Sweeny: The Yankees Reflect On 9/11
By Sweeny Murti
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On Wednesday, the Yankees last home game before the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the three Yankees still with the team from that time sat down to share some remembrances and perspectives. Listen to the stories from guys who managed to touch the lives of people here in a way they never thought possible. Here are Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, and Jorge Posada speaking with reporters at Yankee Stadium:
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The Yankees are part of this story because they play in New York and because they represented a return to normalcy in our everyday lives. It is too trivial to say they helped New York heal in the aftermath of September 11th. After all, there were thousands of people who lost loved ones and couldn't have cared less about a baseball game.
But between Mike Piazza's dramatic home run off Atlanta's Steve Karsay at Shea Stadium, in the first live sporting event in New York post-9/11, and the Yankees' storybook endings to World Series games a month later, the people of New York seemed to feel it was okay to care about such things again.
Everyday life would continue. It would never be the same, but it would continue. We could laugh, we could cheer, we could care about who won or lost a game. That is why the Yankees mattered in those days after September 11th.
Sweeny Murti
