PHOENIX – As Curt Schilling and his Arizona Diamondbacks teammates approached Ground Zero near the former World Trade Center in lower Manhattan just weeks after New York City was decimated by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, flames, asbestos and human remains continued to smolder, with rescue efforts ongoing. While recovery workers carefully pulled bodies from the wreckage, the somber visuals were sometimes accompanied by the ritualistic sounds of bagpipes.
Diamondbacks players were ushered to the NYPD and FDNY control room where they were immersed in the devastation created by the toppled Twin Towers. Schilling, the former pitcher, described the scene as “heavy” and recalled looking at a “20-by-20-feet map on the wall.”
Twenty-five years later, as the country remembers the terrorist attacks that killed 2,753 people in NYC and injured thousands more, Schilling and the Diamondbacks still vividly recall the horrific sights, sounds and smells from those pivotal moments in U.S. history.
“They had blue pins for police officers, red for firefighters and yellow for civilians, where they had been pulling the bodies out,” Schilling said. “There were thousands of pins. And when we were there, they found the remains of a fireman.”
With the Diamondbacks nursing a 2-0 World Series lead against the Yankees and the Fall Classic shifting to New York, the health and unity of the country were at the forefront of most minds. On Oct. 29, the day before Game 3, the majority of the Diamondbacks visited Ground Zero even though it was largely cordoned off to people who weren’t rescue workers or politicians.
The purpose of the visit was simple.
“They went to the site to lend their support to the workers cleaning up the area,” said Mark Gonzales, who was the Diamondbacks beat writer for the Arizona Republic at the time.
Gonzales arrived that morning on a red-eye flight to Newark. All these years later, he still vividly remembers looking down on the gaping, smoking hole that was now a burial site for nearly 3,000 people in New York, with 184 more killed in the attacks on the Pentagon, and 44 more on a plane that was hijacked and crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
“As we flew past New York City, it felt like the whole plane shifted to the left as we looked down to see the smoke,” Gonzales said. “What was once there, versus what was there now. It was very chilling.”
Some players made themselves available to the media upon returning from Ground Zero, but Gonzales said it was clear they were “obviously shaken by what they had seen.” They spoke, but in reserved tones.
“It was so strange,” former Arizona outfielder Luis Gonzalez said. “The smoke was still there, the smell was still there. There were ashes and things smoldering. And then anytime they would locate a body, they would stop and have a procession of carrying that out. It was almost like stuff that you would see in a movie, but we were looking at it in real time.”
Schilling recalled somebody approaching him and asking the pitcher to “say a few words” to teammates and first responders. Gonzalez described Schilling’s impromptu speech as “pretty well done, and pretty emotional.”
On Sept. 15, 2001, just four days after the attacks, Schilling wrote an open letter to America that was published on the ESPN website. He expressed sorrow for the victims and their families, and implored the country to stay strong.
“It wasn’t a hard speech to give because we were so grateful to the city,” Schilling said. “Say what you want about New York, but back then it defined what this country was. It’s a melting pot of the best and worst, and you know, the city came alive. The country came alive.”
Arizona lost all three games in New York City before returning to Phoenix and winning Game 6 and then Game 7 in dramatic fashion to claim the franchise’s first and only Commissioner’s Trophy.
Decades later, the Diamondbacks will commemorate the 25th anniversary of the World Series victory when they host the Yankees on Sept. 19. The first 25,000 fans at Chase Field will receive a retro gray pinstripe jersey, a reminder of moments and people the country will never forget.
“At the end of the World Series,” Gonzales said, “I think everybody could take a collective sigh and feel good about the healing process of the country.”
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Remembering 9/11: Diamondbacks recall unforgettable trip to Ground Zero
Ian King, Cronkite News
September 10, 2026
PHOENIX – As Curt Schilling and his Arizona Diamondbacks teammates approached Ground Zero near the former World Trade Center in lower Manhattan just weeks after New York City was decimated by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, flames, asbestos and human remains continued to smolder, with rescue efforts ongoing. While recovery workers carefully pulled bodies from the wreckage, the somber visuals were sometimes accompanied by the ritualistic sounds of bagpipes.
Diamondbacks players were ushered to the NYPD and FDNY control room where they were immersed in the devastation created by the toppled Twin Towers. Schilling, the former pitcher, described the scene as “heavy” and recalled looking at a “20-by-20-feet map on the wall.”
Twenty-five years later, as the country remembers the terrorist attacks that killed 2,753 people in NYC and injured thousands more, Schilling and the Diamondbacks still vividly recall the horrific sights, sounds and smells from those pivotal moments in U.S. history.
“They had blue pins for police officers, red for firefighters and yellow for civilians, where they had been pulling the bodies out,” Schilling said. “There were thousands of pins. And when we were there, they found the remains of a fireman.”
With the Diamondbacks nursing a 2-0 World Series lead against the Yankees and the Fall Classic shifting to New York, the health and unity of the country were at the forefront of most minds. On Oct. 29, the day before Game 3, the majority of the Diamondbacks visited Ground Zero even though it was largely cordoned off to people who weren’t rescue workers or politicians.
The purpose of the visit was simple.
“They went to the site to lend their support to the workers cleaning up the area,” said Mark Gonzales, who was the Diamondbacks beat writer for the Arizona Republic at the time.
Gonzales arrived that morning on a red-eye flight to Newark. All these years later, he still vividly remembers looking down on the gaping, smoking hole that was now a burial site for nearly 3,000 people in New York, with 184 more killed in the attacks on the Pentagon, and 44 more on a plane that was hijacked and crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
“As we flew past New York City, it felt like the whole plane shifted to the left as we looked down to see the smoke,” Gonzales said. “What was once there, versus what was there now. It was very chilling.”
Some players made themselves available to the media upon returning from Ground Zero, but Gonzales said it was clear they were “obviously shaken by what they had seen.” They spoke, but in reserved tones.
“It was so strange,” former Arizona outfielder Luis Gonzalez said. “The smoke was still there, the smell was still there. There were ashes and things smoldering. And then anytime they would locate a body, they would stop and have a procession of carrying that out. It was almost like stuff that you would see in a movie, but we were looking at it in real time.”
Schilling recalled somebody approaching him and asking the pitcher to “say a few words” to teammates and first responders. Gonzalez described Schilling’s impromptu speech as “pretty well done, and pretty emotional.”
On Sept. 15, 2001, just four days after the attacks, Schilling wrote an open letter to America that was published on the ESPN website. He expressed sorrow for the victims and their families, and implored the country to stay strong.
“It wasn’t a hard speech to give because we were so grateful to the city,” Schilling said. “Say what you want about New York, but back then it defined what this country was. It’s a melting pot of the best and worst, and you know, the city came alive. The country came alive.”
Arizona lost all three games in New York City before returning to Phoenix and winning Game 6 and then Game 7 in dramatic fashion to claim the franchise’s first and only Commissioner’s Trophy.
Decades later, the Diamondbacks will commemorate the 25th anniversary of the World Series victory when they host the Yankees on Sept. 19. The first 25,000 fans at Chase Field will receive a retro gray pinstripe jersey, a reminder of moments and people the country will never forget.
“At the end of the World Series,” Gonzales said, “I think everybody could take a collective sigh and feel good about the healing process of the country.”
This article first appeared on Cronkite News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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