The city has spent the better part of the last week remembering the heroic efforts of those who risked their lives and gave their lives to help the victims of the 9/11 attacks. Loved ones have been grieved, and the legacy of the generation-defining terrorist attacks has been discussed 25 years after two planes hit the Twin Towers.
Several Mets were not among the generation that remembers what happened that day.
The team has gotten increasingly younger throughout the season, especially since the trade deadline last month. When they took the field at Yankee Stadium for a pregame ceremony in remembrance of the day, five of them weren’t even alive in September 2001.
How do you impress the gravity of a game between the Mets and Yankees on 9/11 on a group of Gen Z kids who didn’t even grow up in or around New York? Interim manager Andy Green isn’t exactly sure, but he wants the team to absorb the ceremonial aspects of Friday night’s game and feel how different the atmosphere around them is for this particular game.
“The opportunity just to have some kind of cathartic moments in your life where you step back and think about what really matters, and what some people have been through, it re-centers you,” Green said. “It keeps you going, and it also gives you an immense amount of gratitude for what we do get to do for a living, because this game played a part in this country’s healing from that.”
The city’s beloved baseball teams provided hope to so many in the days after 9/11. Former Mets manager Bobby Valentine rallied his team to help with recovery efforts, turning Shea Stadium into a distribution center for relief supplies. He visited Ground Zero, met with grieving families and brought members of the team with him as well. Visits to firehouses eventually became a tradition, and members of the Mets and Yankees still meet with first responders on 9/11.
The Mets played the first game in the city following the attacks. It came 10 days later against the Atlanta Braves. Mike Piazza hit an iconic home run that became a healing moment. It didn’t matter if you were a fan of the Mets, of the Yankees, or of another team around the country; what mattered was that moment of unity.
“I think Major League Baseball got this one right, putting these two teams together on this day,” Green said. “I was watching part of the documentary earlier today and like literally crying at the Mike Piazza home run because that brought back so many memories of feeling like baseball had value that went beyond just the game.”
That’s the lesson Green wants the Mets, young and old, to take away from this game.
“There are moments where sports transcend entertainment,” Green said. “That was one of them.”
Green has been talking to his team about the magnitude of 9/11 over the last few days. He encouraged them to watch Todd Zeile’s documentary, “When America Took the Field,” and to watch clips on social media. He’s well acquainted with the youngest members of the team from his previous role as the farm director, so he’s well qualified to play the role of history teacher.
Still, there is a disconnect.
Veteran left-hander Sean Manaea likened it to learning about the Vietnam War through his parents and their friends. His father, Faaloloi, served in the Vietnam War, and his older brother, Dane, serves in the Navy. American Samoa has a proud history of serving in the US Military, so Manaea has heard stories about what happened during the Vietnam era and the legacy it left.
Manaea was nine when the 9/11 attacks took place, old enough to remember where he was and what he was doing. He’s familiar with what happened after that. He’s seen it with his own family and with the service members from American Samoa. Yet he doesn’t know what it was like to be in Vietnam. He can’t know because he wasn’t there.
Left-hander Nate Lavender was about 18 months old at the time, and right-hander Nolan McLean, the starting pitcher for the first game of the Bronx half of the Subway Series, was barely more than two months old. Francisco Alvarez was born shortly after the attacks. Carson Benge, A.J. Ewing, Jonah Tong, Nick Morabito and Zac Thornton could never understand what it was like to be in New York when the tragedy unfolded.
But they can understand the power sports has to bring people together when they need one another most, and when they desperately need hope.
“It’s not just distractions or entertainment, but it’s been something that communities coalesced around, and that’s made an impact on lives; it goes far beyond the team we root for,” Green said. “I hope our guys grab that. I’ve got three teenage daughters, so I know they only grab about 1/3 of what you want them to, but if that’s that much, that’s actually really good.
“I certainly hope our guys grab hold of the pomp and circumstance and realize what it’s all about today.”