{"id":344842,"date":"2026-09-12T08:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T08:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/344842\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T08:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T08:28:10","slug":"yankees-past-and-present-understand-the-weight-of-9-11-anniversary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/344842\/","title":{"rendered":"Yankees past and present ‘understand the weight’ of 9\/11 anniversary"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, the baseball world centered around The Bronx<\/a>, where the Yankees hosted the Mets to open the Subway Series<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Seven members of the 2001 Yankees team that had a memorable run to the World Series were on hand to join the ceremonies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to believe it\u2019s been 25 years,\u2019\u2019 Derek Jeter said before the Yankees secured a 6-4 victory<\/a>. \u201cIt changed the world forever.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Alongside fellow Hall of Famers Joe Torre and Mariano Rivera, as well as Jorge Posada, Paul O\u2019Neill, Tino Martinez and Scott Brosius, the Yankees commemorated the anniversary, as well as the aftermath of the attacks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With a chant of \u201cU-S-A\u201d breaking out following the national anthem, Aaron Boone called the night \u201chuge.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe understand the weight of today,\u2019\u2019 the Yankees manager said before the game. \u201cThe 25th anniversary, two New York teams playing. It feels like an honor to go out there. There\u2019s going to be a lot of different emotions out there. We don\u2019t take it lightly.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cody Bellinger likely has a stronger attachment<\/a> to the anniversary than many of his contemporaries.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yankees great Derek Jeter walks off the field after a pre-game ceremony in honor of 9\/11 before the start of the first inning on Friday, Sept. 11, 2026, at Yankee Stadium in Bronx, NY. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n

Sean McGuire and his wife Brielle Saracini, who both lost their fathers on 9\/11, pose with New York Yankees first baseman Paul Goldschmidt (48) and New York Yankees left fielder Cody Bellinger (35) after they throw out the first pitch of the game in a pregame ceremony in honor of 9\/11 before the start of the first inning at Yankee Stadium, Friday, Sept. 11, 2026. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n

With his father, Clay, on that 2001 Yankee team, Bellinger was 6 years old, living in Connecticut when the attacks occurred.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Clay Bellinger was among the Yankees \u2014 and Mets \u2014 who visited Ground Zero in the aftermath of the attacks and went on to become a firefighter in Gilbert, Arizona, where he still works.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Boone addressed the team about the importance of Friday\u2019s ceremonies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talked about it today, that especially here there will be a lot of people that have some connection to it,\u2019\u2019 Bellinger said. \u201cIt\u2019s a special moment to be here for this. It\u2019s one of those things that\u2019s bigger than the game. We know it\u2019s a pretty big game, but there will be more important things here tonight.\u2019\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

That included first pitches thrown out by Brielle Saracini and Sean McGuire.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yankees great Derek Jeter greets New York Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge after a pre-game ceremony in honor of 9\/11 before the start of the first inning on Friday, Sept. 11, 2026, at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, NY. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n

The New York Yankees stand for the national anthem in a pre-game ceremony in honor of 9\/11 before the start of the first inning on Friday, Sept. 11, 2026, at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, NY. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n

The married couple, who each lost a father on 9\/11, met as children at Camp Better Days, which was established to provide support to those children.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Saracini was greeted by Jeter, whom she met shortly after the tragedy after she sent a letter to the shortstop, detailing her family\u2019s loss.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jeter invited Saracini to the Stadium later that month, and the two have maintained a bond for the past 25 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember just feeling normal for a day and just feeling like a kid,\u2019\u2019 Saracini said of the initial meeting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

New York Yankees great Joe Torre stands in the dugout for a pre-game ceremony in honor of 9\/11 before the start of the first inning at Yankee Stadium on Friday, Sept. 11, 2026, in the Bronx, NY. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n

As players and coaches reflected on the role sports played in the nation\u2019s recovery, Saracini agreed it was important.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t imagine a scenario where they were not being played,\u2019\u2019 she said. \u201cIt meant so much to so many people and gave us something to cheer about. It\u2019s definitely what the country needed and what the country united around.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, the baseball world centered around The Bronx, where…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[5301,113412,128,23201,20,9,24,321,63,319,78605,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-344842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-9-11","tag-9-11-25th-anniversary","tag-bronx","tag-derek-jeter","tag-mlb","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-nyc","tag-sports","tag-subway-series","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}