{"id":860808,"date":"2026-08-19T12:34:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T12:34:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/860808\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T12:34:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T12:34:17","slug":"25-years-later-new-mlb-network-documentary-revisits-baseballs-post-9-11-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/860808\/","title":{"rendered":"25 years later, new MLB Network documentary revisits baseball\u2019s post-9\/11 return"},"content":{"rendered":"

One day in late May, four former New York Mets \u2014 Mike Piazza, Todd Zeile, Al Leiter and John Franco \u2014 settled into seats in a small theater at Citi Field. They had come together to rewatch footage from the night baseball returned to New York after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.<\/p>\n

Over the course of a couple hours, the quartet relived that emotional Sept. 21 game against the Atlanta Braves. They reminisced about the atmosphere at Shea Stadium. They watched Piazza\u2019s dramatic go-ahead homer disappear into the night. \u201cWhat baseball did at the time,\u201d Franco told his former teammates, \u201cwas put a small Band-Aid on a big wound.\u201d<\/p>\n

The retired players\u2019 conversation is part of a two-hour original documentary, \u201cWhen America Took the Field,\u201d that revisits baseball\u2019s role in helping restore some sense of normalcy to a reeling city and country.<\/p>\n

The documentary will premiere at 10 p.m. ET Sept. 10 on MLB Network, ahead of the Mets\u2019 weekend series against the New York Yankees in the Bronx that will commemorate the 25th anniversary of Sept. 11. It will be available on MLB.TV<\/a> starting the week of Sept. 13.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwenty-five years later, it\u2019s still in the forefront of my mind,\u201d former Yankees ace Roger Clemens says in a trailer for the documentary.<\/p>\n

His old manager, Joe Torre, echoes: \u201cIt feels like it just happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Former Mets John Franco, Mike Piazza, Todd Zeile and Al Leiter rewatched the first home game at Shea Stadium after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. (Courtesy of MLB Network)<\/p>\n

After the Sept. 11 attacks, then-MLB commissioner Bud Selig postponed all games through Sept. 16. Once games resumed, many remained unsure of how to move forward, and how soon. In St. Louis, Hall of Fame broadcaster Jack Buck took the microphone before the Cardinals\u2019 Sept. 17 home game and delivered a line that resonated far beyond the baseball world.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know about you,\u201d Buck said, \u201cbut as for me, the question has already been answered. Should we be here? Yes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The crowd roared.<\/p>\n

Buck continued: \u201cShould we show others how to demonstrate our resolve? Yes. And we shall do it here this evening. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome back to baseball<\/a>. Welcome back to Busch Stadium.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the days after the Twin Towers collapsed, the Shea Stadium parking lots were used as supply centers to distribute disaster-relief items. The Mets\u2019 scheduled home series Sept. 17-19 against the Pittsburgh Pirates was relocated to Pittsburgh for security reasons. On Sept. 21, the Mets came home, and those parking lots filled again with baseball fans. There were tributes to the 343 members of the New York City Fire Department who died responding to the attacks. Piazza provided the defining image with his two-run, eighth-inning homer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Zeile, an executive producer on the documentary, referred to Sept. 21, 2001, as \u201cthe most significant day\u201d of his baseball career.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile wearing the caps of our first responders, it wasn\u2019t just another baseball game,\u201d Zeile said in a statement. \u201cIt helped unite America through the healing power of baseball and the strength of the human spirit. My hope is that this film preserves these stories for future generations and, above all, reminds us of the promise we all share: Never Forget.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Oct. 30, 2001 \u2014 50 days after Sept. 11 \u2014 U.S. President George W. Bush strode to the mound at Yankee Stadium before Game 3 of the World Series wearing an FDNY sweater with a bulletproof vest underneath. He gave the crowd a thumbs up and then threw the most iconic ceremonial first pitch in MLB history: a perfect strike<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The documentary will be shown at a Sept. 10 event for Mets season ticket holders at Citi Field, according to an MLB Network news release. Piazza, Zeile, Franco, Leiter, Robin Ventura and David Wright are expected to attend.<\/p>\n

Among the baseball voices in the film are numerous players \u2014 Ken Griffey Jr., Chipper Jones, John Smoltz, Bernie Williams, Curt Schilling, Paul Konerko and Craig Biggio and others \u2014 managers, executives and prominent media members, from Bob Costas to Joe Buck to Mike Francesa. In the documentary, it\u2019s Francesa, the New York radio legend, providing perhaps the most apt description of the part baseball played after Sept. 11:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe needed the escape. We needed the distraction. We needed the games.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One day in late May, four former New York Mets \u2014 Mike Piazza, Todd Zeile, Al Leiter and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":860809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,1830,2704,85],"class_list":["post-860808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-mets","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=860808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/860809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=860808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=860808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=860808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}