before a baseball game, he wavered on the importance of the game that night, too. He listened to them talk about the agony of losing loved ones and coworkers, but he was struck by the different level of pain in their voice about the uncertainty. "Even if the news was terrible, they wanted to know for sure what happened to the people they loved."
"I loved the way we honored our fallen and I wanted to be a part of that," he says. From their first date in 1979, up through the morning of Sept. 11, it didn't matter if they were happy, mad or sad, at the beach or the mall or in their Long Island house -- their hands just kind of called to each other. She often says, "We were that couple," and rolls her eyes in mock nausea, which is how she remembers people reacting to the magnetism she and Ronnie shared.
Mike Piazza on first Mets game in NYC after 9/11: ‘A lot of fear. A lot of prayer’
In the bottom of the inning, with one out and a man on base, Piazza stepped to the plate. He had seemed more affected by 9/11 than most of the players. Maybe it was because he lived in an apartment not far from Ground Zero. In the fifth inning, I climbed the stairs to buy more beer. But when I got to the concession, I was told they had run out.
It’s part of the continued process of healing and people want to relate to it and I enjoy it. Every now and then someone sees me in an airport and comes up and wants to talk about it. I feel a responsibility to try to just continue to console them.
An atmosphere that had been at times solemn and on edge turned to cheers and tears of joy as New York went on to win the game. The iconic moment was cemented in Mets lore. In the top of the eighth inning, the Braves scored to take a 2-1 lead. The hope of a fairy-tale ending to an extraordinary night seemed to be draining away.
The Mets had improbably won nine of 10 games before Sept. 21 to start breathing down the Braves' necks so, even amid the uncertainty and the gravity of the night, it was a game both teams wanted to win. Fifteen years later, Karsay was on the mound for the Atlanta Braves at that same stadium for a moment just as much a part of baseball history, for an entirely different reason. You may see it replayed on MLB Network this weekend as the nation marks 20 years since the tragic attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
His job that night was to sift through debris that dump trucks drove out from the World Trade Center site. Detectives like him would spread everything out on the ground and go through, by hand, looking for clothing, wallets, anything that might provide DNA. "The goal was to identify loved ones and try to provide closure," McDonough says. “It’s something that changed all of our lives,’’ Piazza said. “Not at a baseball level, but at a personal level for me. It really put my life in perspective and focused what the important things in life are, and that’s family and friends and relationships.
The Mets had swept three games in Pittsburgh from Sept. 17-19, and Piazza struggled badly. Not on the field -- he had two home runs and four RBIs against the Pirates. He'd grown to love New York, being a New Yorker, being a Met. He wasn't sure how he or his teammates would possibly be able to play with the destruction just a few miles away. When I walk the city now I do find a lot of people want to talk about the home run.
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